Gerhard Zeiler, president of Worldwide, Warner Bros. Discovery, will give the opening keynote at this yr’s MIPCOM worldwide tv commerce honest in Cannes.

Zeiler will kick off the occasion with a fireplace chat Monday, Oct. 16. The thirty ninth MIPCOM runs via Oct. 19.

The veteran European media government was honored on the convention again in 2004, when he was nonetheless CEO of German media big RTL Group, and was named MIPCOM’s persona of the yr.

As Warner Bros. Discovery’s worldwide boss, Zeiler is predicted to share how the studio has managed its post-merger transformation and description the group’s world content material and streaming technique. Zeiler took over as president of worldwide at WB in 2020 and prolonged his remit throughout Discovery Inc. in April 2022, after the shut of the Discovery/WarnerMedia merger. In his place, he has strategic oversight for WBD manufacturers and joint accountability for the corporate’s direct-to-consumer operations, together with streaming service Max, throughout greater than 220 worldwide markets and is accountable for WBD’s native theatrical productions and acquisitions, in addition to nation and region-specific networks and companies throughout Latin America, Europe, Center East, Africa and the Asia Pacific areas.

“Our trade is going through heightened disruption and present process a technique of transformation,” stated Zeiler. “These are occasions of change nevertheless it’s additionally a once-in-a-lifetime alternative to architect the media ecosystem for the subsequent era. I’m trying ahead to talking at MIPCOM about how WBD is placing storytelling first and refining and innovating to drive agility and suppleness to emerge in a good stronger place.”

“With the trade at a pivotal level and world corporations re-inventing for a brand new period…we couldn’t have a extra related inventive chief to be our opening Media Mastermind Keynote,” famous MIPCOM director Lucy Smith. “His presence at MIPCOM Cannes is a uncommon alternative for leisure execs to go contained in the worldwide technique on the coronary heart of one of many world’s greatest and fastest-evolving studios. A valued and vastly revered contributor to the market over a number of many years, his perspective on weathering such storms will probably be invaluable.”

The worldwide tv trade is predicted to once more descend on Cannes in October for MIPCOM 2023, with most main studios and impartial giants — together with WBD, Disney, Paramount International Content material Distribution, NBCUniversal Worldwide, Amazon MGM Studios Distribution, Banijay Rights, Fremantle, Fox Leisure International, Studiocanal and ITV Studios — already confirmed to attend.