Robert Montgomery

World Screen Weekly, May 10, 2007

CEO

Achilles Media

The beauty of the Canadian Rockies is beckoning broadcasters and producers from around the world to flock to the Banff World Television Festival (BWTVF) once again.

The BWTVF will take place from June 10 to 13 at the Fairmont Banff Springs in Banff, Alberta, in Canada. Robert Montgomery, the CEO of Achilles Media, the company that organizes the festival, is hoping to replicate the success of the 2006 event. “We are unabashedly trading off on the success we had last year,” says Montgomery. “And now it’s got a buzz as the market for hot ideas. And ideas seem to be a premium these days. That is one of the reasons that we have so many great broadcasters and other content creators coming this year.”

Among the executives, producers and creators attending this year’s festival are Emmy award-winning writer and producer of The Office, Greg Daniels; Jon Plowman, the head of comedy at the BBC; Jenji Kohan, the creator and executive producer of Weeds; Carol Mendelsohn, the executive producer and showrunner of CSI; Paul Jackson, the director of entertainment and comedy at ITV; Susanne Daniels, the president of entertainment for Lifetime Entertainment Services; Chuck Lorre, the creator and executive producer of Two and a Half Men; and Ben Silverman, the founder and CEO of Reveille Productions and the executive producer of NBC’s adaptation of The Office and Ugly Betty for ABC.

BWTVF will present its 2007 Outstanding Achievement Award to the BBC, which will be honored for its high-quality programming and overall contribution to the television industry. Mark Thompson, the director-general of the BBC, will accept the award, and take part in a question-and-answer session at the close of BWTVF’s sister event, nextMEDIA—The Future of Digital Content, on Sunday, June 10.

“Banff is specifically about production and development,” explains Montgomery. “Its emphasis isn’t on selling finished shows, although that happens, you cannot stop that. The emphasis is on creators, writers, producers and directors and bringing broadcasters and other distribution platforms together with the people who create shows. We’ve focused on that specifically. We are not trying to be all things to all people. We are simply trying to facilitate people with hot ideas to meet people who can do something about those ideas.”

While BWTVF is not a market in the traditional sense, where distributors sell programs to buyers, Montgomery was surprised at the volume of sales that actually did take place at last year’s festival or as a result of it. “Doing deals in the media business is a continuum of relationships and discussions. And Banff has taken a much stronger place in that continuum of moments, which deliver actual transactions.”

Montgomery expects some 300 broadcasters to attend BWTVF, which is up from last year’s attendance. The festival will offer seminars, master classes. pitching opportunities and more.

—By Anna Carugati