MCH Group backs Jupiter Festival as media conference push grows
MCH Group, the company best known for Art Basel, is entering the media events business with support for a new venture called Jupiter Festival. The inaugural edition is scheduled for Miami in October 2026 and will be held at the Miami Beach Convention Center, placing it in the same orbit as Art Basel Miami while aiming at a very different audience.
Jupiter Festival is being framed as a delegate-focused gathering for senior media executives, with networking, debate, and discussion at its center. William Mellis, the festival’s CEO and co-founder, says the industry lacks an event built around the future of video content in the way Jupiter intends to do it. The speaker list announced so far includes Tribeca Enterprises CEO Rebecca Glashow, Fox One chief Pete Distad, Inside the NBA host Kenny Smith, YouTube’s Brian Albert, and former 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens.
For MCH Group, the move extends a business already anchored in global art fairs and exhibitions. Andrea Zappia, the company’s group CEO, said media is “a fundamental pillar of the cultural development of our societies,” and described the sector as closely aligned with the broader cultural territory MCH already occupies through Art Basel. He added that the company saw potential in building a strong brand that could become one of the leading events in the field.
The timing is notable. MCH Group counts James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems as its largest individual shareholder, and Murdoch has recently expanded his own media footprint through acquisitions including New York magazine and Vox Media’s podcast business. That backdrop gives Jupiter a sharper strategic edge: it is not simply another conference, but an attempt to claim space in a crowded calendar.
Mellis says the goal is to create a forum that can stand alongside CES, Cannes Lions, and the Possible conference. Whether Jupiter Festival becomes a durable fixture will depend on whether it can offer something those established gatherings do not: a more intimate setting for the people shaping the next phase of media.
