Tony Vinciquerra, Soledad O'Brien to Headline NATPE Miami 2018

Sony Pictures Entertainment chair and CEO Tony Vinciquerra will be interviewed by journalist Soledad O’Brien in a keynote conversation on Wednesday, Jan. 17, at NATPE in Miami Beach, Fla., said NATPE president and CEO JP Bommel in a conference call with reporters on Wednesday.

Facebook head of global and creative strategy Ricky Van Veen also will participate in the conference’s new Streaming Summit.

NATPE will be held January 16-18, 2018, at the Fontainebleau and Eden Roc Miami Beach Resorts. NATPE plans to remain in Miami for the foreseeable future said Bommel on Wednesday, emphasizing NATPE’s growing international focus.

To that end, PactUK, which houses a stable of UK-based production companies, will exhibit at NATPE, joining exhibitors and pavilions from China, France, Spain, Korea, Brazil and Argentina.

The overall theme of this year’s convention is “A Changing Industry in a Changing World,” and Bommel said streaming, over-the-top and digital will be topics that flow through the entire conference.

Besides Vinciquerra, O’Brien and Van Veen, Revolt TV CEO Roma Khanna will be included in a spotlight conversation with other headliners to be announced.

Other content tracks at NATPE include the Station Group Forum, with panels planned on how the new ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard is on track to revolutionize the business of broadcasting, as well as a session featuring a Smith-Geiger research report on OTT presented by PromaxBDA. The association hosts the Station Summit every June in Las Vegas, which targets station creative directors and marketing executives.

Beyond the streaming and station group tracks, NATPE also is offering tracks on brands and advertisers, music and vision, development, deals and data, platforms and OTT, scripted, unscripted, global and Latin America.

The 15th annual Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Awards will be given to this year's recipients, who are executive producer Greg Berlanti, Telemundo and NBCUniversal International chair Cesar Conde, actress Jane Fonda, Turner chief content officer Kevin Reilly and actor Tom Selleck. 

Related: NATPE Names 15th Annual Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award Recipients

Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.