MIPTV 2016: playing the digital challenge

Broadcasters: Ruediger Boess, EVP, Group Acquisitions, ProSiebenSat1, Germany: ‘In our country the Pay TV Networks are buying more digital rights to compete with the digital platforms, so we need new ways of attracting the digital/teen audience, which is not watching TV. We have enlarged our catch-up to 4 weeks’.

Karmo Kivikallio, head of acquisitions, YLE Finland: ‘At MIPTV we are looking for factual, humor & comedies for young audiences. I now  manage not only free TV, but also new platforms to retain people with us, through TV or otherwise’. Espen Huseby, CEO, Nordic World (the distribution alliance of four Scandi broadcasters): ‘There is a unique trend in the global market: local content. That’s why we believe SVOD will kill Pay TV, not Free TV’.

Pay TV. Luis Peraza, EVP original productions, HBO Latin America: ‘Our main focus today is HBO Go, getting people to watch our content on mobile. The next step is to generate exclusive content for the platform, both long and short’. This comes on top of what we reported on Tuesday: the announcement of Studio+, the new service of Vivendi (Canal+, France) launching premium short original series. 

New platforms: the leading OTTs are betting strongly on original content, to make its own way and redirect content flow. Also, sooner or later, traditional players could entangle their supply. Netflix’s House of Cards, Orange is the new Black, Marco Polo are celebrities among already hundreds of TV series, movies, animation, docs, etc., produced by Hollywood and independents for the SVOD titan. 

According to Parks Associates, OTT video usage in Western Europe is expanding, with 55% of UK broadband households and 51% in France watching TV programming and movies online, compared to 70% in the US. However, the number of OTT paid subscriptions in Europe is significantly lower, where 30% of broadband households in the UK and 17% in France subscribe to OTT video, compared to 64% of US broadband households.

Netflix also attacks bordering niches. Jim Henson has launched at this MIPTV Word Party the first ever animation TV series for toddlers (under 4 years old) produced for the online powerhouse.  

Mehmet Demirhan, TV Cinema and Thematic Content Director, Türk Telecom (Turkey): ‘We are launching 3 new channels on our pay TV platform Tivibu: Tivibu Turk, Tivibu Comedy and Tivibu World, plus a documentary channel in 2017. We are buying worldwide cinema of all genres to fulfil their lineups’.

New DTT channels? In Poland, Cable Television Networks & Partners, formed by the Polish Chamber of Electronic Communications (PIKE) and Kino Polska TV, will launch Zoom TV, while TV Spektrum will launch Nowa TV, Grupa Wirtualna Polska the interactive channel WP1, and Agora, Kiwi TV, which might be renamed Metro.

In Spain, six new channels will be available on the DTT platform starting this month: Be Mad TV (Mediaset), Atresmedia Series (Atresmedia), Ten (Secuoya), DKiss (Discovery and Kiss Media), 13 TV and Real Madrid TV. In Austria, A1 Telekom Austria, one of the largest telcos, has launched its domestic OTT platform A1 Now offering 41 linear TV channels —9 in HD— as live streams for reception on smartphones, tablets and the web.

Something new about content? Record TV (Brazil) has created a new space in the market with big epic big production series: Moises, Joseph of Egypt and King David are big hits in the U.S. Hispanic, Poland, Portugal and many countries of Latin America. And they are entering Italy and Germany. 

Emergent markets? Russia, which suffered a 50% fall last year with its currency devaluation, expects this year to grow by 10-15%, according to Vlad Ryashin, CEO Star Media. ‘This will mean more and better production projects’.

Nicolás Smirnoff, Fabricio Ferrara and Rodrigo Cantisano