Pedro Pina, YouTube’s chief in EMEA, will deliver this year’s Edinburgh TV Festival MacTaggart.
Pina will become the first person from an American tech giant to make the annual address, speaking to a room full of executives and commissioners who are still desperately working out how best to leverage the Google-owned behemoth.
For the past five years, Pina has led YouTube’s business, creator and content biz across EMEA, working with talent ranging from nascent digital creators to huge studios. Prior to YouTube, he spent a decade as a Global Client Partner for Google. Related Stories News Comics Publisher Gungnir Readies "Chaotic" YouTube Comedy Series 'Badd, Gramm-mar' Set Around L.A. Book Club News CME Boss Sam Barnett On Combatting The Coming Of Netflix & YouTube In Central And Eastern Europe
This year’s fest chair, Netflix docs commissoner Adam Hawkins, said Pina is “at the vanguard of the next wave of television.” Watch on Deadline
“I think Pedro’s MacTaggart will be provocative, inspiring and a much-needed reset in how we think about the industry we all love,” he added.
Pina said: “To be invited to give the MacTaggart lecture is an incredible honour, particularly at a moment when our industry has such a profound opportunity to redefine itself. Television has always been celebrated by its ability to connect us, and today, we are living in the most diverse and flourishing creative era in human history. The viewers haven’t vanished – they are more engaged than ever, they’re simply ready for us to meet them on their own terms.”
Since then, some of the world’s most successful content creators have been on mainstream entertainment shows, the BBC has struck a landmark deal for YouTube-only content and Matt Brittin, a former colleague of Pina’s who used to run Google EMEA, has become the corporation’s Director General.
The Edinburgh TV Festival takes place from August 25 to 28. This could be its last year in the Scottish capital, with organizers currently deciding whether it should relocate to either Greater Manchester or Newcastle, or stay put.
Source: deadline.com