NATPE Miami Adds New Speakers, Sessions to Conference Lineup

Additional programming details have been revealed for NATPE Miami 2022, including an opening session that features Kevin Mayer and Kevin Beggs, among others.

The in-person event is set to take place from January 18 to 20 at the Fontainebleau Resort in Miami, Florida. This year’s edition will kick off on Tuesday with a conversation on the evolving business of content since the introduction of streaming from a financial perspective. Matthew Belloni, founding partner of Puck News, will moderate a session that features Lionsgate Television Group Chair Kevin Beggs; Aventine Co-CEO Kevin Mayer; and Managing Director and Senior Media & Entertainment Analyst at BofA Securities Global Research Jessica Reif Ehrlich.

On Wednesday, Laura Molen, president of advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal, will keynote, and then kick off a media-buyers discussion on revenue opportunities in advertising and marketing featuring Denise Ocasio, executive director of investment at Mindshare; Brian Doherty, senior VP of ad sales for The CW; and Mike Peretz, executive VP of ad sales revenue management at A+E.

There will also be a focus on international content production. In the afternoon on NATPE Miami’s opening day, Teresa Fernández-Valdés, executive producer at Bambú Producciones; Firat Gulgen, CEO and founder of Calinos; and Luca Bernabei, CEO and producer at Lux Vide, will take part in the session “Global Drama 2022: Where In-Language Originals Dominate.”

That will be followed by a conversation on the transformation of international co-productions featuring Francoise Guyonnet, executive managing director of TV series at STUDIOCANAL; Matt Creasey, executive VP of sales, co-productions and acquisitions for the rest of the world at Banijay Rights; Ana Bond, senior VP and managing director of international production for Latin America at Sony; and Christian Vesper, president of global drama at Fremantle.

The unscripted track will feature a keynote conversation with Kathleen Finch, chief lifestyle brand officer at Discovery, Inc., followed by a session on the shifting nature of the unscripted industry moderated by Bruce David Klein, founder and executive producer at Atlas Media Corp., and featuring Ben Samek, president and COO of Endemol Shine Americas; Max Einhorn, senior VP of acquisitions and co-productions for FilmRise; Elaine Frontain Bryant, executive VP and head of programming at A+E Networks; and Courtney White, president of Food Network.

The unscripted track will close with a panel titled “Hot Global Formats and International Co-productions” presented by FRAPA featuring CJ Yu, head of unscripted development for global formats at Amazon; Carlotta Rossi Spencer, head of format acquisition at Banijay Group; Paul Gilbert, senior VP of international formats at CBS Studios International; Enrique Guillen, executive VP of international strategy at NBC Universal. The conversation will be moderated by Phil Gurin, president and CEO of The Gurin Company and co-chairman of FRAPA.

A new addition to this year’s conference, the “How Television is Becoming a Part of the Podcast Movement” session is focused on growing audio content space and produced in partnership with Podcast Movement. Becky Rho, director of podcast and digital production at HBO and HBO Max; Donald Albright, CEO of Tenderfoot TV; and Aaron Hart, head of TV/film at Wondery, will discuss the value of podcasts as a springboard for TV program development, as a way to build deeper connections with television audiences, and as an opportunity for television networks to create original content in a new medium. Rebecca Jarvis, host and creator of The Dropout podcast and ABC News chief business, technology and economics correspondent, will moderate.

Mario Lopez, actor and host of Access Hollywood and Access Daily, is confirmed to join the iconic IRIS Awards as the presenter of the Lew Klein Leadership Award, which will be given to Valari Staab, president of NBCUniversal Local. This is part of the Station Group Summit, a Day 2 concurrent track to the main stage sessions.

JP Bommel, president and CEO of NATPE, said: “This year’s conference focuses on new opportunities and new markets in streaming, international co-productions, financing and a groundbreaking session on advertising and monetization. As we return in person, NATPE fulfills its mission to connect, educate and accelerate business opportunities across all platforms.”