Jay Hunt leads the expansion and strategy for Apple Original series developed outside of the US, focusing on productions in Europe and reporting to Apple’s heads of worldwide video, Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht.

Hunt champions award-winning, acclaimed programming with global appeal, including the Nielsen Top 10-ranked hit “Hijack”; widely hailed BAFTA Television Awards Best Drama winner and Emmy Award-nominee “Bad Sisters”; beloved Emmy and BAFTA Award winner “Slow Horses”; global event docuseries “Prehistoric Planet” from Jon Favreau; critically acclaimed drama “The Buccaneers”; popular globe-trotting travel program “The Reluctant Traveler With Eugene Levy”; and, family comedy “Trying,” starring Rafe Spall and Esther Smith, among many others.

Recently announced upcoming series also include “Prodigies,” starring Ayo Edebiri and Will Sharpe; “The Wanted Man” starring Hugh Laurie; and “The Husbands” starring Juno Temple, alongside the second seasons of multi-lingual French and Japanese drama “Drops of God” and German-language comedy “Where’s Wanda?”

Hunt, OBE, was appointed Chair of the British Film Institute in 2024, after serving as a Governor of the BFI since 2020. Prior to joining Apple, Hunt served as chief creative officer at Channel 4, Director of Programmes at Channel 5 and as Controller of BBC One. 

BBC iPlayer turns 18 this year (having famously launched on Christmas Day 2007) and, according to the BBC’s latest annual plan, is still going from strength-to-strength.

2024 broke records for the service: YOY viewing time up 23% (32% for 16-24 year olds), the strongest July ever (with 18.4m active accounts that month), and impressive data which suggests that in the UK, total BBC viewing across broadcast and iPlayer is more than Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+ combined, and ahead of YouTube and TikTok combined. 

Kerensa Samanidis is General Manager for BBC iPlayer where she oversees strategy, growth and business operations of the service.  

Prior to the BBC, she worked with Channel 4 to develop and implement its international streaming business.

Samanidis’s long career within the streaming industry began in the early 2000’s where she devised PlayStation’s first video-on-demand strategy.  She went on to hold leadership roles at WarnerMedia, AMC Networks and the BFI where she launched and managed a range of international streaming services. She also ran a successful consulting business with clients including BritBox International, BBC and Channel 4.

Dana is Group Chief Executive of Sky, one of Europe’s leading media and entertainment companies and part of Comcast Corporation, a global media and technology group. Dana has managed both cable and satellite businesses around the world and is recognised for her track record for accelerating growth.  

Since Dana joined in 2021, Sky has launched two new world-leading streaming platforms – Sky Glass and Sky Stream. These products build on Sky’s passion for entertainment and mark a shift from providing content over satellite to via the internet and straight to people’s TV’s.  

Under her leadership, Sky continues its commitment to the cultural economy, creating award-winning original content, producing the biggest live sporting events, and providing free access to news and the arts.  

A series of landmark sports rights deal have recently been secured by Sky including the broadcast rights to show a record number of Premier League fixtures in a new four-year deal from 2025/26; the UK broadcast rights to the EFL through to the 2028/29 season; the US Open tennis to 2027; Formula 1 to 2029; and the Women’s Super League. Dana has also overseen the expansion of Sky’s long-term partnerships with UK public service broadcasters, Channel 4, ITV, and the BBC, as well as new long-term agreements that have brought Apple TV+, Paramount+, and content from Peacock onto Sky’s Entertainment OS platform.  

Dana has overseen the continued diversification of Sky’s business, with Sky Mobile becoming the fastest growing mobile operator in the UK, the rapid expansion of Sky Broadband’s customer base, and the launch of Sky Protect, a first of its kind smart home protection and insurance service. 

Before joining Sky, Dana led transformation and growth for many of the world’s largest media and telecommunication companies serving as President of Consumer Services for Comcast Cable, the largest broadband and PayTV operator in the United States; President and Chief Operating Officer of Virgin Media; and Chief Transformation Officer of Liberty Global.  

As UK Content Vice President, Anne leads the teams across all genres – scripted series, film, unscripted, documentaries and licensed programmes. 

Mensah joined Netflix in 2018 and oversees all Netflix UK commissions including Adolescence, Fool Me Once, One Day, The Gentlemen, Baby Reindeer, Supacell, BAFTA, Emmy & Golden Globe award winning Netflix drama The Crown and BAFTA award winning Netflix series Sex Education . 

Prior to this, she was Director of Drama and Sky Studios at Sky UK. Before joining Sky, Mensah served as Head of Independent Drama at the BBC as well as Head of Drama for BBC Scotland. Mensah has commissioned a wide variety of internationally acclaimed dramas such as BAFTA award winning Patrick Melrose starring Benedict Cumberbatch for Sky/Showtime and BAFTA and Emmy award winning Sky/HBO drama, Chernobyl. 

Mensah is a trustee of Into Film, Vice President of Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, trustee of Mission 44, as well as a member of the 2018 Class of Henry Crown Fellows within the Aspen Global Leadership Network at the Aspen Institute.  

Mclachlan, five years into his tenure as ITV’s Director of Advanced Advertising shared the unique FAFO [google it] Framework for ITV Adlabs at OTT Question Time Live, our conference earlier this year. A process which over the past several years has been deployed to develop experiments, prototypes, pilots and happy accidents in the CTV ad-space.

Mclachlan’s team has a track record of delivering cutting edge propositions, from Dynamic Weather Targeting to KERCHING via the UKs largest off-platform Retail Media proposition Retail Match and in the last month alone announcing Auto Match and a pioneering CTV Lead Generation ad format pilot. 

In addition to Adlabs, Mclachlan is also the very public sales lead for ITVs proprietary addressable ad-sales platform Planet V, and has over the last year been increasingly outspoken on the importance of CTV inventory and ad quality, calling out bad actors in the ecosystem with his now inescapable ‘no tomatoes in the fruit salad‘ analogy.

Liz Ferguson leads Google Ad Manager’s partnerships with Broadcast and Social Video partners in the UK and Ireland, where she’s a true champion for her partners. Her mission? To unlock every drop of value from their owned and operated inventory and supercharge their YouTube distribution.

With over a decade of experience, Ferguson is your go-to expert for all things YouTube and social video. She is a global authority in building and commercialising digital communities around premium video and audio content.

Prior to joining the London team in 2023, Ferguson was the Media Company Lead for YouTube Content Partnerships in Australia and New Zealand, growing audiences and revenue for media companies across news, sport, entertainment, and music. This included providing crucial guidance to government and news media partners, helping them maximise their reach during Covid and national elections.

Ferguson’s passion truly ignites at the intersection where amazing content, engaged audiences, and clever advertising all collide.

Lisa Rousseau joined Amazon in March 2021 as Head of Freevee UK, Amazon’s ad funded premium video streaming service, with responsibility for launching Freevee in the UK in September 2021, and leading Freevee’s business and marketing functions. With the launch of Prime Video Advertising in Europe in early 2024, her role has expanded to lead Prime Video Advertising in Europe. She is responsible for the Prime Video go to market planning, business strategy and operations, and product packaging and marketing strategy  in support of advertising on the service in the UK and across Europe. 

Prior to joining Amazon, Rousseau spent seven years at Google. As Head of TV and Film EMEA at YouTube and Google Play, she was responsible for building content partnerships across the region to drive the transactional (TVOD) movies and TV business, launched Google Play Movies & TV across 15 markets, and led the film/TV partnership strategy for YouTube EMEA. She also led YouTube business and partnerships across Northern Europe and Sub Saharan Africa.

Rousseau was previously at the BBC and BBC Studios in a number of commercial and digital business development roles. She is passionate about supporting career opportunities for women and empowering underrepresented talent, and is a long standing trustee of the Young Women’s Trust charity, as well as being recently appointed as a trustee of the Media Trust in the UK.

David Salmon is the Managing Director of Tubi’s international business, responsible for the company’s footprint outside of the US. Tubi is currently available in 11 markets, including Canada, Australia, Mexico and the UK. 

Prior to joining Tubi, Salmon spent more than a decade at sports, media and entertainment group Endeavor, focused on founding and scaling digital businesses. He was most recently founder and CTO of Endeavor Streaming, Endeavor’s video technology group, where he drove the business from inception to market leader.

As Executive Vice President and International General Manager of Pluto TV, Olivier Jollet has been a driving force behind the global expansion of the Free Ad-supported Streaming Television (FAST) model. His pioneering leadership has propelled Pluto TV to become the most distributed FAST service across the world, now available in over 35 countries and territories across four continents, with millions of viewers tuning in globally.

Jollet leads a unified international strategy for Pluto TV, working closely with teams across content, distribution, marketing, and finance to accelerate the platform’s growth outside the U.S. His efforts have not only expanded Pluto TV’s global reach but also deepened its impact through innovative partnerships and a diversified content offering. As a member of Paramount’s global streaming leadership team, Olivier has played a pivotal role in shaping the international business. Recent highlights include strategic collaborations with M6 in France and DAZN in the GSA region, as well as the expansion of Pluto TV’s sports and news portfolio—bringing in darts, football, women’s sports, CNN, CBS News, and more.

A founding member of Pluto TV’s leadership team, Jollet was instrumental in launching the service in the UK and Germany before its acquisition by Paramount.

A true streaming industry pioneer, his career began at the forefront of digital entertainment. He co-founded Watchever, one of Germany’s first subscription-based VOD services, and held leadership roles at Vivendi Group and Universal Music. He also co-founded Quazer, a digital TV-like service backed by ProSiebenSat.1, which was later acquired by Pluto TV.

With a career defined by innovation, strategic foresight, and a passion for shaping the future of media, Jollet continues to lead Pluto TV’s international journey with vision and impact.

Jonathan Thompson is Chief Executive of Everyone TV, the organisation that runs free television in the UK.

Thompson has recently overseen the development and launch of streaming platform, Freely, which brings together live and on demand content from the UK’s biggest broadcasters, all in one place, for free. Built into new smart TVs and delivered over wi-fi, Freely will play a crucial role in securing the on-going success of free TV in the UK.

The Everyone TV team that he leads is also responsible for overseeing the UK’s two other free TV platforms, Freeview and Freesat, which together serve over 16 million homes.

Partnerships are critical to the work Thompson leads at Everyone TV, which is a joint venture owned and supported by the UK’s leading public service broadcasters – the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. Collaboration with broadcast partners and industry is key to delivering high quality TV for the nation on a universal and free basis.

In 2015, he oversaw the launch of Freeview Play, combining live TV via an aerial and on demand content over the internet on smart TVs and set-top boxes. He was also instrumental in the launch of Freeview’s mobile app in 2019, which allows viewers to browse, search and watch content from across a range of broadcasters on the go.

A former Director of Strategy for both Ofcom and Channel 4, Thompson has extensive experience working in the broadcasting sector and the regulatory environment. During his tenure at Channel 4, he represented the broadcaster as a Freeview board member and immediately prior to joining Everyone TV, he worked in the Office of the Chairman at DMGT plc, advising on group strategy. 

Thompson is also a member of the DTG Council and Board.