Dorothy Byrne has now signed on to talk at Televisual’s upcoming Factual Festival.

Following her inspirational MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival in August, Byrne, Channel 4’s head of News and Current Affairs, will join the Where’s the Big Doc? panel at the Televisual Factual Festival to interrogate whether and why we have fewer, in- depth TV productions that take to task the most important and difficult issues of our day.

Two BAFTA- winning film-makers – Sarah Macdonald, founder of production company Make Waves, and Brian Woods, founder of True Vision – will join a panel that will tackle the question of what’s needed to bring more of this important content to screens in the UK.

This year’s Factual Festival will take place on Wednesday 27th and Thursday 28th November at The Curzon Soho. 

Across the two days, 50 top level speakers will include the UK’s key commissioners for Documentary, Factual Entertainment and Specialist Factual.

Sessions designed to help build your business will include a bang up to date overview of services that are commissioning factual in the UK, with sessions focused on new demand from the digital economy. Dedicated panels will explore the real opportunities in the nations and regions and the latest on the US market for UK producers. And with programme funding becoming an ever-increasing challenge, experts in financing will ask where to find the next investment.

Patrick Holland, controller of BBC Two will bring delegates up to speed with his vision for the biggest factual channel in the UK. While on the same day, we will hear from the biggest factual channel in the world, with Discovery’s SVP/ President of Production and Development Howard Swartz joining us from the West Coast of the US to share his plans across documentary at the channel.

With spend up 85% across Discovery Networks International’s 18 domestic channels, find out how local commissioning fits into Discovery’s  content, with a low-down from the heads of UK commissioning at Discovery, with Clare Laycock, head of Brands, Discovery UK and Simon Downing, svp channel head Factual and Sport at Discovery Networks UK.

With key commissioning executives from all the core factual channels for UK producers, speakers will include leading fact ent commissioners: David Brindley, head of Popular Factual and Factual Entertainment commissioning, BBC, Greg Barnett, commissioning editor, Factual Entertainment, Channel 5, Hilary Rosen, head of Factual & Factual Entertainment, UKTV and Sarah Lazenby, head of features and formats, Channel 4

The Festival’s Documentary commissioning panel will see Clare Sillery, head of commissioning, Documentaries, BBC and Danny Horan, head of Factual, Channel 4 joined by Guy Davies, commissioning editor, Factual, Channel 5 and Jo Clinton-Davis, Controller of Factual at ITV.

Chaired by Liesel Evans, creative director of UK Factual, Raw TV, the Festival’s specialist factual panel will hear from Bernadette McDaid, commissioning editor, National Geographic, Fatima Salaria, head of Specialist Factual, Channel 4 and Victoria Noble, senior director and executive producer, Production & Development, Factual Discovery Networks International

Steve Carson, head of multiplatform commissioning, BBC Scotland will talk with Nick Curwin, chairman, Matisse Media about the shows that he’s looking for North of the border.

To find out more and to book tickets, go to the Festival website.
https://www.televisual.com/festival/

Staff Reporter

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