Telly creatives let out a collective sigh of relief as artificial intelligence expert Demis Hassabis ruled out the possibility of computers replacing them any time soon.
“We are a long way from machines being truly creative,” said the founder of machine learning start-up DeepMind Technologies. But, Hassabis warned: “I don’t think it’s impossible.”
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
It is one year on from one of the biggest and most controversial shake-ups in BBC history – the £400m formation of BBC Studios. Now, the BBC is ruffling feathers again as it merges this recently created commercial production division with BBC Worldwide to create a single company with revenues of £1.4bn.
On the back of a £290m funding boost, BBC World Service is in the middle of its biggest expansion since the 1940s.
Its growth – in “areas of common interest” for the BBC and the Foreign Office, which is footing the bill – will see new TV, radio and digital services launched around the world in existing and 12 new languages, including Gujarati, Korean, Pidgin, Serbian and Yoruba.
The Doctor Who Bot offers a unique interactive digital experience called The Saviour of Time, in which players are given the chance to become the Doctor's companion on an exciting adventure through time.
The interactive experience immerses the new companion in a special six-part Doctor Who adventure that is centred around the hunt for a mysterious artefact known as the Key To Time, which has been scattered into fragments throughout time and space.
Tom is the CEO of Virgin Media and a member of the Executive Leadership Team of parent company Liberty Global, the world’s largest international TV and broadband company. Tom joined Liberty Global in June 2013 following the acquisition of Virgin Media. During the previous two decades he worked for News Corporation in a variety of senior roles across the world. He started his career as a newspaper journalist in his native New Zealand, then in Australia, before becoming an adviser and spokesperson for the Federal Treasurer, the Honourable Paul Keating.
Global hits, unscripted as well as scripted, are what a lot of people in television dream of. Platform proliferation ought to mean that there are more hits than ever before but, as the panellists in this session – “Go global or go home” – know to their cost, hits remain as elusive as unity in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party.
Three of the four panellists have deep, hands-on experience of selling drama – Tim Davie, CEO, BBC Worldwide and Director, Global; Michael Edelstein, President, NBCUniversal International Studios; and Jane Millichip, Managing Director, Sky Vision.
Five years ago, UKTV was seen as the home of the BBC’s archive shows and the owner of a channel called Dave. Everyone in the industry thought Dave was named after the company’s former CEO, David Abraham.
Fast forward to today. The 300-strong company that began life as a multichannel archive business 20 years ago has grown. It now runs 11 channels, ranging from natural-history channel Eden to Good Food, and has a commercial television market share of 9.3%.
The Collection is an eight-part series from Lookout Point, the Production Company behind popular shows such as Ripper Street and upcoming BBC period drama War and Peace.
The drama is being created, written, and executive produced by Ugly Betty showrunner Oliver Goldstick, whose work also includes the popular American TV show, Pretty Little Liars. Joining Goldstick are Emmy Award-winning director Dearbhla Walsh (The Tudors) and BAFTA-winning producer Selwyn Roberts (Parade’s End).
