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MIPTV 2012: new format, new challenges
Today, April 1st, begins in Cannes a new and different MIPTV edition, starting for the first time on Sunday because of the Easter coming next week. The organization, Reed Midem, announced that there are 11,000 executives (500 less in comparison with 2011) from 100 countries, being 4,000 of them buyers.The largest attendance comes from USA, UK and France, but there is a big Chinese community, as the public broadcaster CCTV is launching tomorrow its new documentary channel, CCTV9. There are new participants from Peru, Bermuda and Cuba (America), Seychelles, Zambia and Cameroon (Africa), Oman (Middle East) and Bangladesh (Asia). And less representatives from Spain, Italy and Greece, because of the Eurozone crisis.
‘The US Studios are all here, and Miramax comes for the first time; there is a heavy presence of producers, and a growing interest for co-productions; and branded content is becoming a key driver for the TV industry, explained Laurine Garaude, director of TV division, Reed Midem. Apart from the figures, the format of the event was an interesting topic among the participants.
Prensario has received all kinds of opinions. Two European buyers agreed: ‘We believe this is better as we got a shorter, but more intensive market’. Other two rejected the theory saying that is ‘there are no differences’, as they usually stay until Wednesday, the same thing that will happen in this edition.
Last weekend, MIPFormats, MIPDoc, with thirty meetings happening at the same time in the JW Marriot lobby, and MIPCube, a new-tech focused event, have enlarged the offering for specific niches of business.
In its third year, MIPFormats hosted a pitch sponsored by Warner Bros., who has given 25,000 Euros to the winner (still not announced). FRAPA, the format organization, held The Format Boot Camp, a series of conferences about the protection of the formats, how to generate the bible and some topics about the negotiation.
Last night, Telefilm (Canada) and ABPI TV (Brazil) offered a cocktail party to celebrate an alliance. Marco Altberg, president, ABPI TV, and Carolle Brabant, executive director, Telefilm, remarked the potential of both countries in working together, as the already co-produced feature film Blindness or kids show My big big friend (City and Mixer).
Two deals were announced recently by Endemol (with Viasat for Central and Eastern Europe) and FremantleMedia Asia (with Fuji TV for Asia), while two big news saw the light last week in Europe: satellite has become the leading delivery platform with 83.6 million viewers, increasing 22% over the last 4 years (according to SES); and there are 612 HD channels: Sports remained the most important genre with 126 channels (20%), followed by Film with 92 and Generalist with 87 (15% each).
For today, there are a lot of expectations about this “new” MIPTV design, along with plenty of cocktail parties from 5pm in many booths, press conferences and presentations with top actors, like the one with Jean Reno (SevenOne) and Morgan Spurlok (FremantleMedia).
Nicolás Smirnoff and Fabricio Ferrara