Contenido
From MIPJunior to Mipcom: good summer, encouraging business
Today will be one of the most active Sundays ever in Cannes: MIPJunior faces its second day, and Mipcom agenda is so busy during weekdays, that many meetings, events and announcements are held before. According to European associations as ACT (commercial TV stations) and EGTA (sales houses) the continent has had a great summer of television, and this is another big push for Mipcom traffic.Both associations agreed that this summer was ‘huge about ratings successes’, so European broadcasters have returned to work in good heart. And this happened without a big sports event that could keep viewers watching… just usual sports, politics, royalty or entertainment.
In Italy, viewers watched 3.5% more television in 2013 summer than the previous year. About 26 million Germans watched the election debate between Chancellor Angela Merkel and her challenger Peer Steinbrück. Up to 13 million viewers in France and 2,75 million in the Netherlands watched coverage of the Tour of France.
Talent shows continued their decade-long run of success, with over 14 million viewers for the final of Britain’s Got Talent. Royal events also proved popular, with 6,08 million Belgians watching the coronation of King Philippe I, 1.9 million in Sweden for the marriage of Princess Madeleine, and four UK channels broke records (11,9 million) watching the birth of Prince George.
New media beats traditional TV? ‘No, they are proving to be complementary each other’, both associations say. TV related tweets amounted to average 6.5 million per month in France in July and August. In UK and across all Europe, for every minute spent on YouTube, the average person spends an hour watching linear TV.
In Germany, if YouTube were a TV Channel, its market share would be less than 1%. Linear TV is watched 130 hours per month, against 3 hours of YouTube. In the Netherlands, 120 hours vs. 3,2 hours. In Italy, 145 hours vs. 1h27m. In France, 126 hours vs. 1h28m.
What about MIPJunior? Attendance final figures will be today, but till now it is said about 10% of growth from last year: the kids & family oriented pre-show joins 1,200 participants, whose about 550 are buyers. Titles screened this weekend are 1063, and main countries represented are UK, USA, France, Canada, Korea, China, Argentina, Spain and Germany. It is a good preview of what will happen at Mipcom.
Yesterday, apart from other conferences, There were two very interesting sessions: Get the most of your VOD rights, for sellers and producers, and What to buyers want? for buyers and sellers. On the former, it was recommended to study the markets first and not to close deals that could avoid bigger ones, as VOD services usually don’t need to be exclusive. On the latter, head buyers from Viacom, Disney and Cartoon Network, agreed that they need strong kids & tween franchises to skip successfully from one platform to other, above all.
Also, there were two events focused on Russia, on about licensing agent pitching and other about animated content landscape, and Argentina has started its main role as Country of Honour with a screening of its best kids contents, and also sponsored the MIPJunior Opening Cocktail at the evening. Emergent countries are particularly important these MIPJunior & Mipcom.
Announcements today? FRAPA (main format protection and registration association) launches its long-awaited format registration system (FRS) this afternoon, at the biannual meeting of all its members. It is an independent, non-profit system, with its database legally protected to ensure data safety. More details, read us tomorrow…
Events? Among others, TV Azteca (Mexico) celebrates its 20 years in the industry, with a dinner that includes about 80 of the top personalities of international content business. Mario San Roman, managing director, will lead the event. Also, the cocktail party celebrated by the independent production entities ABPITV (Brazil) and PACT (UK), at Yatch/Marina. Co-productions between big countries or big regions, will continue as a top trend this Mipcom.
Nicolas Smirnoff and Fabricio Ferrara