AI on the prize

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is coming. In many ways it’s already here. While AI terrifies some, it excites others. I’ll leave it to lawyers and politicians to debate the ethics and/or moral hazards of AI because I’m focused on one finite truth: AI will impact the way we do business in the film and TV industry, so we’d better get used to it. But the more I think about the possibilities, the more I lean into the ‘excited about AI’ camp – and I think you should too.

Here’s why. Targeted advertising might still be finding its footing, but the concept of seamlessly integrated ads blends perfectly with where the media business is heading. And as ad-supported VoD (AVoD) viewership balloons – and advertisers gain more visibility of AVoD/free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) engagement – the next five-toseven years will see tremendous growth and expansion in ad-supported exhibition.

I’m not prophesying here; advertising was always the critical funding component for television and media, and that’s not changing. But in today’s world, targeted advertising and virtual product placement are taking the smart/fluid integration of advertisements to a whole new level – which could make those jarring ad breaks a thing of the past.

And with AI, the product experience I see versus that of another viewer could expose our industry to a level of interwoven advertising that’s essentially seamless to audiences, while worth many billions to advertisers – which is more than enough cash to greenlight entire slates of content.

Meanwhile, distributors are exploiting deep catalogues in a way they weren’t just 10 years ago. In the past, catalogue was catalogue. You’d occasionally broker deals on a few hidden gems buried in a deep library, but a lot of it sat untouched.

But now distributors have every title up and running via VoD, often across multiple streaming platforms in various verticals (linear streaming, FAST, etc). To extract meaningful revenue, one needs to manage all these active titles – and when a company has thousands of hours across multiple platforms it can be a massive time and talent drain.

Rather than wasting human time, AI can manage the deep catalogue, tweaking tags, joining promotional opportunities, replacing key art and even revising loglines – all automatically and in real time.

As a distribution and coproduction exec, I routinely find myself pitching film and TV

Scott Kirkpatrick, executive VP of coproductions and distribution at

LA-based Nicely Entertainment, on why you should be excited about the impact of artificial intelligence on the entertainment business.

content that doesn’t yet exist. It’s tough to sell the product when you don’t have a sample. AI can make selling something that doesn’t exist a much more tangible possibility, which could entirely revolutionise the development, coproduction and pre-selling process.

Future derivatives of ChatGPT could allow executives a real-time chance to compare how a treatment might be transformed into a full script based upon the writing styles of two or three different writers, before the arduous contracting process.

AI could allow writers’ rooms a chance to map out a variety of complex episodic storylines. Talent agencies representing writers, actors and musicians could upload voice, audio and/or writing samples so that extrapolations of their clients’ likeness could be batch-tested for sample content creation, so that executives could implement their wishlists into a mock version of the potential film or TV product.

Is any of this different to today’s ‘look book’ or ‘pitch deck’ approach featuring wishlist talent plastered all over the pages to secure the deal? Conceptually, it’s the same old process, just a lot more time-efficient and cost-effective, offering more assurance about what’ll come out the other side.

There are inevitable problems that will certainly need to be ironed out (for example, deep fakes, copyright infringement and content ID technology), but fortunately that will keep legal departments well employed for the next decade.

Personally, I’m not always an early adopter of the latest and greatest; I’ve never invested in crypto currency (and have zero plans to do so) and my car is 22 years old. I park blocks away from meetings to avoid embarrassment, but I cannot bring myself to get rid of something that still works.

However, AI excites the hell out of me. And I cannot wait to see how this technology impacts our business positively over the years to come.

EDITORIAL

Editorial director Ed Waller ed@c21media.net

Editor of C21Media.net

Jonathan Webdale jonathan@c21media.net

Chief sub-editor Gary Smitherman gary@c21media.net

Chief sub-editor, Drama Quarterly John Winfield john@c21media.net

News editor Clive Whittingham clive@c21media.net

Channel21 International editor Nico Franks nico@c21media.net

DQ editor Michael Pickard michael@c21media.net

Research editor Gün Akyuz gun@c21media.net

C21Kids editor Karolina Kaminska karolina@c21media.net

North American editor Jordan Pinto jordan@c21media.net

Senior reporter Neil Batey neil@c21media.net

C21TV

Head of television Jason Olive jason@c21media.net

Video editor/motion designer Adrian Ruiz Martin adrian@c21media.net

FINANCE

Finance director Susan Dean susan@c21media.net

Finance manager Marina Sedra marina@c21media.net

Finance officer Shuhely Mirza shuhely@c21media.net

ADVERTISING

Founding partner and commercial director Odiri Iwuji odiri@c21media.net

Sales director Peter Treacher peter@c21media.net

Business development director Nick Waller nick@c21media.net

Sales manager Hayley Salt hayley@c21media.net

Senior sales executives Richard Segal richard@c21media.net

Malvina Marque malvina@c21media.net

Telesales executive Yasmin Connolly yasmin@c21media.net

PRODUCTION

Operations director Lucy Scott lucy@c21media.net

Head of digital Laura Stevens laura@c21media.net

Operations manager Milly Aylott Harvey milly@c21media.net

Production and events coordinator Courtney Brewster courtney@c21media.net

Digital assistant Alex Stevens alex.stevens@c21media.net

EVENTS

Event programming director Ruth Palmer ruth@c21media.net

Head of events Gemma Burt gemma@c21media.net

Events coordinator Lucy Corona lucy.corona@c21media.net

Events assistant Francesca Bartlett francesca@c21media.net

Programming coordinator Erin Blackmore erin@c21media.net

Group CFO (consultant) Ravi Ruparel ravi@c21media.net

Editor-in-chief & managing director David Jenkinson david@c21media.net

No part of this publication may be copied, stored or copied on to any electronic system or broadcast via any other medium without prior consent of the publisher. All rights reserved. All trademarks acknowledged. © Channel21 International 2023 ISSN number: 1460-0668