The three-day even – IBC2025 -, taking place 12–14 September at the RAI Amsterdam, will examine the forces reshaping the industry through diverse sessions from Netflix, PGA Tour, Paramount Global, Walt Disney Studios, YouTube, TikTok, Snap, Roku, TelevisaUnivision, JioStar India, kweliTV and more. The series opens with the headline session on ‘The New Normal’ to be delivered by leading industry influencer and ‘Media Universe Cartographer’ Evan Shapiro, while high-profile media sector commentator Mike Darcey, former CEO of News UK, COO of Sky, and Chair of Arqiva, closes a bill that includes other influential industry commentators.
The IBC2025 Conference offers a powerful mix of insight, provocation, and practical strategy from an array of thought leaders, top industry figures and trailblazers from throughout the world. Speakers and panellists from non-traditional media brands such as Snap, TikTok and YouTube will join global giants such as Netflix, Paramount Global and Walt Disney Studios, players growing their broadcast and streaming presence like PGA Tour, Vodafone and Roku, and companies in rapidly growing markets and segments such as JioStar India, kweliTV and TelevisaUnivision.
“At a time when media’s traditional borders are dissolving, the IBC Conference is where the entire global industry gathers to make sense of it all,” said Sally Watts, Head of Content for IBC. “Our 2025 programme reflects the urgency, experimentation, and imagination defining the sector – with a dynamic speaker line-up that spans social platforms, broadcasting giants, global streamers, major studios and infrastructure innovators.”
Highlights: speaker sessions and panels mapping media’s new reality
The Conference kicks off on Friday with a heavyweight CTO roundtable featuring Warner Bros. Discovery’s Avi Saxena, ITV’s Simon Farnsworth, and Paramount’s Phil Wiser. Another major session that day sees YouTube’s EMEA Vice President Pedro Pina and Channel 4 Director of Technology & Distribution Grace Boswood in conversation on how broadcasters and platforms can better collaborate in the evolving video ecosystem.
Later, Rollo Goldstaub, Global Head of Sports Partnerships at TikTok, will explore how the platform is redefining sports content engagement. There is also a panel that day examining how collaboration and strategic partnerships are transforming the content landscape, with:
- Elena Petrova, Head of Group Content and Broadcasting, International Business, A1 Group
- Jorrit Eringa, Head of Media Partnerships, DACH, The Netherlands and Nordics at Snap Inc
- Harish Sarma, VP of Business Development and Partnerships at Yahoo Mail
- Liz Riemersma, VP of Strategy, Business Development & International at Sling TV
- Katherine Wen, Director of Strategy and Development, International Syndication, Sky
On the Saturday, Netflix’s Head of Production for Spain and Portugal, Victor Marti, and Migue Amoedo, Executive Producer and Visual Designer of Vancouver Media, will present ‘Empowering Creativity through Innovation’, which offers an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at how production tools are transforming storytelling workflows.
Following that, Damian Cronin, Chief Digital and Information Officer at ABC, will take to the stage to explore how the broadcaster is embedding artificial intelligence at the heart of its digital transformation strategy in ‘The Evolution of AI: Supercharging Broadcasting’.
In his headline session, entitled ‘The New Normal’, Evan Shapiro delivers a compelling, data-driven presentation mapping the true shape and shifting gravitational forces of today’s media galaxy.
The Conference then offers a strategic panel on ‘What next for streaming’ – exploring innovation, analytics, and competitive positioning, with input from:
- Brad Danks, CEO, OUTtv
- DeShuna Spencer, CEO, kweliTV
- Sarah Milton, Chief Product Officer, Everyone TV
- Rajat Nigam, CTO, JioStar India
- Elke Walthelm, COO, Sky Deutschland
Another panel session, ‘MovieLabs – Leading the Vision’, highlights industry-wide collaboration on its 2030 Vision for content creation and will be moderated by MovieLabs President and CEO Richard Berger and feature:
- Eddie Drake, CTO of Walt Disney Studios – Disney Live Action, Marvel Studios, 20th Century Studios & Searchlight Pictures
- Yoshikazu Takashima, SVP Advanced Technology at Sony Pictures Entertainment
- James Crossland, Executive Vice President, Head of Global Content Operations at Warner Bros. Discovery
- Phil Wiser, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Paramount Global
Sunday opens with Thomas Gruber, Co-CEO of ProSiebenSat.1 PULS 4, addressing how German streaming platform JOYN is adapting formats for a young, fast-moving, digital-first audience, while in a separate session, Fremantle CEO of Commercial & International Jens Richter shares insights on evolving global distribution strategies and financing models in a post-peak TV market.
The PGA Tour will later showcase its groundbreaking use of drone-enabled augmented reality in live golf broadcasts, with Jon Freedman, SVP of Media Broadcasting, and Alex Turnbull, VP of Production Technology and Analytics, revealing how the PGA deployed live AR shot tracing across all 18 holes — a first for the sport — winning the George Wensel Technical Achievement Award at the 46th Sports Emmy Awards.
The Conference closes with the session from Mike Darcey, now Managing Director of Tide End Consulting, on ‘Rights, Economics, and the New Shape of Broadcasting’.
A key element of the IBC Conference is the IBC2025 Technical Papers Programme, spanning 10 sessions on peer-reviewed, original research that tackles real-world challenges across the broadcast and digital media ecosystem:
- Sport – AI, AR and 5G
- Streaming – Low Latency and Multi-Source
- Future of Broadcasting – 5G Broadcast and Brazilian TV3.0
- Advances in Wireless Technology – 6G Media and 5G for PMSE
- AI in Postproduction
- AI in Content Curation
- AI in Speech
- IP Studio 2.0 – Live Production
- Provenance, Authentication and Privacy
- Advances in Video – AI Encoding, Avatars, and Immersivity
A full list with more details on the sessions and speakers in the Technical Papers programme at IBC2025 is available at show.ibc.org/conference.