Forget Adweek or Media 360, the real media thoroughbreds were at the Deloitte Media & Telecoms 2023 & Beyond event yesterday. It was a truly world class line-up.
The current Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport, Lucy Frazer was eloquently upbeat about the industry. Yet given that she is the fifth Secretary of State this decade, one couldn’t help think that delivery might be a challenge for her.
Ralph Rivera (NBA) and Scott Lloyd (LTA) were very engaging in their ‘Virtual Stadium’ panel and were very optimistic about the future of the fan experience in the metaverse. Yet Derya Metras (Meta) may have been a decimal point out when she claimed that the value of sports media metaverse would be worth $80 billion within five years. We will see.
The panel on streaming also featured an ebullient panel featuring Richard Halton (Roku), Chris Bird (Amazon Prime), Marc Watson (DAZN) and Sophie Jones (BPI). However the AV streamers were evasive when questioned on their actual viewing numbers in the UK. Sophie Jones was the sole voice of audio on the panel and championed British music talent. Did you know, “One in ten tracks streamed globally are from British artists”?
The classiest speaker of the day was Google’s Matt Brittin who really enthused the audience about the potential of generative AI – “bigger than the invention of electricity.” This was tempered with the weight of responsibility. He used a witty analogy of how a simple fork is technology for eating yet can still be used as a weapon.
The only disappointing session of the day was Stephen van Rooyen (Sky CEO) being interviewed by Sophy Ridge. Not entirely sure that an employee can ask penetrating questions. This session looked as if it was a Sky advertorial.
Net Zero was a meaty topic covered by Debbie Klein (Sky), Lindsay Pattison (WPP), Patricia Cobian (Virgin Media) and Keri Gilder (Colt). It was in danger of starting as a pissing contest – “my company is more net zero than yours”. However, it inspired a lot of practical ideas. There were also a few incisive questions on counting emissions from the audience which stumped the panel. There is clearly a lot more work for the media business to do here.
The punchiest pundit of the day was Ajaz Ahmed (AKQA) who in the “Brand Building in the Digital World” session declared that we there had been “a global pandemic of ADHD” which was an attack on the lack of quality creativity in advertising. He also acerbically labelled the “metaworse” a poor use of client budget and “not much of an upgrade on Second Life”. Ouch! Sadly, time constraints prevented Phil Smith (ISBA) and Angela Tangas (Dentsu) from being able to settle their different views on measurement as this looked as if it could have gotten a bit spicy.
The real heavyweight keynote session of the day was on Public Service Broadcasting where Tim Davie (BBC), Dame Carolyn McCall (ITV), Alex Mahon (C4), Maria Kyriacou (Five) and Shuja Khan (Arquiva) all spoke with great passion on the value that PSBs bring to the UK’s creative economy. It is very clear that the Draft Media Bill was the most mentioned topic of the day. It is clearly much needed to provide some certainty for the creative and media industries. The last major Communications Act (2003) is no longer fit for purpose. We can only hope that there is enough time within the current government’s legislative timetable for it to be passed.
Big thanks to Becky Mckinlay (FT Alpha Grid) for the kind invitation.
