George Bodenheimer, head of sports broadcaster ESPN, had his humble beginnings as a mailroom driver. Now a multi national media mogul, he has also been recognised for his achievements with his appointment as co-chairman of Disney Media Networks, as well as president of ABC Sports and ESPN.

In his keynote address Bodenheimer explored the reasons why ESPN has become a top sports broadcasting name, even though it turned out that all was not always smooth sailing for the company.

Questioned about emerging business models, he said they had joined the growing ranks of top executives who are waiting for audiences to show them the money. "I think more will stay the same in the media business than change. But we're all searching for the right mix of revenues. If you're asking me what that will be, I have to give you my favourite answer â€" which is ‘I don't know'."

ESPN has been a pioneer in cross-platform development but it turned out that it had made some market misjudgements. Just prior to MIPCOM for instance, it was forced to shut down its US MVNO business which is a branded mobile network sub-letting space from a generic carrier. It attempted to build a direct relationship with its customers by selling handsets and services. When ESPN only managed to sell 30,000 handsets in seven months, it decided to close shop.

"But we are proud of what we achieved and the applications we developed. A lot of major mobile networks now want to license our content so that's the model we'll move towards."