What are your expectations for this year’s event in terms of numbers and the demographic of attendees?
Last year, IBC was able to welcome 52,974 attendees, and while we are lucky in that for many of our attendees IBC is a firm fixture on their calendar, we never take that for granted. We listen to our attendees and we research the wider market, and this feedback drives us to constantly evolve and add new features.
This year sees the debut of IBC Content Everywhere Europe, a focal point for the high profile and disruptive nature of IP connectivity and the second screen. As part of this, you will also see a brand new Feature Area, IBC Content Everywhere Cloud Solutions, which focuses on the impact of increasing amounts of content production processes and delivery being virtualised on remote servers and controlled by software. The implications of this will be profound. I would expect these initiatives to prove highly popular and help us bring in a new audience to the show.
How well do you feel the traditional broadcast sector is applying itself to the changing landscape brought on by IP connectivity?
Over the past 18 months the sector has seen considerable M&A activity and we can expect further consolidation. In some respects this is simply a sign of a maturing industry and increasingly commoditised technology. The switch to IP and IT infrastructure is fundamental to change in the industry and I think that at IBC you will not only see the participation of many newer players to the broadcast market, but plenty of vibrant innovation from so-called traditional developers and service providers who are successfully adapting and generating new revenue streams.
Where we once had the content is king mantra, we now have content everywhere. There is an unstoppable logic behind the demand consumers have to be able to watch what they want when they want on what they want and the march of technologies to enable this. What is increasingly apparent and visible around IBC is that the momentum does not stop there. Personal, wearable computers and sensors connected to everyday items from cars to temperature controls are creating vast amounts of data that will some day run our lives.
The nexus of this Internet of Things is the home and the logical place for it is the giant-size Ultra HD screen in the living room. The potential is vast and is already being eyed by vendors and media organisations.
Rebecca Romijn and Crossing Jordan's Jerry O'Connell got engaged over the weekend. "We couldn't be happier and are looking forward to the next chapter of our lives," the couple said in a joint statement. Romijn's ex-husband, John Stamos, recently landed a gig on ER, meaning that awkward run-ins between him and her new intended at the NBC commissary are just waiting to happen.
The original 13-episode order was reduced after three weeks of disappointing ratings. Fox hasn’t made a decision on cancelation, however, but Variety reports that it’s likely that Episode 10 will serve as the series finale.
The NBC drama is the first new fall show to get picked up for a full season. PLUS: Blindspot adds a Borgias alum.
Sunday marks the 40th anniversary of what could be described as two enduring American institutions, who’ve become well acquainted over the past quarter-century. Bill was 29 and Hillary 27 — both working as University of Arkansas law professors — when they tied the knot at their home in Fayetteville, Arkansas on Oct. 11, 1975 (see their wedding photo). Hours later, SNL launched with an “insane first show” starring George Carlin as host. PLUS: How Kate McKinnon transforms into Hillary Clinton.
Samantha Bee on Vanity Fair’s all-male late-night host cover: "I got so angry. I was just like, 'f*ck you’”
"I think it tapped into something,” she says of the photo shoot controversy and her tweeted response. "I think people are feeling exhausted by it. We're all just so fatigued by it. Can we just have a f*cking women's face in that lineup, for one time, maybe?"
Rick Glassman accidentally bit into his tongue while eating a toasted bagel. PLUS: Undateable stars went on a full-on social-media blitz to promote the live episodes, and a history of live primetime shows.
"He’s lived and campaigned by reality-show creeds,” says James Poniewozik. "There’s no such thing as bad attention; apologies are weakness; whining is for haters and losers. And winning (Mr. Trump’s favorite gerund, like Charlie Sheen’s) is its own justification. Like the winners on Survivor who eventually get praised for backstabbing their way to victory — they were just playing the game! — Mr. Trump has thus far been able to make his poll numbers the rationale for his tactics.”
That’s what Rami Malek says creator Sam Esmail told him. Malek also says he was told "it’s going to get worse.”
Cooper will be back Oct. 27, but creator Craig Sweeney won’t say how many more cameos Cooper will make this season.
American Gothic revolves around an elite Boston family who learns their recently deceased patriarch might have been a serial killer. PLUS: CBS orders Greg Berlanti’s Out of Body.
“There’s been a shift in the last 20 years of late night,” says the Late Night host, citing hosts like Stephen Colbert and the recently departed Jon Stewart. “People want to know a host’s point of view.”
The Key & Peele star is being honored by his alma mater this weekend — and he just happens to be a dead ringer for head football coach James Franklin.
Actually, the eight-part drama from the Downton Abbey producers is everything that FX’s The Bastard Executioner should be.
The Steven Soderbergh-produced ‘80s-set country club drama never really adds up to sum of its parts. PLUS: Red Oaks is an affectionate homage but not a satire of ‘80s movies, and why producers avoided snark.
“The first few episodes hit the ground running, and there’ll be pretty big cliffhangers at the end of every episode,” he says. PLUS: Kirkman contrasts his two Walking Dead series, The Walking Dead needs to find more intelligent themes, and how the show mastered the art of the flashback.
Says Colbert: "I just knew that it had been a Broadway theater and I didn't know whether we could return it to something that looked different than what Mr. Letterman had ... but I also didn't want to ruin the intimacy that Dave had created."