The challenges of a shifting TV landscape will be discussed by television executives at this year's RTS Cambridge Convention, chaired by BBC Director-General Tony Hall.
Click here for the latest programme and news about Cambridge 2015
With the relationship between news providers and tech platforms coming under increasing scrutiny from governments and regulators worldwide, is carefully produced news potentially being buried? With audiences increasingly online, does the right news reach them or could it be lost in a sea of misinformation, or not carried at all? Can we learn from global examples where policy has polarised the two groups – or can big tech and traditional news providers learn to work together?
Speakers:
Iain Bundred – Head of Public Policy for UK and Northern Europe, YouTube
If you thought that AI is not yet having an impact on news organisations, think again. As panellist and data journalism pioneer Gary Rogers reminded this absorbing RTS discussion, “AI: the new frontier for journalism”, the Press Association’s Radar service – which he set up – has been using machine learning to create news stories for the past five years. Radar says it generates around 150,000 stories utilising local data journalism each year for clients across the UK.
An RTS session considering the innovations and potential challenges of AI in journalism. We heard from organisations that are already using AI to work more efficiently and deliver more of what their audiences want, and got an understanding of what regulators are doing around the world to ensure that the technology contributes to the industry positively.
Hosted by Symeon Brown, Channel 4 News correspondent and host of AI Watch.
Panel:
I am proud and privileged to speak to you now as the Chair of Ofcom at an important moment in its history. Ofcom is gearing up for a new challenge. Under the Government’s Online Safety Bill, we will be given new powers to hold some of the world’s biggest and most powerful tech companies to account.
Our research shows that people are increasingly concerned about harmful online content – for themselves, and for their children. There is an urgent need for sensible, balanced rules that protect users from serious harm.
If, five years ago, anyone had said that Michael Grade, aka Baron Grade of Yarmouth, would be appointed to chair media regulator Ofcom, the shrieks of incredulity would have been deafening. In his remarkable TV career at ITV, the BBC and especially Channel 4, Grade had been the scourge of regulators.
At a time when many observers fear decisions on broadcasting matters, from the size (or existence) of the BBC licence fee to the possible privatisation of Channel 4, will be politically motivated, Ofcom Chief Executive Melanie Dawes was keen to stress her organisation’s independence – regardless of who is finally appointed Chair of the regulator or who had just been made culture secretary.
The Ofcom Chief Executive in conversation with journalist Clive Myrie about the future of public service broadcasting and how to respond to the rapidly changing media landscape.
Few broadcasting controversies generate as much heat as the vexed topic of selling off Channel 4 – and so it proved at an engaging RTS debate held late last month, “Levelling up: How much could privatisation change Channel 4’s remit?”.
The remit has evolved over time. Since the 2003 Communications Act, the broadcaster’s remit has been largely voluntary. David Elstein, the former Thames, Sky and Channel 5 executive, provocatively claimed that the remit is nowadays “mostly mythical."
