Convenciones
Natpe Europe: digital boom pushes CEE content business
NATPE Europe 2015 concludes today, June 25, with mixed feelings: on one hand, the organization must re-think strategies to improve the market; even, there are rumors about a new change of location. On the other hand, the digital boom is strong in Central and Eastern Europe, and provides good dynamism to local content business, though global crisis is not still behind.Natpe Europe buyer traffic keeps slow for most of the exhibitors. This year the event got some progress, for instance important buyers that have attended the US studios screenings, later the same day visited independent companies at the Hilton hotel. At this edition there have been more meetings, especially on the second day of the show, but better initiatives must be promoted.
Warsaw, in Poland, is mentioned as a possible new home for Natpe Europe in 2016. The news got varied opinions from buyers and distributors. Good ones say that Poland is one of the best territories to be nowadays. Bad ones express that the trip might be far and non-sense for some strong central European programmers.
Meanwhile, digital is booming. More than in other regions, on demand platforms have grown in CEE even before Netflix exists (which will probably launch its services in 2016). Big groups such us CME (Voyo) and MTG (Viasat Play) are putting strong emphasis on their platforms, but also indies such us Pickbox (Croatia), Intra (Russia) and the pan-European operator Banaxi (Cyprus), as well as VOD offerings from Fox International Channels (Fox Play) or HBO Europe (HBO Go).
There are in Prague a good quantity of digital buyers, especially from Poland, with TVN’s digital division, TV Puls and the platforms Grupa Onet, Kino Swiat and Cyfrowy Polsat, but also from Hungary, with UPC/Liberty Media, whose executives were buying content for both, Pay TV networks and VOD. Erik Uxa, acquisitions manager, Banaxi, explains: ‘The popularity of VOD services is growing everywhere, but piracy remains as the big opponent to succeed’.
A special survey held by Prensario during the market, highlights that digital is still a small portion of total CEE business (about 10-15%, depending on the country) but it is growing exponentially. ‘It is not an easy business. Viewers must understand that digital doesn’t mean free’, OTT operators agree.
Eurodata TV gave more good news for the first half of 2015: the TV average daily viewing time shows similar figures in CEE compared to last year. So, free TV keeps its place though digital booming. World daily viewing time was 3:13hs in 2014, according to One TV Year Report, released last April.
Hot news? Barrandov Group, the third private TV group from Czech Republic that operates three networks, announced a unique deal with CCTV (China). One or 2 slots of its flagship channel TV Barrandov, will be dedicated to Chinese content. Nothing similar has been announced before in the region.
All in all, it must be said that CEE is a whole world to explore. On one side, we have a new big crisis (Russia, Ukraine) and lower budgets for acquisitions. But on the other side, there are flourishing enterprises, especially on digital media and 4K. SPI International/FilmBox is promoting FunBox UHD after its launch at MIPTV, and the acquisition of 4K content is a major priority for the group.
Katrina Neylon, EVP, sales & marketing, Studiocanal TV (Germany): ‘It is an old discussion, but it must be said clearly: content drives technology. There are several new players and services, but the key is the content. In Italy, for instance, the local version of MasterChef (Sky Italia) pushed a huge increase on HD/4K TV set sales, passing from 400.000 to 1 million, recently’.
Fabricio Ferrara, from Prague