NAB Show: Day One

The NAB Show, the world’s largest annual conference and expo for professionals who create, manage, and distribute entertainment across all platforms, kicked off today in Las Vegas. NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith opened the convention with his annual State of the Broadcast Industry Address, and a broad range of industry professionals led sessions dealing with the latest advances in advertising, virtual reality, and content creation. This year’s NAB Show runs through Thursday, April 21.

Ben Sherwood

In his annual address at the NAB Show opening, Smith spoke about the unparalleled reach and local focus of broadcasting in a media marketplace faced with increasing levels of fragmentation. Smith also discussed how the continuing development of the Next-Gen television standard will better position broadcasters to further integrate with an ever expanding device marketplace. Following Smith’s address, Ben Sherwood, co-chairman of Disney Media Networks and president of Disney|ABC Television Group, gave a rousing keynote address and joined Gordon for a conversation about the state of the industry. After their discussion, Smith honored renowned ABC News television journalist Bob Woodruff with the Distinguished Service Award, which recognizes members of the broadcast community who have made significant and lasting contributions to the industry.

Neal Mohan, YouTube’s chief product officer, kicked off the Online Video Conference this morning with his keynote, “YouTube’s Future – Mobile, VR and Putting Content in Context.” During the keynote, Mohan announced that starting today, the company will begin supporting 360-degree live streaming and spatial audio on YouTube – with the first examples of these new live streams debuting from the Coachella Festival, one of the nation’s largest live music events.

At the Television Luncheon, Chuck Lorre, legendary creator of broadcast hits “The Big Bang Theory,” “Mom,” and “Two and a Half Men” and executive producer and co-creator of “Mike & Molly” was inducted into the NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame. Film, television, and stage actress Keke Palmer received the TV Chairman’s Award, which recognizes individuals for their significant achievements in one or more specific disciplines in television.



At the Creative Master Series conference keynote, Academy Award-winners Kim Libreri, CTO, Epic Games; Robert Stromberg, founder and CCO of The Virtual Reality Company; David Alpert, president, Skybound Entertainment; and Academy Award nominee Rob Bredow, CTO, LucasFilm – along with Ted Schilowitz, futurist at 20th Century Fox and CinemaVangelist at Barco – talked about the latest innovations in virtual reality content.

During the Super Session “Unleashing the Live Experience: How Sports Television Engages Today’s Fans,” Jason George, CEO of Telescope, Inc. led a discussion between Andrew Daines, CEO of FanVision Entertainment; Danny Keen, head of North American sports partnerships at Twitter; Stephen Espinoza, EVP and GM of Showtime Sports and event programming; and Marshall Zelaznik, EVP and CCO of the UFC. Panelists discussed what the intersection of sports content, promotion, and audience engagement means for the future of sports viewing – both in-home and in person.

Ben Silverman, Emmy and Golden Globe-winning executive producer and co-chairman and CEO of Propagate Content, keynoted the Media Finance and Investor Conference, where he discussed the need for “second screen” technologies to better integrate with television and content creators and owners to continue to align with broadcaster partners and advertisers.

The Super Session “Where’s All the Ad Revenue: Media Strategies Unleashed” featured Jason Schragger, CCO at Saatchi & Saatchi, Dan Ackerman, SVP of Programmatic TV, AOL Platforms/Adapt.tv and Zachary Soreff, president and partner of Sawyer Studios providing the latest insights gleaned from top-tier advertising campaigns. The trio, in conversation with Chris Ariens, TV and media editor at Adweek, discussed how broadcasters, media buyers, and content owners could better reach and monetize consumers through the use of granular data and custom-tailored content.