MIPTV 2017, a new type of drama has arisen

The MIPDrama Screening was the major event of the weekend. With a growth of almost a 30% compared to last year, more than 450 key decision makers from Europe, Asia, MENA and Latin America watched brand new full episodes or work in progress dramas narrated in a “new way”. The 12-series selection from the Grand Jury, the Buyers Jury and TV Critics highlighted killing, bloody, techy and futuristic stories from many parts of the world, and they were well received.  

Ride Upon the Storm (DR Drama, ARTE and SAM le Francais) received the TV Critics and Buyers Jury awards on the work in progress category; Missions (AB Distribution) got the TV Critics award on full episodes; Jailers (Globo/Gullane/Spray Films) won the Grand Jury on full episode; Clique (BBC Three/) won on full episodes, chosen by the Buyers; and Babylon Berlin (Beta Film/SKY/ARD) received the Grand Jury award in work in progress. 

Two main subjects have been confirmed: first, the drama is a global trend and there is more production of it everywhere. TV channels and producers are jointly looking for new ways and stories to reach an extremely dynamic audience; second, production quality has become fundamental to choose a drama series. 

Opinions from the Buyers Jury? Ruediger Boess, ProSiebenSat (Germany): ‘We’ve seen much more this year in all senses (stories, production values) compared to the first edition. Choosing the titles and winners have been very difficult’. Sarah Wright, SKY (UK): ‘We are at the era of storytelling with more complex narratives and characters. Drama is enterting into a new stage’. Ignacio Barrera, Grupo Alvavision (USA): ‘It is difficult to say which of them can be bought as a buyer, but I’m sure all them will find a screen’. 

Buyers opinions? Fadi Ismail, MBC (MENA): ‘MIPDramas arrived in a great moment, as it allows us to see products before MIPTV starts. It helps us to plan a better market’. Giorgi Gachechiladze, GPB (Georgia): ‘We are buying long running fictions in different formats, series, miniseries and movies’. Patricio Hernandez, Mega (Chile): ‘We’ve seen product that kept us on the seat, but seems to be a bit difficult to program on Free TV as it drives away women. It is more related to Pay TV or OTTs’.

Montse Besada, TV de Galicia (Spain): ‘We have a limitted budget for series acquisitions, but we found on The Territory (Russia) a good example of what can work in our screen’. Kazufumi Nagasawa, Hulu Japan: ‘The Brazilian production Jailers is truly impressive and it is a very good product that could be exhibited on an OTT platform’. 

There were key announcements and programming releases in every genre. At MIPDoc, ARTE (France) had two big premiers about historical documentaries: first, The Vietnam War, produced with PBS (USA); second, Tokyo Phoenix, with NHK (Japan).

Turkey has an intense weekend, too: Inter Medya launched Joint Instant, an interactive game show played live by the participants at the Audiorium, and Global Agency released the singing talent show Bring Your Fame Back, where former stars compete to win a prize money. Last but not least, Kanal D announced War of Roses as the second top-selling drama of the year achieving 40 territories worldwide, according to Turkish Electro Technology Exporters (TET). 

Non-scripted? Two news from Israel: Keshet has bought Tresor TV (Germany), a leading non-scripted producer to expand its footprint in Europe. Both companies are also planning to create a scripted division, capitalizing Keshet catalogue (Prisioner of War and The A Word). 

Amos Neumann, COO, Armoza Formats described two top trends: ‘Social experiments are definitely taking the scene, but the formats that are bringing reality into a game are also being considered by the buyers’. The company launched the docu-reality Play Date, a new reality + talk show + game show where two groups of parents watch their kids on TV and discuss about their behaviors. And Sex Tape, where a couple shot themselves having sex and then has to discuss about how they see each other. Surprisingly, they don’t talk about sex, but about their relationship. 

Nicolas Smirnoff, Fabricio Ferrara, and Rodrigo Cantisano

MipTV 2017 Coverage
Wrap Up | April 6 | April 5 | April 4 | April 3 | April 2 | April 1