Digital Hollywood at CES 2021 - Agenda

Thursday, January 14th, 2021

3 PM – 3:45 PM – Eastern Time Zone

All-Digital & Online

Session I:

Future of TV & Streaming: Programming Strategy – Advertising – Multi-Platform Packages

Billions of viewers worldwide are engaged 24/7 with their video screens. Somewhere between Netflix, Amazon, Streaming Apps and cable packages resides the future of what was once known as “Television”. Technology has teamed up with media, advertising and Hollywood and a new industry has been unleashed. It’s going to be a bumpy ride!

Suzanne Sullivan, Executive Vice President, FOX Entertainment Sales

Sang Kim, SVP of Product, Samsung Smart TV Service Business

Scott Brown, GM, Audience Measurement, Nielsen

Thai Randolph, President and COO, Laugh Out Loud

Beth Clearfield, SVP, Digital Strategy and Franchise Business Management, BBC Studios

Susan Levison, Senior Vice President and Head, WWE Studios

Jonathan Hurd, Partner, Altman Solon, Moderator

Jonathan Hurd has more than 30 years of consulting and industry experience in Telecommunications, Media, and Technology (TMT). Jonathan has recently been leading Altman Solon’s unique proprietary consumer survey and simulation techniques to analyze the consumer trends in video viewing, movie theater attendance, and sports TV. He has worked with video distributors on product design and pricing of traditional and OTT services and has also been advising broadcast and cable TV networks on product and pricing strategy. In addition, Jonathan is frequently involved in conducting due diligence projects for potential investors in the TMT space, including areas such as traditional video delivery, internet video delivery, wireless infrastructure, digital advertising, and digital publishing. A regular presenter at Digital Hollywood, Streaming Media, and other industry conferences, Jonathan is also a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the group charged with investigating and selecting EMMY award recipients for innovative TV technology. Prior to Altman Solon, Jonathan was a Vice President with ADVENTIS, a TMT-focused strategy firm, and was a partner Mercer Management Consulting. Jonathan also held marketing and strategic planning positions at Lotus Development Corporation and he designed and created the Atari arcade video game “Food Fight” while working as a developer. Jonathan received a BS in Computer Science and Engineering from MIT, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is a member of the Eta Kappa Nu Electrical Engineering Honor Society and the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society.

Suzanne Sullivan is Executive Vice President of Advertising Sales for FOX Entertainment.  In this role, Sullivan has strategic oversight of all advertising sales initiatives for the company’s entertainment linear and digital platforms, including FOX Broadcast, FOX Now and FOX on Hulu, as well as advanced advertising products, client partnerships and agency relationships. A well-regarded media and sales veteran, Sullivan has a successful history of furthering innovation in the ad marketplace, as well as enhancing the overall ad and consumer experience. She played a leading role in the development of FOX Entertainment’s Ad Products, including Fast Break, Absolute ‘A’ and Future Now. Most recently, Sullivan has been instrumental in the integration of Tubi, FOX’s free streaming service, into the entertainment division’s portfolio of ad sales offerings. Before the formation of Fox Corporation in March 2019, Sullivan was the Executive Vice President of Entertainment Sales for Fox Networks Group. She oversaw sales strategy and client solutions for FOX primetime the FX networks, as well as National Geographic and Nat Geo Wild channels. Earlier, Sullivan was an advertising sales executive at FOX Broadcasting Company, where she was deeply involved in AT&T’s multi-year partnership with American Idol among other groundbreaking, cross-platform partnerships. In 2003, Sullivan joined FOX, following roles at BBDO and OMD, where she managed investments for brands including Gillette, Wrigley and JCPenney. Sullivan graduated from the College of the Holy Cross, where she was a history major and played women's club ice hockey.

Sang Kim, SVP of Product, Samsung Smart TV Service Business: As SVP of Product for the Smart TV Service Business in the Visual Display Division of Samsung Electronics, Sang Kim is responsible for building next-generation TV products and services for the Samsung Smart TV platform, the largest globally with hundreds of millions of Smart TVs in 195 countries worldwide. After joining Samsung in 2013, Sang was tasked with building out the global business development organization. Since assuming his new role in Product in 2018, Sang has been at the helm of all product initiatives for the Tizen TV Platform including Universal Guide, Samsung Health on TV, as well as Samsung TV Plus, which has become one of the top streaming apps on the Samsung Smart TV platform under Sang’s leadership. With the increase in content choices across live TV and streaming, Sang’s focus has been on proprietary discovery tools and services such as Universal Guide, Search and Bixby to help consumers find and watch what they love across all sources and apps, including Samsung TV Plus, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, Apple Music, HBO Max, YouTube and more. Prior to Samsung, Sang held leadership roles at Google Inc., both in the US and APAC. He was responsible for business development and go-to-market strategies for early products, including mobile, YouTube and advertising platform syndication. Sang holds a BS degree in Business Administration from UC Riverside.

Thai Randolph, President and COO, Laugh Out Loud: Thai Randolph is an award-winning marketing, business development and operations leader and is the President and COO of Laugh Out Loud. She focused on strategy and operations, including overseeing corporate development, marketing, ad sales, finance and strategic partnerships. Randolph has spent her career at the intersection of content, consumers and commerce and has a proven track-record of developing brands, audience and revenue for some of the biggest names in advertising, technology and entertainment – including WPP, Publicis, Sony and Facebook. In 2018, Randolph was named to AdAge’s 40 Under 40 list and Cynopsis’ It List and in 2019, was named one of Multichannel News’ Wonder Women in Streaming “Women to Watch.” With Randolph at the helm, LOL had a breakthrough year by diversifying its programming, distribution, and partnerships and has found unique ways to deliver comedy during the pandemic. She co-led the capital raise and partnership deal with NBCUniversal’s Peacock, structured the deal that brought LOL’s Comedy in Color franchise (featuring 300 diverse comedians from 30 different countries) to the Just for Laughs Festival, expanded LOL Audio’s offerings by partnership with Simon & Schuster to bring the franchise to audiobook format, and expanded LOL’s programming on SiriusXM/Pandora. The company now reaches 100 million consumers through LOL Network, with a streaming ecosystem that includes PlutoTV, Roku Channel, Bell Media, Snap, YouTube, Facebook, and more - creating an opportunity for diverse, emerging comedians to bring their comedy to a massive, global audience. The company also hit a major milestone of 2.2 Billion content views across its portfolio, which includes 22 original series, over 300 original stand-up specials and more.

Beth Clearfield, SVP, Digital Strategy and Franchise Business Management, VOD US Overheads, BBC Studios: Beth Clearfield is responsible for the development of new digital markets for BBC programs and has a central role in determining business development activities for BBC Studios – Americas (FKA BBC Worldwide – North America), as well as shaping content strategy for the region and managing the P&L for the company’s transactional businesses. She also serves as BBC Studios’ Global Account Director for Amazon, guiding the company’s strategy in relation to this key client and leading global sales and commissioning activities. Clearfield was previously responsible for all digital distribution for BBC Studios – Americas, managed program supply for BBC AMERICA, and oversaw a department that served as the central program information resource for all BBC Studios sales teams in North and Latin America. A 20-year veteran of BBC Studios – Americas, Clearfield’s accomplishments include the company’s first deals with clients such as Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, iTunes, Microsoft, Google, Vudu, Yahoo!, AOL, Fullscreen, and iN Demand. She was instrumental in the development of BritBox (BBC Studios’ joint venture OTT service with ITV Studios) and worked on the conception of BBC AMERICA as well as BBC Studios’ joint venture channels in Canada and Latin America. Clearfield graduated magna cum laude from Yale with a degree in Economics and Political Science and also studied at the Yale School of Drama and at NYU.

Scott Brown, GM, Audience Measurement, Nielsen: As General Manager of Audience Measurement at Nielsen, Scott Brown is responsible for innovating the company’s cross media measurement products and driving the unification of its linear, advanced TV and digital solutions. Scott is responsible for the overall strategy, product execution, and P&L across Nielsen’s measurement products. Under Scott’s leadership, Nielsen is overhauling its digital identity solution enabling the company to create a flexible, independent platform that can quickly adapt to evolving privacy and policy changes. He is spearheading the product transformation of Nielsen’s National TV business by bringing scalable addressable advertising solutions to the $70 billion TV advertising industry. Prior, he led the product transformation of Nielsen’s Local TV business, integrating a big data solution while retiring the entire legacy application suite. Since joining Nielsen in 2009, Scott has held various roles across product management and technology.  Previously, Scott served as Chief Technology Officer for Nielsen’s global measurement. In that role, he led the technical implementation of its digital solutions across screens and the migration of its infrastructure to public cloud.  That cloud-based platform currently underpins Nielsen’s entire audience measurement product suite today. Scott attended the University of Florida and earned a M.S. in Information Systems and a B.S. in Business Administration.  He was recently named a “Top 40 Under 40” honoree by The Tampa Bay Business Journal. Scott lives in Tampa with his wife, Melanie, and their two daughters.

Susan Levison is Senior Vice President and Head of WWE Studios, the organization’s multi-platform content division that develops and produces scripted and non-scripted series, documentaries, animated programming and feature films. WWE Studios’ diverse slate is co-produced and distributed through partnerships with premier global entertainment companies. More than 50 films have been released to date by WWE Studios, including partnerships with Twentieth Century Fox, Sony Pictures, MGM, Warner Brothers, Warner Brothers Animation, Disney, Universal, Blumhouse Productions, Lionsgate, among others. Levison comes to WWE from CBS Television Studios, where she was Senior Vice President, Alternative Programming, responsible for all unscripted development and production across cable, streaming and digital platforms. While at CBS, she produced unscripted projects and series in a variety of genres. Prior to CBS, Levison served as Executive Vice President, Original Programming & Production at VH1, overseeing more than 350 hours of original programming and development each year. During that time, Levison ramped up their scripted efforts, developing the critically acclaimed drama, Hindsight.  She also launched Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood, which ranked as cable's highest-rated new unscripted series of 2014, and the Nicole Richie soft-scripted series Candidly Nicole. Previously, Levison helped to launch FishBowl Worldwide Media, a startup production company, where she developed, sold and produced scripted and unscripted series for Bravo, Discovery, TruTV, Animal Planet, Fuse and VH1. She began her career at Fox Broadcasting Company in the Alternative Development where she worked on shows such as American Idol, Temptation Island and The Simple Life. She also worked in both the Drama Development and Comedy Development departments, where she worked on such series as Bones, House, and Bob’s Burgers.