NEM Zagreb 2025 launched on Monday, December 8, with a dynamic program that underscored why the event has become the most relevant winter gathering for the CEE television and streaming industry. From AI-driven creativity to regional production trends and leadership perspectives on the future, the opening day delivered a rich cross-section of themes and voices, bringing together leading executives, producers, creators and strategists from across Europe.

The event started at 15.00 with a short introduction to this year’s edition, setting the tone for a day defined by forward-looking conversations and practical insights. Sami Arpa, Founder and CEO of Largo.ai, delivered a masterclass on the evolving role of artificial intelligence as a creative collaborator in video production— an anticipated session given the rapid acceleration of AI across the audiovisual ecosystem. The executive presented both the opportunities and the limitations of AI, revealing the methods used by his company in using the technology, including simulated audiences used for focus groups, featuring digital twins of real people.

The first major panel, CEE Producers: Reflections on the Last 5 Years, brought together some of the region’s most established and influential producers. Moderated by Sanja Božić-Ljubičić, CEO of Pickbox, Mediatranslations, Mediavision and NEM, the session featured Filip Bobiňski (Dramedy Productions), Vasilis Chrysanthopoulos (Foss Productions), Ioanina Pavel (May One), Dariusz Jablonski (Apple Film Production), and Anita Juka (4FILM). The speakers reflected on a half-decade marked by rising budgets, international collaborations, shifting audience behaviors, and an increasingly competitive global market for local IP. The executives praised NEM Zagreb as being instrumental in helping the CEE region develop its capabilities for coproductions in the past 5 years, with each of them focusing on the market in their respective territories: Czechia, Greece, Romania, Poland and Croatia and noting that even smaller countries can be successful producers and exporters of content, with all of them noting that cohesive funding and joint efforts by different producers in the region will facilitate the further development of CEE.

The afternoon continued with the NEM Awards live pitch for Best Pre-Development TV Series in Europe, where three standout projects—Gray Divorce, In Nomine Patris, and The Boy Who Could Listen to the Soil—were presented to industry professionals and decision-makers, followed by questions by the jury.

A success-story Q&A followed, focusing on The Last Divorce of Communism, featuring writer Teodora Markova and filmmaker/showrunner Stanislavs Tokalovs. The duo walked the audience through the journey from pitch to production, illustrating the challenges and breakthroughs behind a standout CEE project with cross-border ambitions, revealing details about the project, noting that winning the Best Pre-Development TV series award last year helped them secure initial funding. The series is currently in advanced preproduction, now casting, with finished scripts, aiming to shoot early next year. The team is looking for additional funding and co-producers outside of the Baltics, with Beta Film also on board the project. The creative duo also revealed details about AI being used in the series, namely for big scenes like the revolution and the barricades.

The focus then shifted to Croatia with Croatian Creativity with International Potential, showcasing three projects from HDNP and SPID: Measuring the Sky, Chasing the Clouds, and Akasha. These presentations highlighted the growing global appetite for Croatian storytelling talent and production quality.

This was followed by the special Q&A GLINA: A New Chapter, where Apple Film Production’s Dariusz Jablonski discussed the unique co-production model behind the rebooted title (English title of the project: The Cop) developed together with SkyShowtime and TVP. Moderated by Sascha Fahrbach, the conversation emphasized the continued rise of cross-border partnerships within CEE. Jablonski talked about the origin of the series which debuted back in 2004 and saw two seasons, the second one airing in 2008 before being rebooted this year. The producer/director called the series pre-Nordic Noir, praising SkyShowtime for being an easy partner to work with and that the streamer is "more European" than other international services and also how it made huge investments into marketing and PR for the show. He also revealed details about how his company picked up the distribution rights, with a client from Ukraine ready to broadcast the series as well; it will be broadcast on TVP in March.

The evening segment shifted toward research, technology and strategic foresight. Lühr-Martin Lemkau (Slick Strategy) provided a data-driven overview of how CEE countries differ on Netflix, offering insights into platform behavior across different markets, based on Netflix's publicly available data, noting the success of the Prime Video/AXN series produced in Bulgaria nearly ten years ago - Absenthia. Josip Čajić (stYpe) followed with a look at real-time virtual production, demonstrating new workflows reshaping European production capabilities. Presentations from Anette Schaefer (EIT Culture & Creativity) and Maria Valenzuela covered topics ranging from Europe’s creative sovereignty in the AI era to licensing video content to AI companies—subjects increasingly central to the industry’s sustainability.

The closing leadership session of Day 1 of NEM Zagreb 2025, titled Leaders on AI: Opportunities and Challenges, attracted the highest level of interest. The evening panel gathered some of the most influential figures in the Central and Eastern European media and telecommunications sectors to examine how artificial intelligence is reshaping their organizations and the future of content. Moderated by senior media executive Maria Valenzuela, the panel brought together Natalija Gorščak, President of the Management Board of RTV Slovenia; Dražen Mavrić, CEO of Nova TV; Stella Litou, CEO of RTL Croatia and Pro Plus Slovenia; Dejan Turk, CEO of A1 Croatia and A1 Slovenia; Nataša Rapaić, President of the Management Board and CEO of Croatian Telecom; and Robert Šveb, Director General of Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT).

The session opened with a question about whether expectations surrounding AI have already triggered internal structural changes within organizations. Natalija Gorščak was the first to answer, admitting that public service institutions are still far from where they need to be. She explained that while such entities must remain transparent and cautious in adopting new technologies, AI has already become a personal tool for many decision-makers. “I have my own personal AI assistant,” she said, noting that she no longer needs a secretary to search for data or compile information. She added that experiments with AI-driven video tools show that the entire production chain is bound to change. “If we as a public institution don’t change quickly enough, AI will take over part of our content,” she warned. At the same time, she observed that generational differences will define the pace of adoption: younger people will “jump in” immediately, while older generations may keep their distance. Ultimately, Gorščak compared the rise of AI to the industrial revolution, predicting sweeping changes across workflows, organizational structures and the very foundations of audiovisual creativity.

Nova TV’s CEO Dražen Mavrić echoed the sentiment that the industry is still in a very early learning stage. His organization has adopted an open approach and is systematically training staff. The goal, he said, is to eliminate fear through knowledge. “The more they know, the less afraid they will be,” he stressed, emphasizing that internal opinions remain divided, but experimentation remains the only way forward.

Stella Litou of RTL Croatia and Pro Plus Slovenia emphasized both the promise and the complexity of AI integration. She noted that two years ago the organization began redefining its strategic approach, influenced by experience and best practices from within CME. The challenge, she said, is not to become “entwined” in tools that can simultaneously “do everything and nothing,” but to methodically rethink the entire business. Content creation and production are already undergoing profound change, with new efficiencies and creative possibilities emerging. She pointed to examples within the Group where production timelines have dramatically shortened because AI can now achieve results that once required long and costly CGI processes. For her, success depends on treating AI adoption as a long-term strategic process rather than a collection of isolated experiments. “It takes time, money, synergies, and a clear intention of what you want to achieve,” she stressed.

Turning to the telecommunications perspective, A1’s Dejan Turk reflected on AI primarily as a leadership and cultural challenge. He distinguished between the technical side of transformation and what he called the “emotional transformation” required inside companies. AI, he argued, accelerates both. “Digital transformation is easy. The emotional transformation is the difficult part,” he said. In his view, the balance between efficiency and human values—what he called “drama”—will determine whether AI becomes “magic” or degenerates into chaos in companies with poor corporate culture.

Croatian Telecom CEO Nataša Rapaić expanded on how telecom operators sit in a dual role: as users of AI and as providers of the infrastructure and computing power that make AI possible. She noted that telecoms are investing heavily in networks precisely because AI training and deployment depend on vast amounts of data and processing capacity. Rapaić stressed the importance of making AI tools accessible to mass audiences, noting that once consumers begin using advanced digital assistants such as Perplexity, it becomes “difficult to go back to standard research.” She argued that ensuring widespread access and education is essential to prevent polarization between countries and populations. For her, the biggest responsibility for telecom operators is twofold: maintaining secure, reliable infrastructure and teaching users how to understand and operate AI tools. “People are afraid because they don’t understand,” she said, calling education a crucial piece of the transition.

HRT’s Director General Robert Šveb took a broader view, describing AI as a new “tectonic shift” for traditional public service media. He revealed that HRT recently aired its first fully AI-generated commercial and now uses AI tools extensively in post-production for major entertainment formats such as The Voice Kids. However, he stressed that AI should not be treated as a mere tool: “It’s an agent. It can learn, it can make decisions, and it can come up with new ideas.” This, he said, will have profound implications for news verification, disinformation detection and personalization. Public service media face a unique challenge: serving all demographics with universal content while audiences increasingly demand personalized experiences. Balancing personalization with universality, he warned, will be one of the biggest tests for the sector.

The conversation later turned to risks, including disinformation, loss of control and organizational disruption. Gorščak shared a concrete example: colleagues in her group recently discovered three AI-generated fake news stories circulating in different countries, all produced so convincingly that they were detected only because of unusual phrasing and anomalies in accompanying images. She argued that AI requires not less knowledge, but far more—because directing AI effectively demands a deep understanding of both the subject matter and the intended outcome. “If you don’t know exactly what you want, AI will take you somewhere else,” she warned, adding that this is especially problematic for younger users who assume AI “will do everything.”

Mavrić highlighted the unmatched speed of AI development as the biggest organizational risk. Keeping up requires extremely rapid learning and constant adaptation. At the same time, he stressed that trust remains the core value of media companies. Any misuse of AI—whether internal or external—can damage trust instantly, which means companies must be prepared to detect, track and react to harmful uses of AI with urgency.

As the session concluded, the shared message across sectors was clear: AI is reshaping the media and telecommunications landscape at unprecedented speed. Its potential ranges from efficiency and creative expansion to new business models and personalized user experiences. Yet it also brings profound risks—ethical, cultural and structural—that require deliberate management and continuous education. For the CEE region’s media and telecom leaders, the task ahead is not merely adopting AI, but guiding their organizations, employees and audiences through a transformation that is technological, cultural and fundamentally human.