MIPTV 2016: a shiny beginning

MIPTV 2016 starts today, April 4, after a good outcome at MIPDoc and MIPFormats --which celebrate their 18th and 7th edition--, but particularly from MIPDramas Screenings, whose first edition gathered over 350 buyers from 55 countries, at the  JW Marriott Hotel. 

Chosen among 1,000 titles, twelve drama series from ten Western Europe, CEE and Latin America countries --produced in 2016, still not aired-- have been shown yesterday by their own producers and exhibited to a full auditorium of global buyers from 9.30am to 6.30pm every half hour. Thriller, mystery, historical and crime were the top genres.

Most of the buyers highlighted this format of the show and recommended REED Midem to organize more events like this within the next years, according to Laurine Garaude, director of the TV division. ‘There was an extremely positive reaction of buyers and sellers. There is a need for a curated, high-end drama showcase prior to MIPTV’, she adds.

Buyers from France, Germany and Austria, but also from Croatia, Turkey and Middle East remarked to Prensario not only the high quality of the series the Drama Buyers Board has chosen, but also that they found ‘great writers, directors and talents. The series were all good’, a buyer from a leading French broadcaster said. 

Julian Rodriguez Montero, Movistar + (Spain): ‘Dramas are evolving to more niche themes for the newly segmented audiences, but at the same time they have not lost a generalist appeal. The new platforms have generated a new type of dramas series’. A key distributor from the US pointed out: ‘These kinds of events allow us to pitch titles to a different target of buyers’.

Buyers are also enthusiastic about the product from Germany, which is being highlighted at this MIPTV. After securing 40 hours of drama series from Beta Film, Stephen Mowbray, SVT (Sweden) said ‘The German producers are now delivering world-class fiction’, while Frederik Luihn, NRK (Norway) added that the deal enables to showcase ‘very promising series’ and Tarmo Kivikallio, YLE (Finland) asserted that ‘new German drama is strong: the way it deals with German history is unique and thrilling’. Jan Mojto, CEO, Beta Film: ‘The trend on drama series is procedural with vertical chapters’. 

On the documentary and factual side, MIPDoc ended with back-to-back sessions exploring two of the most talked docs of the market: The New Yorker Presents (Amazon) and The Story of God (Morgan Freeman, National Geographic). ‘We are a TV network and we are huge believers in shows related to each other, so there is a network effect. The goal is to really own a specific piece of TV’, highlighted Joe Lewis, head of half-hour programming at Amazon Studios.

The MIPFormats main trends this years have been dating & emotainment, according to Virginia Mouseler, The Wit. Digital platforms are also exploring this genre. Qiang Li, Youku Todou (China): ‘Windowing is no longer relevant. We spent a lot of time on mobiles to find that there is no time slot for them here. We have to monetize “fan power” with voting, merchandising, live events. We have to monetize moments, not subscribers’.

The format business has become a serious thing for huge companies such as MGM (USA), which has launched 19 new formats following the acquisition of United Artist Media Group.  And Mediaset, the largest private group in Italy, is releasing 20 brand new titles.

By the end of the day, Global Agency (Turkey) premiered its brand new entertainment format The Legend, a shiny floor prime time singing talent show with a twist: participants are allowed to sing again to try to obtain better qualifications from the audience.

Nicolas Smirnoff, Fabricio Ferrara, Rodrigo Cantisano