NewsTECHForum: Streaming And FAST News 3.0

News organizations at every size and scale have embraced streaming video as a priority platform on which to engage consumers. There, they continuously iterate their news video strategies, honing their UX, workflows and discoverability as they compete in an ever-more fragmenting environment.

Five streaming leaders will discuss those strategies — and the technologies they’re using to maximize their impact—in a panel, Streaming and FAST News 3.0, at TVNewsCheck’s 11^th annual NewsTECHForum conference on Dec. 17 at the New York Hilton.

Angie Grande, senior director of streaming news channels, NBCUniversal Local; Emily Stone, VP of digital content and LiveNOW, Fox Television Stations; Bobby Cassidy, executive director of multimedia, Newsday; and Lisa Allen, VP and GM of Washington operations, Gray Television, will join moderator Adam Wiener, founder, Continuous Media, for the discussion.

“It has been years since video news producers first began distributing their content on streaming, and the landscape has been completely transformed in the interval,” said Michael Depp, NewsCheckMedia’s chief content officer and editor of TVNewsCheck. “Angie, Emily, Bobby and Lisa are working on the front lines of a streaming environment with more viewers, more data and more pressure than ever to perform for their respective organizations.”

The panelists will discuss tackling ongoing challenges in content strategy, product development and news workflow on their AVOD and FAST channels, sharing how they expand the content pipeline, fine-tune the product and simplify their workflows in the process.

NewsTECHForum is co-located with the Sports Video Group Summit. Its 2024 sessions include:

Keynote Interview: (Re)Introducing the BBC — As part of the BBC’s strategy to expand its reach and relevancy among digital audiences outside the UK, BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the UK’s venerable public service broadcaster, recently re-launched its international news website and app. Jennie Baird, chief product officer of BBC Studios and board chair of the nonprofit Ethical Tech Project, was one of the key architects behind these new digital services. In this NewsTECHForum keynote interview, Baird will discuss the thinking that helped unlock the brand’s multiplatform potential, as well as broader industry challenges facing publishers and broadcasters in an increasingly digital age.

Rewiring Tomorrow’s Newsroom Today — How can a modern newsroom be seamlessly connected to all distribution points, incorporating AI for vital efficiencies in content production and versioning? How can people be better organized with systemic connection points across the organization, especially when multiple platforms (e.g., broadcast or cable networks, streaming channels and digital platforms) are involved? How can duplication be avoided in reporting efforts and production?

Rebooting the Digital Product Suite — Organizations are taking a top-to-bottom look and reassessment of their products across digital platforms from their homepages to news and weather apps and more. What are the major changes coming to UX and UI based on consumers’ changing habits? Who is working on the forefront of change there, and what does it look like? What technologies are involved?

Scenes from a Gen AI-Enabled Newsroom — News AI pioneers work through scenarios of embracing the technology from pragmatic, ethical, journalistic, technological and cybersecurity lenses in a workshop context. A technologist, newsroom leader, AI ethicist and security leader will address real-world issues like disinformation/deepfakes, versioning and AI as part of the reporting/story building process.

News Production and the Cloud — How are cloud specialists progressing at moving all or part of news production into the cloud? What are the current challenges in terms of controlling cloud computing costs and latency? Are hybrid models emerging? What about redundancy?

Technology Leaders on AI and the News — News media technologists unpack advancements, including generative AI, that will fundamentally change the newsgathering, storytelling, production and multiplatform distribution. How will “zombie processes” be eliminated and journalists, editors and producers work more efficiently and productively under growing economic pressure using new tools that will revolutionize their work?

Register here.