M+E Daily

For everyone and everything worldwide, COVID-19 has proven to be one of the greatest disruptions of a lifetime.

For media and entertainment, the changes around TV and film consumption over the past year are positioned to remain for years to come, with shrinking windowing (and day-and-date releases) for billion-dollar blockbusters, an increasingly competitive streaming environment, normalised direct-to-consumer releases from SVODs, and constantly emerging, alternative avenues for consumers to watch content.

At the May 12 Hollywood Innovation and Transformation Summit (HITS) Spring event, Carol Hanley, the newly promoted co-president of Whip Media, will be on the main stage to take part in a discussion around what the M&E industry is going to look like going forward, in the panel “The New Normal: A Post-COVID Content Ecosystem Today, Tomorrow, Forever.”

The ever-changing content climate only continues to transform itself as media companies struggle to optimise releases for fixed schedules, primetime TV slots or popular holiday milestones,” the panel description reads. “In order to tackle this new world of what to watch, you must be able to identify the demand for content, understand consumer data and leverage audience engagement metrics to predict title success.

“Born from the pandemic were new strategic workflows along with a new way of conducting business, which have altered the way the industry operates.”

Attendees of the panel — which features Richard Brookbanks, VP, financial controller, The Walt Disney Company, Will Gurman, VP of global content partnerships at PlutoTV, and more — will hear how different corners of the industry are adapting to today’s new normal, and how to prepare for the future with an advantageous content strategy plan.

HITS Spring is programmed under the guidance of the Content Advisors of the Hollywood IT Society, and is produced by the Media & Entertainment Services Alliance (MESA) and the Hollywood IT Society (HITS), in association with the Content Delivery & Security Association (CDSA) and the Smart Content Council.

The event is presented by IBM Security with sponsorship by Genpact, Irdeto, Tata Consultancy Services, Convergent Risks, Equinix, MicroStrategy, Microsoft Azure, Richey May Technology Solutions, Tamr, Whip Media, 5th Kind, Eluvio, LucidLink, Salesforce, Signiant, Zendesk, EIDR and the Trusted Partner Network.

As a special offer to readers of the M+E Daily, we have a complimentary invitation via this link.

To activate a HITS Spring sponsorship contact Evie Silvers at [email protected], or Garrett Finley at [email protected]