The Future of Fandom
In today’s digital world, engaging fans isn’t optional—it’s everything.
Future of Fandom is the podcast for sports leagues, broadcasters, and digital platforms who know that the old playbook for audience engagement no longer works. Hosted by the team at LiveLike—the leading enterprise engagement and loyalty platform—this series explores how the most forward-thinking organisations are using gamification, loyalty programs, and community-driven experiences to deepen fan relationships and drive real business results.
Every other week, we speak with senior decision-makers from global sports teams, media companies, and consumer brands about what it takes to turn casual spectators into loyal superfans. We dive into how enterprise organisations are rethinking digital infrastructure, leveraging first-party data, and adopting modular, API-first engagement tools to future-proof their fan strategies.
Whether you're a Head of Product, Digital, Revenue or Strategy, Future of Fandom gives you the insight and inspiration you need to move beyond passive content and into interactive, monetisable, and measurable fan experiences.
This isn’t about chasing trends—it’s about building the infrastructure of tomorrow’s fandom, today.
Subscribe now and stay ahead of the game.
The Future of Fandom
ITV's Head of Generative AI: Why the Best Ideas Come From Bench Conversations, Not Board Meetings
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Broadcast content is about to stop being something you just watch, and this ITV exec built the team proving it.
Every broadcaster is racing to add generative AI without a playbook, and most leaders still can't answer a simple question: where does it actually move the needle for fans, not just for efficiency?
Paul Kerrison is Head of Generative AI Innovation at ITV, where he built Europe's first GenAI-produced TV advert and grew the Creative AI Network into a 3,000-strong community of UK content creators. He started experimenting with generative AI from his own laptop before the role existed, then pitched it to ITV's C-suite with a demo that replicated a show's visual effects on a fraction of the budget.
Paul walks through how ITV moved from a chance hallway conversation to a company-wide gen AI strategy, and what it took to get buy-in from production teams who didn't trust the tools. You'll hear how a smart-editing tool tripled output on a major reality casting process, and why some of ITV's biggest wins came from teams nobody expected to adopt AI first.
This one's for digital product and content leaders at broadcasters, streamers, and media companies trying to move past pilot projects into real fan engagement gains. Expect specifics on interactive content, sports data personalization, and agentic AI workflows, not theory about where AI is "heading."
Key Takeaways
- Paul's first viral internal demo wasn't a pitch for a new role, but it created one anyway, and the story behind it says a lot about how innovation actually gets funded inside legacy broadcasters.
- ITV's first AI-generated TV advert cost a fraction of a traditional production and opened doors across departments that had nothing to do with advertising.
- A smart-editing tool sat unused for months until Paul found one desperate team willing to test it, and it tripled their output almost overnight.
- Paul argues content is about to stop being fixed. Fans will soon be able to pull custom stats, remix scenes, and talk to characters instead of just watching a broadcast.
Chapter Markers
00:00 Paul's path to building ITV's AI strategy
03:27 The bench conversation that started it all
05:41 The demo that turned into a full-time role
08:18 Building the AI Champions network across ITV
11:44 Making Europe's first AI-generated TV advert
15:28 The smart-editing tool nobody wanted, until they did
19:01 Standardizing gen AI workflows across production
20:10 What generative AI means for sports broadcast content
23:39 Making content remixable and interactive for fans
26:26 Building a bidirectional relationship with audiences
30:23 Agentic AI workflows and where orchestration is heading
32:06 Why data can't replace human intuition
36:39 Moving fast on AI without breaking trust
38:04 Paul's five-year vision for fan experiences
39:39 The Creative AI Network and closing thoughts
Useful Links & Resources
- Paul Kerrison on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrpaulkerrison/
- Creative AI Network: search "Creative AI Network" on LinkedIn for events and community details
- LiveLike: https://www.livelike.com
Connect With the Show
- Samuel Westberg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-westberg-a836713a/
- Samuel Westberg on X: https://x.com/samuelwestberg
- LiveLike on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/livelike/
- Website: https://www.livelike.com
Has your organization found a use case that changed how teams think about AI internally, or are you still waiting for the one demo that gets buy-in? Tell us about it in the comments.
If you're building the next generation of fan engagement, subscribe to Future of Fandom so you don't miss the next conversation. Visit livelike.com to learn how LiveLike helps brands build the future of fan engagement.
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