NATPE, Realscreen Summit Shut Down As Brunico Downsizes Conferences

NATPE, the industry convention that for decades brought TV executives together (and at one point was the largest syndication sales marketplace in the nation), is folding. Canada-based publishers Brunico Communications, which acquired the NATPE assets in 2023, announced Tuesday that it would no longer continue with its U.S. events effective next year, including NATPE Global, Realscreen Summit and Kidscreen Summit.

As part of the shutdown, NATPE executive director Claire Macdonald and Kidscreen publisher Jocelyn Christie are exiting Brunico.

Brunico blamed “this period of market change” for what it called a “difficult, but necessary decision” to end the U.S. events. The company will continue to operate the Banff World Media Festival (which takes place June 14 to 17 this year) and continue to publish Realscreen, Kidscreen, Playback and Strategy.

“This decision was deeply considered and stemmed from the market consolidation that continues to progress and have structural impacts on the content production business,” Brunico Communications president/CEO Russell Goldstein said in a statement. The company’s Kidscreen Awards and Realscreen Awards will also continue.

As for the exits of Macdonald and Christie, Goldstein added, “Their passion for the communities we serve has always been evident – from the calibre of the brands’ portfolio to the level of industry respect – and we thank them for their significant contributions.”

Brunico acquired NATPE in 2023 after the event — which launched in 1963 as the National Association of Television Programming Executives — declared bankruptcy. Among the assets Brunico purchased were NATPE Global, NATPE Budapest, NATPE Streaming+ and the Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Awards. Because of the bankruptcy, NATPE — which already had been struggling to continue during the COVID pandemic — scrapped its 2023 event. In 2024, the show returned and in 2025 and 2026 was paired with Brunico’s longrunning Realscreen Summit in Miami.

NATPE’s peak was perhaps in the 1990s and early 2000s, when hundreds of syndication distributors would promote their wares on the massive NATPE convention floor — which major companies like Warner Bros., Universal, Paramount, King World, Sony and others erecting tremendous booths boasting A-list talent and gourmet catering. At night, distribbers like King World would hire talent like Elton John to wow the audience of station managers. But TV consolidation and the shrinking of the syndication business changed all that, and NATPE struggled to remain relevant into the 2010s, aiming its focus around to international and then the creator economy, but never quite finding its place in the new media order.

Perhaps more surprising, given Brunico’s longer tenure with its Realscreen and Kidscreen Summits (which are paired with its continuing trade publications), is the decision to end those events as well. The two events “have served as the heartbeat of the international unscripted and kids content communities for the past 30 years and have proudly been a seminal catalyst of opportunity for an entire generation of media executives and their companies,” Brunico said.