Natpe Miami 2015, connection hub between the Americas and the world

Originally devoted on the U.S. domestic market, the event called again the attention of European and Asian companies since it is developed in the South Eastern city of the United States. While LA Screenings in May is the approach with Hollywood major studios, Natpe Miami in January is a good opportunity to get connected with independent and not so well-known opportunities.

According to figures managed by Prensario, there have been 5500 participants at Natpe Miami, from which 1100 were pure buyers. In terms of regions, the U.S. domestic market and Latin America have taken 80% of the attendance, while 20% came from Europe, Asia and Africa.

Natpe Miami is also the unique event in the Americas which drives both content business and Pay TV channel sales industries. Due to Kidscreen this time is held in late February, more attendance from the U.S. domestic market was in Miami.

During the closing press conference, Rod Perth, CEO, and Jordan Levin, board member, both from Natpe organization, highlighted the growth of the event in ‘all concepts’ in comparison with 2014. ‘The most important thing is that every sector of the industry was represented with their top management’, they agreed. Official sources confirmed to Prensario that buyer attendance grew 15% this year from last edition.

Even the number of European and Asian buyers is not as important as in other shows, for these groups Natpe has become a cute event in the calendar. Ruediger Boess, SVP programming, ProSiebenSat1 Media AG (Germany): ‘We come every year, looking for alternative US series, from independent producers. We found really good levels of productions and variety’. Nuno Vaz, head of contents, RTP (Portugal): ‘Natpe allows us to see in advance content for our screens, especially formats and fiction series. It is smart stop to start the fall’.

On the distributors side, main European and Asian national entities are making focus on Natpe, with larger pavilions than in the past: Spain, with Audiovisual from Spain, France, with TV France International, and Korea, with KOCCA, for instance. Moreover, many Turkish distributors have attended the market floor, due to Turkish series are getting big in the U.S. Hispanic market and Latin America. The Koreans are very active dubbing more series into Spanish, even broadcaster KBS has launched KBS Latino, a cable network in Spanish for the region. The main Korean Networks were with growing presence at Natpe market floor: MBC America, JTBC, KBS, SBS, CJ Group.

Trends? A space has been opened on the Latin American broadcasters’ grid for foreigner fiction. Turkish series are working very well in Chile (three out of four national channels are broadcasting this product) and Argentina (#1 series on El Trece prime time), as well as Uruguay (Canal 10 premiered recently) and the U.S. Hispanic market (MundoFox). Other territories that expect to launch these series are Brazil (Band), Ecuador (Ecuavisa), Bolivia (Unitel). Korean and Romanian dramas have also good performances in many countries.

Trendy testimonies? Julian Rodríguez Montero, acquisitions director, digital platforms at Telefonica (Spain): ‘We’ve launched Movistar Series, a TV channel focused on brand-new TV series but not linear, through VOD. The idea is to handle the main just released series, for the audience to see any time, even mobile. This is the future of VOD, a twist from the traditional S-VOD model. We already have series as Madame Secretary, Transparent, Better Call Saul, Alpha House, etc’.

John Farrell, content partnerships director for Americas, Google/YouTube: ‘In Natpe we’ve met with the leading broadcasters of the region, such us America TV (Peru), Televisa (México), or SBT and Sporte Interactivo (Brazil). It is funny… we used to be considered enemies, but now we are strategic partners’.

Among other distributors attending Natpe for the first time, Tandem Communications (Germany), owned by Studio Canal (France) launched its series Spotless: ‘We produced content against the wave. The US major product works well, but we bet for another kind of series: dark, edgy, irreverent, with controversial topics, European cast and locations. We are doing really well’, says Rola Bauer, managing director.

For 2016, the market was confirmed for January 19-21, at the same Fontainebleau hotel in Miami. The contract with the hotel finishes just next year, so there are rumors whether the event will continue in the city in 2017 and beyond. New Orleans is mentioned again as an option. But everybody agrees that Miami has given the show important fresh air, as for European and Asian buyers.

Nicolás Smirnoff, Fabricio Ferrara, Alejo Smirnoff