U.K.’s Royal Television Society Shifts September Conference Online

By Manori Ravindran

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – The U.K.’s Royal Television Society will move its biennial London conference online this year as it looks to mitigate concerns around coronavirus.

In partnership with YouTube, the conference — which was due to kick off around Sept. 15 — will stream a number of key sessions for free online around that time. The sessions, which generally draw a number of high-profile TV executives from the broadcasting and streaming worlds, will also be made available on the RTS website following their YouTube premieres.

The conference is the latest in the TV calendar to have moved online, following the Edinburgh TV Festival, which revealed last month its plans to go virtual in August. The festival carried out a number of popular YouTube sessions with the controllers of terrestrial broadcasters last month.

RTS has also set dates for its 2021 edition, which will take place in Cambridge from Sept. 15-17, with YouTube serving as principal sponsor. Ben McOwen Wilson, regional director for YouTube EMEA and MD, will chair the convention.

Theresa Wise, CEO of RTS, said: “Whilst we adapt to the current challenges we are all facing, we are very grateful to YouTube who will help us jointly host informative sessions — both industry-related and broader ‘brain food’ for the global community who would usually be with us in London. They can now join us virtually in September.”

McOwen Wilson added: “We are proud to support The Royal Television Society and excited to bring the RTS Conference to life on YouTube. The annual RTS events are the most thought-provoking and prestigious industry events of the year; we are delighted to support an online event in September, and look forward to hosting leaders from across the U.K. and global television landscape — in person — in Cambridge in 2021.”