Natpe Budapest 2017 and the resurgence of CEE

In 2014, the event moved to Czech Republic with the objective of renewing and regaining its strength, but in 2016 it returned to Hungary and little by little started to become again the exponent that it was on its first years for this region.

One of the strengths of this market has been not only the attendance of more buyers than previous editions but also the diversity of them. While some countries such as Russia and Greece are still trying to break out of the crisis, others like Poland, Hungary, Romania and the Baltic have shown the positive side of the region.

Also, according to most of the buyers consulted by Prensario, Natpe is still ‘an ideal place to find things that can’t be found anywhere else’. ‘There are interesting formats from countries such as Slovenia, Slovakia, Albania and Ukraine, among other that you cannot find in ferias like MIPCOM’, says one.
From the point of view of the distributors, they agree that ‘buyers come here to do business and close deals. They have much appetite of new formats and content to supply the production costs’.

Even when it is difficult to identify trends in such a diverse region, there is one clear thing: CEE is a unique territory with its own rules. While most of the countries are programming more and more Turkish dramas and betting on co-productions, CEE goes in the opposite direction. Regarding the first, Turkish dramas started to lose ground in most of the countries with some exceptions like Czech Republic or Slovakia, and territories like Europe and Latin America are recovering their strength. Moreover, the diversity of history, culture, language and idiosyncrasy makes it very difficult to think in strategic partnerships. 

‘Tracks records do not ensure the success in CEE. What works in a country most of the time does not have the same results in its neighbor and you have to know exactly how you are offering what content’, describes Barbora Susterova, Eccho Rights (Sweden), who recently added the Czech series “Murder Squad” from Prima TV in order to boost the region globally.

What do buyers want? Vladana Cirovic, Happy TV (Serbia): ‘Animation and live action series for kids for the daily slot, and for teens from the slot that covers from 1pm to 10pm’. Olga Slisarenko, 1+1 (Ukraine): ‘We have a slot of comedy on Friday and Saturday nights, and on Sunday we have big shinny floor formats but we are looking for more series and long running dramas for the daytime’. Rene Leda, Netminds (USA): ‘Original shows from CEE to distribute in Latin America matter the country of origin’, and Silvia Muller, from the SVOD platform Plantaflix (Germany): ‘big dramas, movies and series with a mix of global appeal and local taste’.

Highlights of the third day: CCTV (China) signed a memorandum with the Hungarian Studio Kedd to co-develop formats; Mediaset Italy launched Donnaventura’s spin offs “Challenge” and “Master Adventure” and “The land is singing”, original format from Slovakia (28% of the local market share), was selected in the Pitch and Play competition and won the chance to be presented in Natpe Miami 2018, in January.

Rodrigo Cantisano, from Budapest