Natpe Budapest: fresh air for the CEE region

Within these years, there has been a consolidation of CEE media business into two to three main groups, resulting in fewer clients to attend each market. Second, a good number of TV channels (traditionally buyers) became content producers and exporters, changing their relationship with the distributors. Now they require less canned content, instead of it more formats, co-productions and co-development alliances, following global trends.

Third, the 2008-2009 global crisis strongly affected CEE economies: ad billings have heavily fallen and it is still taking time to recover good figures. Next, Russia suffered the oil crisis in 2014, affecting mainly the CIS markets, but also others. Big media groups such us CME, MTG or Russian CTC Media redefined their strategies by selling part of their equity or redirecting their investments into other businesses.

Fourth, new trade shows appeared: World Content Market (Russia), NEM (Croatia), Kiev Media Week (Ukraine), as well as Discop Istanbul (Turkey), among others. The increase of venues reduced participation at the Budapest-base show in the following years.

Fifth, the decision to extend the LA Screenings to Budapest changed the shape of this show: to many CEE buyers it is too expensive to spend more than a week in Los Angeles in May, so they appreciate that Hollywood Studios bring the exhibition closer to them. It has not bee good news to the indies, who have had trouble in organizing their meetings, as most of the buyers have decided to attend the Screenings. For buyers, this was one of the reasons why they keep attending the show.

In spite of these changes, NATPE Budapest has managed to be the top show in the region, gathering the largest attendance and top buyers’ diversity. But, in order to maintain the leadership, key decisions must be made. The most significant one has been to organize better Major screenings by integrating them to the market, to push Studios and buyers to request a badge and to make themselves available in the market floor or suites. For the independents, the best thing would have been to see the screenings cease. But, this won’t happen, as the studios are key partners at NATPE (in both Miami and Budapest) and they are the key to attract more buyers to the shows.

With the return to Budapest, the participants hope that the market will stabilize, not suffering changes in the near future. To distributors selling in this region, Budapest is a strategic hub for business towards the CEE. Everybody must effort to maintain this evolution.