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Full Session: Social Media Muscles in on TV

Networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are now an integral part of the UK’s video landscape. What are the implications of their growth, not just for viewers, but for content creators, traditional broadcasters and advertisers?

An expert panel, chaired by Kate Bulkley, discussed the subject at our 'Social Media Muscles in on TV' event. The panel included Dara Nasr, Managing Director, Twitter, UK; Stephen Nuttall, Senior Director, EMEA, YouTube and Patrick Walker, Director of Media Partnerships, EMEA, Facebook.

Watch: 'Social media muscles in on TV' event highlights

The panel spoke about working with storytellers who make creative content, how each platform thrives in the digital landscape and how user-generated content is incremental to television.

YouTube's Senior director Stephen Nuttall, Twitter’s UK Managing Director, Dara Nasr and Facebook’s Director of Media Partnerships, Patrick Walker all took part in the event.

Read the full event report here.

Event Report: Social media muscles in on TV

“Television is amazingly resilient. It’s always been good at seizing the opportunities that new technology brings,” said YouTube’s Stephen Nuttall at the RTS early evening event in late-November, “Social media muscles in on TV”.

“Some of the greatest innovators on social media are the television companies,” added Twitter’s UK Managing Director, Dara Nasr.

Over the past year or so, online video has become hugely important to social media companies.

The horn of plenty: TV in a hyperconnected world

The panel (L-R): Hugh Dennis, Sue Unerman, Jim Ryan, Simon Pitts and Ben McOwen Wilson  panel (L-R): Hugh Dennis, Sue Unerman, Jim Ryan, Simon Pitts and Ben McOwen Wilson (Credit: Paul Hampartsoumian)

Comedian Hugh Dennis aired the thoughts of many trying to navigate the new television landscape when he introduced this session. In a video diary shown to conference delegates, he was seen stuck inside a room for a month. His task was to watch all the content available to modern audiences. 

“Watching telly used to be so easy,” he complained. “Four channels, maybe five – everyone watched the same thing in the same place at the same time, unless your family was at the cutting edge of technology and had a VCR.” 

Are multichannel networks TV's nemesis?

Traditional TV has been on the endangered species list for many years, yet it has fought off every new media predator to threaten it. But has television finally met its match with the rise of online multichannel networks (MCNs)?

“Now is the most exciting time for companies in the online video space,” claimed Rightster chief Ashley MacKenzie at “Beyond YouTube”, a sold-out RTS event in March that debated whether online channels were the future of TV.

The pay-TV guru returns

Gary Davey, Sky, television,

Gary Davey is one of pay-TV’s most experienced executives. He was part of the team that launched Sky TV in the late 1980s. Now, after holding senior positions in Sky Italia, Sky Deutschland and Star TV (when he was based in Hong Kong), he is back in the UK. He was appointed Sky’s Managing Director for Content in January 2015.