The Paley Center for Media hosts its International Council Summit Thursday and Friday (Nov. 19-20) in New York, where top media and entertainment company executives will convene to discuss the transactions that "are moving the needle and changing the face of the global media landscape."
The summit, programmed around the theme "Deals & Dealmaking: Capitalizing on the Media Revolution," opens at 9 a.m. Thursday with an interesting pairing when Discovery Commuications president/CEO David Zaslav interviews James Murdoch, CEO of 21st Century Fox.
The event's other keynote speakers are Tim Armstrong, CEO of AOL, and Marni Walden, EVP and president of product innovcation and new business at Verizon, who close out the day at 4:30 p.m. with "40/40 — Going All In on Mobile," during which they promise to open up about their “40-40 opportunity — $40 billion going to mobile and $40 billion going to video." Chris Pantoya, the NBA's SVP of mobile strategy, will moderate.
Among the featured speakers is Hearst executive vice chairman Frank A. Bennack, Jr., who is also chairman of the Paley Center. He and Steve Swartz, Hearst president and CEO, will join Multichannel News editorial director Mark Robichaux at 2:45 p.m. for "Masters of the Game," a half-hour conversation about the executives' game plan for building and reinvigorating a global media powerhouse through the strategic acquisition of content, technologies and multiple platforms.
Other sessions of note on Thursday include:
--"It’s a Disneyfied World!" at 11:05 a.m., with Andy Bird, chairman of Walt Disney International, and Claudio Chiaromonte, EVP and managing director, The Walt Disney Co. Latin America, on their approach to building Disney’s global network, linking all of its businesses;
--"Breaking the Backend," at 11:35 a.m., with United Talent Agency's Peter Benedek, Discovery's Rich Ross and Leftfield Entertainment's Brent Montgomery, on the new economics of programming, production, content investment and talent deal structures; and
--"Media Myths & Consumer Trends: Separating Fact from Fiction," at 2:30 p.m., a 15-minute talk by Nielsen global president Steve Hasker on Nielsen's progress toward measuring the "Total Audience" for all content across all platforms and consumer trends the media measurement company foresees in 2020.
The conference continues on Friday (Nov. 20) through 1:30 p.m. with six additional sessions. For more information, visit the Paley IC 2015 website.
