European content on US infrastructure, a 14-minute search for the next stream, AI agents as new intermediaries for news and AI tools that have to prove themselves on set. On 29 and 30 September 2026, the MediaTech Hub Conference (#MTHCON26) brings more than 50 international speakers from film, TV, streaming, journalism and technology to Studio Babelsberg. The newly announced programme combines the industry’s major questions with data, concrete applications and technologies to try out.

Potsdam, 27 August 2026 – Who will control access to audiences and the infrastructure behind it in the future? What happens when AI agents come between media and users? And which AI technologies actually make it into real productions?

The #MTHCON26 programme ranges from European streaming sovereignty and the unresolved discovery problem to AI in journalism, VFX, virtual production and AI applications that can be tried out on site. The Expert Stage, a full Journalism & Tech Day on the Horizon Stage, as well as the new Virtual Production Area and AI Garden help visitors navigate the programme.

#MTHCON26 will be opened on 29 September by Brandenburg’s Minister for Economic Affairs, Martina Klement, and the British Ambassador to Germany, Andrew Mitchell.

DAY 1 | OPENING KEYNOTE: Marion Ranchet – Who controls Europe’s access to audiences?

The Expert Stage programme begins with Marion Ranchet, founder of Streaming Made Easy, and her opening keynote “You Own the Trust, You Rent the Rails. A Case for European Media Sovereignty”.

European media have strong content, established brands and the trust of their audiences. At the same time, key infrastructure for distribution, advertising and audience data is in the hands of US technology companies. Ranchet therefore asks where European media can regain greater control – from access to audiences to European archives and data assets that could also become relevant for Europe’s own AI and video models in the future.

The question of European value creation returns in the afternoon with “The Future of Streaming in Europe”. Ian Whittaker, Meriem Rebai, founder of reelistiq, the first agency specialising in vertical drama, and Oliver Koch, Managing Director of Qvest Engage, discuss whether an open European infrastructure for content and monetisation is possible and how European offerings can compete with global platforms.

DAY 1 | EXPERT STAGE: What is actually making it onto the set?

At Creativity & Tech 2026, international practitioners show which technologies have already made their way into creative workflows. Edward Dawson-Taylor, Co-Founder of CG Pro in Los Angeles, Charlotte Mikkelborg from London, Alex Henning, Co-Founder of Magnopus in Los Angeles, and Kai Fischer, Head of Constantin Creators, discuss which tools are genuinely changing the creative craft and which primarily affect budgets and production processes.

The VFX focus “The New VFX: From Artists to Pipelines to Business” then asks what new methods mean for an industry that has already been under economic and technological pressure for years. Laura Coover of Orbital Studios in Los Angeles, Prof. Volker Helzle of Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg and Dave Gouge, formerly with Wētā FX and Autodesk, discuss developments ranging from virtual production and photogrammetry to 3D Gaussian Splatting and AI.

DAY 1 | EXPERT STAGE: 14 minutes to the next stream

Algorithms know our preferences, streaming services are personalised, and platforms have been investing in recommendation technologies for years. Even so, according to Gracenote’s State of Play Report, viewers spend an average of 14 minutes searching before they find something to watch.

Why does the discovery problem remain unresolved? Franziska Scholz, Director of Product Management at Gracenote, presents current data from the report. In “It’s Discovery, Stupid! Why Are We Still Searching?”, she discusses with Lilian Dammann (myne) and Josephine Kittner, SVP Content Strategy, Discovery & Analytics at RTL+, what role data, aggregation, new technologies and human curation can play.

DAY 1 | HORIZON STAGE: When AI comes between media and audiences

In parallel, the Horizon Stage is dedicated to Journalism & Tech for the entire day on 29 September. Together with the Medieninnovationszentrum Babelsberg (MIZ) and the GenKI4Media research project, #MTHCON26 addresses a question that goes beyond more efficient newsroom processes: What happens when AI increasingly determines how people access journalism?

Ole Reißmann, Head of Artificial Intelligence at SPIEGEL Group, focuses on the emerging “agent layer”. When AI agents access, select and summarise journalistic offerings for users, media organisations once again face questions of visibility and direct access to their audiences.

In the panel “Adapt or Resist? Journalism Between Platform Power and AI”, Rebecca Ciesielski, Ole Reißmann and Alex Springer discuss what lessons can be drawn from the platform era and whether regulation and better strategies are enough to avoid new dependencies.

DAY 1 | HORIZON STAGE: 5,000 articles on election night

Markus Knall, Editor-in-Chief and Director Content at IPPEN.MEDIA, illustrates how far AI is already being factored into editorial production. His vision: to publish 5,000 articles fully automatically on an election night, without compromising on quality. The next step, he argues, is no longer just the automation of processes, but the automation of quality.

This leads directly to the debate: Could “AI-generated” one day become a mark of quality rather than a warning label? And how can quality be safeguarded when AI models are increasingly trained on content that has itself already been generated by AI?

Alexandra Borchardt, Ulrike Langer, Jürgen Geuter and Markus Knall discuss these questions. GenKI4Media will also showcase current applications of generative AI for media in live talks, hands-on demonstrations and a workshop.

BOTH DAYS | HANDS-ON: Virtual Production and AI Use Cases

Not everything the industry is currently debating can be assessed on a conference stage. That is why #MTHCON26 is creating two areas for technologies in practical use: the Virtual Production Area and the AI Garden.

The Virtual Production Area features a fully functional production environment with a 15-metre LED volume, tracking, Unreal Engine, lighting and a practical set. Visitors can explore workflows ranging from 2D plates and 3D environments to 3D Gaussian Splatting, a technique that uses image data to capture real environments as photorealistic spatial scenes.

Edward Dawson-Taylor and Laura Coover, two specialists from Los Angeles, will be on site in Babelsberg. Dawson-Taylor has worked at ILM, Disney, MPC and Digital Domain on films including Jurassic World, The Lion King and The Jungle Book. Coover, who is also a filmmaker, leads research and development of new filmmaking technologies at Orbital Studios.

In the AI Garden, the focus is on the tools used before the final image is created: from automated script breakdowns and previsualisation to complex end-to-end pipelines. Experts from development and production showcase solutions already being used in real productions, including their results and limitations.

DAY 2 | GUEST OF HONOUR UK: What works in the transition to streaming?

Day 2 opens with the #MTHCON Breakfast, presented by Guest of Honour UK. The programme then turns to the experience of one of Europe’s most important screen markets in the transition from traditional broadcasting to streaming and digital-first offerings.

In “Insights from the UK: Transforming Broadcast & Streaming”, Graham Haigh, COO of ITV Studios | Zoo55, Antonia Kerle, Chief Technical Advisor at the BBC, and Gabby Redfern, Group Director Content Services at Sky UK, share which technologies and business models are proving successful in the UK market, as well as lessons that may be relevant to other European markets.

DAY 2 | AI UPDATE: Which applications remain after the hype?

In the afternoon, the AI Update asks where AI in film and television actually stands today. Two international keynotes and a discussion are followed by “AI Update: Latest Use Cases from Germany”, in which studios and production companies present four concrete applications.

The focus is explicitly not only on success stories: Which AI use cases have proven themselves, and which have been quietly abandoned?

DAY 2 | AI & JOBS: Which skills are needed now?

The use of AI is already changing specific job profiles. The 2026 Medienbarometer by medianet berlinbrandenburg shows that 85 percent of the companies surveyed expect their need for AI skills to increase sharply within three years. At the same time, jobs are being cut while other positions remain unfilled for months.

What will be automated next, which new roles are emerging and how can teams prepare? Taking part in the discussion are Sonja Köpke of the Future Skills Alliance, Adél Holdampf-Wendel of Bitkom, Christian Tretbar, Editor-in-Chief of Tagesspiegel, Christina Caspers of TRIXTER / Cinesite, and Paul Probst of Promptr.

The focus is on new skills profiles as well as concrete experiences from companies that are already automating tasks and reorganising teams.

Two days, three levels: debate, practice and direct exchange

#MTHCON26 is also structured by venue: the Expert Stage at ROTOR FILM focuses on the major questions around streaming, production, VFX and AI. The Horizon Stage at fx.center Cinema Babelsberg is dedicated to Journalism & Tech. In the Conference Center and hands-on areas, technologies and workflows can be experienced in practice..

Registration opens at 9:00 a.m. on 29 September at fx.center Babelsberg.

Accreditation

Journalists can apply for complimentary press accreditation. Interview requests with speakers can be coordinated through the press contact.

Press Contact

Doreen Görisch

Press MediaTech Hub Conference

T. +49 172 3947051

press@mth-conference.de

www.mth-conference.de

About the MTHCON

Where creativity meets technology: The MediaTech Hub Conference is Germany’s leading event for media technologies. It presents international tech trends and best practices for film, TV & streaming and offers new perspectives on the media world of tomorrow. As an exclusive boutique conference for media professionals, #MTHCON takes place at Studio Babelsberg – Europe’s Hollywood and a centre of innovation for media technologies for more than 100 years. Every year at the end of September, leading industry figures meet here for the film industry’s MediaTech update. #MTHCON is hosted by MediaTech Hub Potsdam, Germany’s only Digital Hub for media and media technologies and the official startup centre of the state of Brandenburg. #MTHCON is supported by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.