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You are not currently viewing the most recent Realscreen Summit. Go to Realscreen Summit 2025.
Disney+: A Closer Look
The launch of Disney+ in November 2019 was met with fervent anticipation from fans and the global entertainment industry. From being the most-Googled term of the year, to the explosion of "Baby Yoda" memes, interest in the platform and its content remains at fever pitch. This session brings together the head of Disney+ Unscripted Originals and top creative talent working with the service to illustrate the range of content under its umbrella — from high-end documentaries and docuseries to epic formats, profile and portrait series, and lighter fare geared towards a younger audience. Here's your chance to gain an enlightening look at this exciting platform, and its ambitions for unscripted and non-fiction content.
Ross Mathews to host 2020 Realscreen Awards
Best-selling author and RuPaul's Drag Race judge Ross Mathews will host the upcoming 2020 Realscreen Awards, set for January 28 in New Orleans.
Making his television debut as a correspondent on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Mathews is currently entertaining audiences as a judge on VH1′s critically acclaimed RuPaul's Drag Race, which, in 2019, received a whopping 14 Emmy nominations.
The Realscreen Awards is a global celebration of non-fiction and unscripted content excellence, taking place during the upcoming Realscreen Summit in New Orleans. Nominees for the upcoming edition can be seen here.
ViacomCBS’s Jacqueline Parkes to keynote at Realscreen Summit
Jacqueline Parkes, Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President of Digital Studios, oversees marketing and creative, digital content and social media for MTV, VH1, CMT and Logo group, and partners closely with Viacom Digital Studios to develop original digital series, franchises, verticals and other content for all three brands
Parkes joined MTV in 2016 and quickly applied her deep expertise and fresh approach to reinvigorate the brand across platforms. During her tenure, MTV has experienced four straight years of prime ratings growth. MTV and VH1 together account for eight of the top 10 reality series in 2019. Social streams have tripled, and overall digital streams have risen to more than 500 million views per month, while cross-platform engagement has increased the brand's social following by over 53 million followers and is on track to have the most cross-platform streams ever.
During her keynote conversation at the Realscreen Summit, Parkes will discuss how she and her team are building huge fan communities around new and much-loved MTV series and what fans can expect next from their Digital Studios team who are creating captivating digital original content for Gen Z.
Safe Sets: Best Practices for Duty of Care
Part of the attraction for audiences, when it comes to unscripted entertainment, is seeing ordinary people experiencing extraordinary situations. When it comes to starring in, or even producing or crewing such programming, ensuring the psychological welfare of those in front of and behind the camera should be of paramount concern. Here, you'll learn from producers, network executives, and others in the field about their efforts to establish and maintain duty of care protocol that will keep their sets, and shows, safe.
The 'Safe Sets: Best Practices for Duty of Care' session explores how the well being of a team is of utmost concern for any business in the entertainment industry.
Summit Showdown is back with two $20K development deals from A&E and HGTV. Let the pitching begin!
Realscreen Summit's highly-anticipated live international pitch competition is back with two US $20,000 development deals up for grabs at the 2020 competition.
Our supporting networks, A&E and HGTV, will each provide a US $20,000 development deal to a winning project for their network. One winner for each network will be crowned at the live pitch competition taking place on Monday, January 27, 2020 at the Realscreen Summit.
The 2020 Summit Showdown is presented in partnership with West One Music Group, who will provide the Grand Prize winners an exclusive custom theme song and blanket library package for their show. In addition to creating the title track for the pilot, West One will also provide music direction and full access to their award-winning library of more than 55,000 tracks.
Cooking up Copros: What's Working, Where
Facing ever-declining budgets and licensing fees, producers across myriad genres of non-fiction have had to get creative to fund their projects. But factoring in a growing number of potential international buyers, copros are no longer strictly the domain of big-budget, blue chip content, and creative partnerships are ensuring that various segments of the industry have skin in the game. The 'Cooking Up Copros: What's Working, Where' session navigates the coproduction landscape in 2020, and deciphers what's working now, how it's working, and where it's working.
More speakers added to the 2020 program
Every year we aspire to expand the boundaries for our attendees by exposing them to an array of inspirational and topical content presented through a range of formats, from structured networking to one-on-one pitching opportunities, keynotes and panel discussions.
We are excited to introduce additional speakers from various sectors of the global non-fiction content industry to the lineup, all set to contribute their time and expertise to the Realscreen Summit 2020 program:
Talking Talent
Conventional wisdom within the industry states that having the right talent attached to a project on-screen and behind the scenes is of the utmost importance when it comes to giving your project a fighting chance. But with content platforms multiplying at a feverish rate, so too are the opportunities for talent, making exclusivity harder to negotiate and changing the game considerably. And talent can come from practically every corner of culture today, with influencers being the experts for a generation of content consumers.
You will have the chance to dive into this and more when you join us for the 'Talking Talent' panel, as we bring together execs from across the industry to examine the evolving role of talent in the unscripted content equation.
Featuring:
What's Hot, What's Not
Development execs at networks and prodcos always need to be in tune with - and preferably one step ahead of - the cultural zeitgeist in order to tap into what could be the next big TV trend. What might have been hot a month or two ago could cool off considerably by the time your project is ready to pitch. What are the big new development areas for 2020 and 2021, and what's on the way out? Top producers and buyers offer their views on where the unscripted market is heading and why.
Featuring:
Get ‘30 Minutes With’ top network execs
The '30 Minutes With' sessions are designed to help you make the connections you need at the Realscreen Summit. These intimate and interactive sessions feature some of the most in-demand unscripted buyers and commissioners talking candidly about their programming strategies, future plans and priorities. Seating will be limited to 40 delegates to maintain an up-close-and-personal vibe.
Some of the companies that have hosted '30 Minutes With' sessions include:
Amplify your networking opportunities!
Discovery's Kathleen Finch to keynote
Realscreen is happy to reveal that Kathleen Finch, Chief Lifestyle Brands Officer for Discovery Inc. will be featured in a keynote conversation at Realscreen Summit in New Orleans on January 28. Finch oversees the management oversight of HGTV, Food Network, TLC, ID, Travel Channel, DIY Network, Cooking Channel, Discovery Life, American Heroes Channel, Destination America, Great American Country and the company's Digital Studios Group in the U.S. During her keynote conversation at the Summit, Finch will share her thoughts on how her role has evolved following the Discovery/Scripps merger, how the company itself has evolved and her take on the trends impacting the non-fiction screen content industry, and the television industry at large.
