MIPCOM 2017: don’t be afraid to change

There is a big focus on pre-school programming and a return of big franchises. About the first one, three out of five projects selected at the MIPJunior International Pitch were for preschoolers: Big Five (52x’11), from Tak Toon Enterprise (Korea), Disney Korea and telco KTH for KBS; Catcha! (52x’2), from Untref Media (Argentina) and Dr. Panda (USA).

On the second one, 9 Story (Canada) y Netflix (USA) produced The Magic School Bus, a redesigned series from the traditional program, while Mattel Creations hosted the MIPJunior Welcoming Party with its new series Thomas and Friends Big World! Big Adventure, which will have the global release by August 2018.

Yesterday, Eurodata TV Worldwide launched NoTa Kids, a new content monitoring service for younger audiences covering eight countries and 77 TV channels, plus Amazon and Netflix. The company detected and announced four trends for 2017.

First, “discovery of the outside world” with programs that are attracting kids by appealing to their curiosity towards the complex world around them: Best Bugs (France), Little Witch Academia (Japan) and The Worst Witch (UK/Germany). Second, “children and their immediate family and friends” with programs that put the hero and their immediate family and friends at the heart of the story: Munki and Trunk (South Africa), a hit success in Sweden in 2017, and Rusty Rivets (Canada), very popular with under 5 audience in USA.

Third, “imaginary worlds” that appeals to the imagination and to fantastic creatures: Cartoon Network Germany tripled its audience share for the time slot with Beat Monsters (Turner APAC, Korea, Australia, USA); Digby Dragon (UK), Gigantosaurus (France), recently acquired by Disney Junior worldwide, SuperRTL and France Télévisions. Lastly, “play and fun come first”, as kids want to have fun: Fruit Ninja: Frenzy Force (Australia), an adaptation of the mobile phone game, is a real hit on YouTube Red, Wooala! (Spain), where hidden cameras follow two magicians as they encounter children in the street. It is the 8th most watched in 2017 on children 4-12.

Prensario noticed other trends in the market, one of them explained by Suren Markosian and Kevin Donahue, co-founders of OTT platform Epic! (USA): ‘We are searching for edutainment shows for kids. You can have a great story, but if it’s also educational it will have always a plus. There’s a need in the industry for fun culture’.

Fred Seibert, president & CEO at Federator Entertainment (Fairy Godparents, Adventure Time), highlighted on its “Mastermind Keynote” that adults are watching more kids contents, and vice-versa. He also pointed out three more trends: 1) content doesn’t need to be short to work well in digital platforms, 2) content that appeals to everyone will stop to be appeal to anyone in a short future because audiences want more stories connectable to themselves as individuals, and 3) in the new future, audiences will determinate the 100% of the content and programming strategies.

‘Linear TV have not changed during the last 20 years. It’s using the same programming models, with 30’ series, always same scheduled. We can’t be afraid of changes, if you ever think that something new can be bad for your business, you are probably in the wrong business’, he remarked.

Among the news gathered at MIPJunior, Zoland Animation (China) launched Zokast Kids.TV, an SVOD for kids in partnership with M.E.I Group (France). The service caters to children from all ages, offering up to 1,000 hours in multiple languages. It will be launched late this year first in South East Asia with English and Chinese languages, and subsequently, the roll-out will include North America and the rest of the world with additional languages in French, German, Italian, Neutral Spanish and Dutch.

According to a report, nowadays China represents 40% of the global digital market, and its population spent 32 hours online per week. Mobile is the next big thing: from the 1.3 billion of people living in the country, 910 millions have a mobile and from that figure, 318 millions have access to mobile Internet. ‘China is not easy, but a must’, summarizes Sabrina Nudeliman Wagon, CEO, Elo Company (Brazil), producer of the report.

Regarding MIPCOM, which starts tomorrow, expectations are high again. Reed Midem forecasts 14,000 participants (5% of growth compared to 2016) and +4,800 buyers, including +1,600 from VOD and digital platforms. There are 70 new exhibitors, a VR Zone and an 8K series from NHK (Japan).

The highlights include the designation of David Zaslav, president & CEO, Discovery Communications (USA); the Pre-Opening Dinner hosted today by TV Azteca (Mexico), which is celebrating its 25th Anniversary; keynotes of award-winning chef and & TV host, Gordon Ramsay, Dominique Delport (Vivendi Contents), Benjamin Salinas Sada (TV Azteca) and Richard Plepler (HBO), and Ricky Van Veen & Daniel Danker (Facebook) and David Zaslav (Discovery), among others.

This year there is a record number of international drama screenings with a dozen titles from Denmark, Russia, Spain, UK, France, Germany, The Netherland and Australia and Mexico; and Worldwide Premiere TV Screenings of Britannia (Sky + Amazon USA), Trotsky (Channel One, Russia), Kurara: The Dazzling Life of Hokusai Daughter (NHK) and Counterpart (Sony).

Nicolas Smirnoff, Fabricio Ferrara y Rodrigo Cantisano