The executives keep reinforcing the fact that ‘it’s necessary to be here’. And the opinions gathered on the buyer side are very positive about the venue. ‘I don’t find changes from one year to another, but we will continue attending the show’, highlights a buyer from Ukraine.

‘The U.S. studios screenings are damaging the market. In our opinion, the digital meeting tool proposed by Natpe did not work’, it was heard from an exhibitor. There are mixed opinions, after all. Participants feel that the organization must continue working on improving the market for 2013.

The digital players keep betting strongly on the content market. New ventures in Hungary, Russia, Poland appear almost every week; the ones already working are consolidating its operations, adding more services or offering new platforms to receive the content.

For instance, CME Group is spreading its Voyo SVOD service, which adds up 80,000 subscribers regionally. ‘The overall strategy is to buy for all the countries, but it's also important to have local acquisition teams’, says Cristina Cepi, head of acquisitions of CME Internet Division in Czech Republic. She adds: ‘We are looking for entertainment and fiction, half and half, to complement our local production, which remains strong’.

In Slovakia, Markíza has appointed Filip Kralovic, who heads the Voyo development in that country. ‘The channel acquisition team has grown and we have a specific person in charge of digital acquisitions. Voyo was launched in February and it’s very successful’, explains Elza Strapkova, acquisitions manager, Markíza & Doma.

Kanal D in Turkey is updating its digital services, with new ap-lications for Mobile (allows free access to the channel) and Tablets (to watch catch up series), as well as betting more and more in the social networks to promote their programming. ‘We have found that social media is an effective way to get feedback from the audience’, remarks Amac Us, sales & acquisition executive.

During the cocktail party yesterday, organized by Natpe with the support of Media Service Support and Asset Management Fund (MTVA), it was announced a new enterprise rolled out by the public Hungarian broadcaster: m3D, a new 3D channel launched on June 25th only for the Olympic Games. After the Games it won’t be on air any more. But, prior to the sports event of the year, it will air animation and documentaries, applying 100 hours of acquired contents.

‘During the first experimental week it’s being distributed by digital terrestrial service Antenna Hungaria and then will be available through cable operators like UBS and Telekom, among others. Four percent of the Hungarian population has access to 3D content, that's about 150.000 households. Only 14 countries worldwide will broadcast it with this technology, so we are very proud of this’, remarked to Prensario Zsuzsanna Kalomista, Director Content Sales & Acquisitions at MTVA.

Before the announcement, Natpe new CEO, Rod Perth, inaugurated Natpe Budapest and offered a toast to more than 250 executives that attended the cocktail party, giving thanks to all the participants and, specially, to Patrick Jacaud, president of Basic Lead, founder and previous organizer of Discop East.

Fabricio Ferrara

Full Story CEE renews its expectations with Natpe Budapest 2012 (June 26)