Edinburgh Lines Up State of the TV Nation Panel Debate

Channel 4’s Alex Mahon, YouTube’s Ben McOwen Wilson, Lionsgate’s Sandra Stern, all3media’s Jane Turton and NBCUniversal International Studios’ Jeff Wachtel are on board for the State of the TV Nation panel debate at the Edinburgh TV Festival.

Mahon, CEO of Channel 4; McOwen Wilson, regional director for YouTube EMEA; Stern, president of Lionsgate’s Television Group; Turton, CEO of all3media; and Wachtel, president of NBCUniversal International Studios are lined up for the session, chaired by Channel 4 News presenter and journalist Krishnan Guru-Murthy. The executives will weigh in on topics such as consolidation, disruption and the rising cost of production, looking at what challenges are coming next.

Lisa Campbell, CEO and festival director, said: “Viewing patterns are changing more rapidly than anyone anticipated and the repercussions for the creative industry are enormous. We’ll be asking the fundamental questions about how broadcast businesses are evolving, how we measure success and the future of the terms of trade. Are we moving fast enough for audiences or are we the true agents of change? With more SVOD launches on the horizon and services like Netflix skewing commissions for a younger audience, how will broadcast TV fight back?”