BBC Director General Tim Davie is to deliver the keynote address at the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme’s annual Kickstart Day 2025, which takes place on February 12.
Held at BBC Broadcasting House in London, the IBC Accelerator Innovation Programme is a full-day event focusing on media industry innovation, with an international audience of media and entertainment technology professionals and leaders.

Other speakers during the day include Cristina Gomila, MD, Content Technology & Innovation at Sky; Mario Reis, Director of Telecoms at Olympic Broadcasting Services; and Grace Boswood, Technology & Distribution Director at Channel 4.
The speaker and panel sessions are followed by the day’s main event: a series of quickfire pitches by 12 shortlisted Accelerator Project Challenges, all vying to be part of the final eight selected for development in 2025. The projects are then showcased in the Accelerator Zone and on the Innovation Stage at IBC2025 in September.
Launched in 2019, the IBC Accelerator Innovation Programme addresses critical business and technology challenges – with an emphasis on innovation led by end users or buyers of tech and solutions within the broad media and entertainment ecosystem.
The winner of the Accelerator Project of the Year Award for the previous cycle of projects is also announced at Kickstart Day.
The 2023 Project of the Year Award was presented to the Responsive Narrative Factory Team. The project delivered the right narrative for any consumer in real-time via a metadata-powered content fast-track. This demonstrated a new component-based approach to quickly and cost-effectively create multiple versions of content from a single master to enable precision targeting of programs to different demographics, regions or groups that can be monetised for premium Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV (FAST) advertisers. The team comprised Champions BBC and IET, and Participants Infuse Video, Metarex, Cuvo, JPB Media Solutions and EZDRM.
For full details of the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme’s annual Kickstart Day 2025, click here.
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