Convenciones
Mipcom 2013: preferences stress format trends
Today Mipcom 2013 comes to an end, and though the main question attendees make is Can I go home? (due to the French airports strike menace) the outcome of the event is fully good: business energy, broadcasting developments everywhere and fresh opportunities for smart ventures.Meanwhile many people were trying to leave Cannes yesterday evening, Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO DreamWorks Animation, was named Personality of the Year by Reed Midem, and FRAPA --Format recognition and protection association-- offered its traditional format awards, decided by 11 production heads of top broadcasters worldwide.
What do these executives liked? The winners were: Best Factual Entertainment format, GoggleBox from All3Media, the highlights of the week’s programming intercut with footage of ordinary people watching it at home. Best Competition reality format: Mentor from Banijay, the first talent show where it is the professional coaches who risk being voted off by the audience. Best comedy format: Hotel Zimmerfrei from Nordic World, a merger between improv show and sitcom.
Best Studio Based Gameshow format: Take on the twisters from ITV Studios, where eight giant timers with a different countdown, set up a nail-biting battle between contestants. Best Brand Driven format: Be the Boss from All3Media, a head to head competition between two employees in different businesses, for the opportunity of a lifetime.
Best Scripted format: It’s a date from ABC Commercial, a comedy series exploring trials and tribulations of the dating world. Best Multi-platform format: Pissed off from ITV Studios, where short temper celebrities complete a negativity test followed by virtual coaching.
At the Palais, Keshet International and Zodiak Rights introduced its new formats through an original way: making buyers to participate on them during the presentation. With Raising the star, Keshet provides not only the format, but also the apps developed and technology used to produce the format. Steve Quirke from Zodiak Rights highlighted Versus and explained: ‘Worldwide, broadcasters are asking more studio-based formats. In Europe, cooking shows are consolidating, while dating shows are not so demanded’.
New media? TVE (Spain) has introduced his ‘Red Button’ system, for ‘smart TVs’ connected with HbbTV. While people watch live linear TV, they can make ‘click’ on the screen from its remote control and access to more information or videos related with the facts or characters they are watching. They access to the VOD platform of the broadcaster, which includes more than 90,000 broadcasting hours and extra contents. It is already available in Spain.
Also, it is already strong in the market a new category of players: the digital platforms that provide: digital file delivery, online conversion and transcoding, video streaming with video on demand and live broadcasting services, content sales and promotions, etc. They have been very active this Mipcom buying and distributing programming. Smartjog, Red Touch, Octopus, Olympusat, are some of them.
Wayne Scholes, CEO RedTouch: ‘Our business faces now three priorities: first, to protect and delivery digital content; second, to distribute content establishing alliances with content retailers; to produce local content per region, with local producers’.
Buyer testimonies? Nuno Vaz, head of acquisitions public RTP Portugal: ‘Lastly, our second TV channel won’t be sold, we are again on the strategy of a strong commercial first channel (RTP1) and a cultural-profile second one, RTP2. This was announced today’. Okros Gergely, production manager TV2 Hungary: ‘We now have more money to produce. The daily scripted reality Yellow Press is a new big product’.
Roxanne Barcelona, head international at GMA The Philippines: ‘We are looking for entertainment formats, Korean dramas and movies’. Richard Vaun, board advisor SBT, Brazil: ‘Our aims for 2014 are: to produce telenovelas, more news programs, sports and animated kids series with fresh designs’.
Apostol Pentchev, head of TV at bTV, Bulgaria: ‘We are the main producer of fiction in Bulgaria, from daily dramas to comedies and specials’. Luminita Dona, production manager Kanal D Romania: ‘We look for big formats, more game shows than realities’. Jovan Milenkovic, head of Prava I Prevodi, Serbia: ‘I buy for Pink’s 10 free cable TV channels. In Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro they are the king, pay cable TV can’t compete’.
Nicolás Smirnoff and Fabricio Ferrara
Full Story October 9 | October 8 | October 7 | October 6 | October 5