Videoage International April 2019

I N T E R N A T I O N A L www.V i deoAge.org THE BUSINESS JOURNAL OF FILM, BROADCASTING, BROADBAND, PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION April 2019 - VOL. 39 NO. 2 - $9.75 By Michael Bancroft* “I t exceeded our wildest expec- tations.” Those were the words used by Dr. Simon Ziegler (Toby Jones) to describe the artificial in- telligence (AI)-based protagonist in the trailer for the Hollywood thrill- er Morgan . Yet they could just as easily describe the producer of the trailer itself: none other than IBM’s Watson AI. TheAIplatformneeded just 24hours to create the piece and drop the jaws of film creatives everywhere. It was a groundbreaking application of AI in the media business and a reminder of just how influential the technology will be in the years to come. The potential of artificial intel- ligence to revolutionize media and entertainment isn’t lost on industry executives. A recent industry sur- vey by adtech firm Xaxis and IAB Europe found that 80 percent of respondents believe AI will have an impact similar to that of the indus- trial revolution, while 62 percent believe the technology will improve strategic decision-making, and 41 percent see it yielding competitive advantages. However, the most tell- ing response of the survey is that CuttingCosts andUnleashing Creativity: AI in theTV Industry (Continued on Page 24) My 2¢: My 40 years of reporting the good news and the bad at MIP-TV Dubbing enters a revolutionary phase through technology NATPE Review: A double-edged market for exhibitors TCA History: Critics set the stage for the new TV season Page 34 Page 22 Page 18 Page 14 W ith the increasing un- certainty, confusion, and unpredictability sur- rounding the 2019 edition of the L.A. Screenings, it’s a comfort to take stock of what actually is known. It’s a definite that Twentieth Cen- tury Fox TV Distribution won’t be L.A. Screenings: New Schedules, Changes, Mergers (Continued on Page 30) (Continued on Page 28) T hese days, TV market orga- nizers scrutinize the number of buyers — not exhibitors — at competing markets as a measure of an event’s success. So it was that MIP-TV executives at NATPE were reported to be combing through the Miami market’s published reports to assess this element in prepara- tion for their own challenge some 70 days later. The issue of the participation of acquisition executives at MIP-TV — set to take place April 8-11 — is rather fluid. The major baits (in this case the large U.S. studios) are not readily available as only a few will be exhibiting, and the acquisition pool is shrinking with the defection of buyers from Latin America who MIP-TVPreview: TheGood, TheBad, AndTheUsual