DAM Europe 2019

The Art and Practice of Managing Digital Media

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Matt Westrup

Chief Technology Officer

A+E Networks EMEA

Matt is leading the company’s digital innovation and transformation. Culture is king, Matt says. “It has always been a priority here which has allowed us to have the right conversations in the right way. It’s our values that give us the core strength to make decisions.” Matt has made some crucial ones since he joined the Senior Leadership and EMEA teams in 2019. Not least his stewardship of the network’s channels into the cloud. He has led cloud transformations of the content supply chain and production, partnering with Amagi, AWS, Blue Lucy and SDVI among others to deliver next-generation content operation and post-production that’s fully remote – a flexibility that proved invaluable during the Covid-19 lockdowns.

In addition, Matt oversees business and media operations for A+E Networks EMEA’s portfolio of 32 channels and 55 VOD platforms across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as technology support for the company’s 200+ staff.

Matt has always used tech to amplify talent. Earlier in his career, as Head of Operations at Travel Channel International in 2010, he was instrumental in the early adoption of progressive file- based HD workflows, remote playout and in-house post- production. Matt then became Director of Operations at lifestyle programmers Scripps Network overseeing the creation of their international operations hub before joining A+E in 2016 as VP Operations. He now manages everything ops-based from post- production and localisation to engineering and distribution, as well as delivering innovation and change across the business through technology-led projects.