Lineup in Place for RTS London Conference 2014

LONDON: The Royal Television Society (RTS) has readied the full lineup for the upcoming RTS London Conference 2014, which will open with a keynote address from Chase Carey, the president and COO of 21st Century Fox.

The event, which takes place September 9 under the theme "Power, Politics and the Media," will see Sir Peter Bazalgette in conversation with Carey about building his business and bidding for more. Matt Brittin, Google’s VP for Northern and Central Europe, and Kevin Sutcliffe, the head of news programming for the E.U. at VICE News, will join Channel 4 News presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy to discuss "The Future You Don’t Want to Face."  In a session entitled "Tomorrow the World," Kirsty Wark will speak to Lorraine Heggessey; Kevin Lygo, the managing director of ITV Studios; and Jim Ryan, the senior VP and chief strategy officer at Liberty Global, about being on the verge of another reshaping of the world media order. In a session entitled "Kingdom Not United," Newsnight’s Laura Kuenssberg; John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University; Gregor Poynton, the associate director of digital at Portland Communications; and Ross Colquhoun, the director of National Collective, the cultural movement for Scottish independence, will look at what really influences voters.

The BBC’s deputy director of news and current affairs, Fran Unsworth, will be joined by John Hardie, the CEO of ITN, and John Ryley, the head of Sky News, in a session chaired by Stewart Purvis entitled "Have I Got News For You?" The session will touch on the sustainability of TV news in the fully digital age. In "Whose IP Is It Anyway?," Alex Graham, the director of Big Eck Consulting, will discuss the battle for control of IP in creative production with Bryan Elsley, writer of Skins and the Channel 4 drama format First Dates, and talent agent Michael Foster.

The afternoon’s sessions will see Steve Hewlett interview James Purnell, the BBC’s director of strategy and digital, about the future of the BBC. JB Perrette, the president of Discovery Networks International, will deliver his keynote, "The Voyage of Discovery," to reveal what Discovery's plan is in the year that the international business starts to outgrow the U.S. one. Rob Woodward will chair a keynote session with the Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP, the secretary of state for the department for culture, media and sport, who will outline the government’s plans for the TV industry.
 
The day’s final session, "Enabling the Next Generation," will see Jeremy Darroch, the chief executive of BSkyB, and Tony Hall, the director-general of the BBC, discuss how the media industry is going to find its next generation of talent.