The Drum launches Future of TV vertical, advisory council, newsletter and podcast

Each Monday afternoon, we’ll publish The Future of TV newsletter for those laser-focused on what TV has to offer. That will be curated by reporter Hannah Bowler, who joined us from TV trade title Broadcast in 2021. Media editor John McCarthy will continue to take the temperature of media buyers, recently promoted senior reporter Kendra Clark will probe the biggest players in the US and contributor Ian Burrell, columnist and former media editor at The Independent, will interview some of the biggest personalities in the business.

• You can subscribe to The Future of TV newsletter here.

Additionally, to bring our conversations with the industry’s best to our engaged audiences, McCarthy and Bowler have launched the TV Talks podcast. The first episode went live today and features Discovery’s James Gibbons sharing the marketing masterplan for pushing his AVOD service.

Steering the content are extensive reader surveys and the guidance of our Future of TV advisory council which includes:

• Simon Daglish, ITV group commercial director

• Lindsey Clay, Thinkbox chief executive

• Richard Brooke, Unilever global media operations director

• Simon Thomas, GroupM global director of audiences research and media investment management

• Sam Taylor, Direct Line Group head of group commercial and performance marketing

• Matthew Barwell, Britvic chief marketing officer

• Brad Stockton, Dentsu senior vice president of US national video innovation

• Kelly Metz, Omnicom Media Group managing director of advanced TV activation

• Pooja Midha, Comcast chief growth officer

• Tal Chalozin, Innovid chief tech officer and co-founder

• Ashwini Karandikar 4A’s executive vice president of media-technology and data

• Sean Cunningham, VAB president and chief executive

John McCarthy, media editor at The Drum, said: "I’m very excited to explain the Future of TV. It'll hopefully take all the positives from the burgeoning digital advertising space minus deliberately opaque vendors and their awful jargon. I know that the terminology gives even the most intelligent marketers a headache so I won’t allow it to happen to TV. We'll strip back what's happening and explain it in the most common terms.

"TV is at a crossroads. It is one of the best brand-building platforms imaginable. The world's biggest brands were built there, and they're not leaving despite what some would have you believe. Meanwhile, the disruptive 'digital' brands are also coming to the realization that they should be marketing there too. In the brave new world of fragmented TV players, they might just win an advantage too. It's time for TV to rebuild and prove its enduring value. Watch this space!”

You can review our Future of TV hub here. You can contact me here. And for further reading on the topic, here is a taster of some of our explainers this year:

• What’s shaking up the world of TV for media buyers in 2022?

• 4 reasons why UK TV has entered a ‘renaissance’ period

• Was Disney+ right to introduce an ad-funded tier?

• What do advertisers really think of ITVX’s bold step into the future?

• Timeline: Nielsen’s fall from grace, rebrand and eventual sale

• Barb now measures SVOD and social video – here’s what it means for advertisers

• Isba believes Origin is key to cross-media measurement – but will advertisers pay?

• Havas Media boss calls for TV planning rethink as market gets ‘volatile’

• What if sponsorship was the easiest way for brands to get into addressable TV?

• Dubbed or subbed? The power of subscription video to break down language barriers

• Has streaming overcome its CX issues?