Westminster Media Forum

About Arqiva

Arqiva is a leading communications and media services company. We build and operate ecosystems and infrastructure to deliver data and content effectively, securely, and sustainably at scale.

We operate at the forefront of the UK broadcast industry, enabling our customers to reach audiences across technologies and platforms. We deliver a range of products and services for the distribution and management of content at-scale, both in the UK and internationally. We are also the UK’s provider of digital terrestrial television and radio broadcasting, enabling universal access to broadcast services.

Arqiva also delivers the smart energy metering network in the North of England and Scotland and is the UK’s only large-scale provider of smart water metering. Through our work, energy and water grids are getting smarter, meaning more control and less wastage.

Arqiva’s history can be traced back to 1922 when it broadcast the world’s first national radio service. In 1936 it carried the BBC’s first television broadcast. In 1978 it enabled Europe’s first satellite TV test. In the 2000s, it launched the UK’s national DAB radio and digital terrestrial television networks. More recently, Arqiva has played a pioneering role in the roll-out of the national smart energy and water metering networks.

Our teams are behind the scenes, delivering millions of vital connections every day for our customers – the major UK and international broadcasters, independent radio groups, as well as major utility companies.

Arqiva is owned by a consortium of infrastructure investors and has its headquarters in Hampshire, with UK offices in London, Buckinghamshire and Yorkshire and operational centres in the West Midlands and Scotland.

British Broadcasting Corporation

The BBC’s mission has remained the same for 100 years; to enrich people’s lives with great programmes and services that inform, educate and entertain.

The BBC is the most-used brand in the UK for media. We are one of the most-used UK public services, reaching 9 in 10 UK adults and nearly 8 in 10 young adults on average per week. BBC News is the most trusted news brand in the UK and in the US, and we are the most trusted international news provider globally.

The Corporation is funded through a television licence fee and 95% of our controllable spend is focussed on content and delivery with just 5% spent on running the organisation. As the largest investor in original UK content, the BBC contributes around £5bn to the UK economy each year, delivering £2.63 of direct economic impact for every £1 spent, with 50% of that economic impact outside of London.

The current Royal Charter, which started on 1st January 2017 sets out five public purposes for the BBC. They are:

• To provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them.
• To support learning for people of all ages.
• To show the most creative, highest quality and distinctive output and services.
• To reflect, represent and serve the diverse communities of all the United Kingdom’s nations and regions and, in doing so, support the creative economy across the United Kingdom.
• To reflect the United Kingdom, it’s culture and values to the world.

BT Group is one of the world’s leading communications services companies. We’re based in the UK but we serve customers in around 180 countries. We develop and sell communications propositions and services, and build and operate the networks that are essential to modern lives, businesses and communities. We operate as a single business, made up of organisational units. There are customer-facing units that sell propositions and services and corporate units that support the whole group.

BT Business

Our three brands – BT, EE and Plusnet – connect UK consumers to information, entertainment, friends and family, at home and on the move. Between them, they provide the whole of the UK with connectivity. We buy access to fixed-line and broadband infrastructure from Openreach, and we use EE’s mobile network to provide mobile phone services. We connect more than 1m business customers and public sector organisations with our extensive portfolio of communications and IT solutions. We also provide network products and services to communications providers operating in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

Openreach

Openreach builds, and sells access to, the network that connects the UK’s homes and businesses. Openreach also provides wholesale ‘last mile’ fixed access from homes and businesses to exchanges, and installs and maintains the fibre and copper communications networks.

Global

We are a leading business connectivity, communications and IT services provider to major multinational corporations in around 180 countries. We own an extensive global voice and data network providing managed services, security and network and IT infrastructure services, enabling customers’ digital transformations. We partner in countries worldwide for access to voice and data infrastructure and we buy enterprise technologies and equipment for our customers from the world’s leading technology providers.

The DMA is Europe’s largest community of data-driven marketers. Guided by our customer-first principles enshrined in the DMA Code, the DMA champions a rich fusion of data, technology, insight, creativity and diverse talent. With a mission to be the UK’s most customer-focused business community, we set, teach and promote standards to build trust and deliver marketing effectiveness for the UK’s data and marketing community.

We deliver this mission through a fully integrated, classroom-to-boardroom approach that supports you, your team and your business.

The DMA delivers advocacy, legal and compliance support, best practice guidance, research, insight and a packed events calendar. Our talent division creates pathways to attract new and diverse talent into the industry and our world-class training institute is focused on professionalising the industry through marketing skills training delivered at corporate and individual level. www.dma.org.uk

KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership, operates from 20 offices across the UK with approximately 17,000 partners and staff. The UK firm recorded a revenue of £2.72 billion in the year ended 30 September 2022.

KPMG is a global organisation of independent professional services firms providing Audit, Legal, Tax and Advisory services. It operates in 143 countries and territories with more than 265,000 partners and employees working in member firms around the world. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such. KPMG International Limited is a private English company limited by guarantee. KPMG International Limited and its related entities do not provide services to clients.

Within KPMG’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications practice we focus on the most pressing issues faced by our sector clients. Companies are facing a wide variety of challenges from economic uncertainty and talent shortages to supply chain disruption, not to mention wider geopolitical pressures and the ongoing impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic. The shift towards online content consumption during the pandemic altered the business model for many companies. Even purely digital companies must keep up with rapidly evolving customer expectations. Technological disruption and increased competition are also forcing TMT companies to regularly finetune their strategies. This is in addition to a renewed focus on compliance with data protection policies. Keeping up with the change is a challenge for many but at the same time, firms have new growth opportunities.

According to KPMG’s latest Global Tech Survey, sixty-seven percent of tech executives who were surveyed expect to embrace emerging technology platforms in the next two years. The launch of 5G networks and accompanying gigabit wireless speeds and ultra-low latency will enable further redefinition of the boundaries between linear, online and live entertainment. Cloud gaming and e-sports, IOT-enabled devices, AR/VR applications, HD mobile video are just some of the emerging services and use cases that compete for consumers’ attention and share of wallet. Media executives are striving to develop sustainable business models balancing short term financial goals with long term ambitions. There are also new opportunities for media companies as they explore new platforms such as the Metaverse and Web3.

In addition to these emerging technologies, we now also have generative AI in the mix which has really taken off in the last year. The latest KPMG 2023 CEO Outlook survey revealed that business leaders are continuing to invest heavily in generative AI in search of a competitive edge for the future, listing the technology as a top investment priority in the medium term. Not only are tech companies focused on developing this technology and how it can be used to help their clients and consumers, but companies across most sectors are looking at how this technology will impact the future of their businesses. For example, we’ve seen media companies looking at generative AI’s role in the newsroom. Businesses should be looking at how they can benefit from using generative AI whilst carefully considering and managing the risks these developing technologies present.

KPMG has a 360-degree understanding of these hot issues and the specific threats faced by each of the media segments – digital platforms, television and radio broadcasting, advertising, music, film and news publishing. Our collaborative approach across key international hubs such as London, Silicon Valley, New York, Shanghai and Tel Aviv brings to our clients a powerful lens and repository of insights to help tackle the strategic and operational challenges ahead.