Mipcom Online +: Diversity is a trend

With the activities calendar, the organization can target the days by main trends of the market. Monday was ‘Highlights of the new normality’; Tuesday, Globality, with the emergent giants; Wednesday, the MipJunior Day; and yesterday, ‘Diversity’, which is really a new wave to follow.

‘Diversity’ means everything about inclusion, tolerance and coexistence: defense of female rights, LGBTQ+, religion, illnesses, against racism, bullying, etc. During Mipcom the theme had its own awards last Tuesday, with seven different categories, and conferences from last week. Even at MipJunior was a main topic, stressing how kids can be educated better from early ages with smart stories and good values. A CAA/Parrot Analytics study showed that, since 2017, diverse debuts (when at least 40% of the talent is considered as diverse) have grown to surpass non-diverse titles, and that since last year, the demand for diverse debuts among the Top 100 was doubled, surpassing non-diverse titles for the first time. Topics can be taken separately or together, there is a lot to do from now.

At ‘Mentoring Diversity & Inclusion’ yesterday, David Levine, Global Content Strategist at AMC UK, said that creators now ‘usualize’ better LGBTQ+ characters in content across genres, and the challenge is to connect more authentic LGBTQ+ storytellers with content producers, to evolve from tokenism to true storytelling. ‘To understand and show well, you must be part’, he concluded. Added to this, the exec stressed that the media companies must offer better support to LGBTQ+ talent in front of and behind the cameras, especially in executive ranks, to better champion LGBTQ+ themes.

On another panel of the same unit, Sahar Baghery, Principal, Worldwide Business Development at Amazon Prime Video, commented that the company is having equitable representation of gender identity, race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, disability, education, religion, cataloging this as 'one of the main challenges of our industry on and off-screen'. 'It is now on the table. We advocate more actively for a wider representation of voices and faces. We recognize more easily that diverse voices from diverse backgrounds, increase sharing of new perspectives, and develop innovative storytelling. Diverse and equitable teams develop the best builders and produce better results'.

And lastly, from The Creative Diversity Network (CDN), Deborah Williams, CEO, mentioned the intersections of equality, diversity and inclusion through content, and explained that the company is navigating the multiple identities and sharing its experience, to empower younger generations of executives from diverse backgrounds.

Platforms trends? According to Kantar, Amazon Prime Video has secured 51% of new SVOD sign-ups in UK during Q3, but the number of households taking out a new subscription in the quarter was just 3%. Also, 12% of new subscriptions were switched. Disney+ took a 15.4% share of new additions, Netflix 12.3%, Now TV 3.9% and Apple remained flat at 2.7%. Netflix provided 4 of top 5 ‘most enjoyed’ shows in the quarter. Dominic Sunnebo, SVP Kantar, Worldpanel Division: ‘Amazon has benefited from being integrated with Prime Membership. It is driving the highest level of direct switching with 14% of Prime Video subscribers, transferring from another provider’.

‘Many OTT services are expanding into the European market’, remarked Steve Nason, Senior Analyst, Parks Associates. ‘Disney+ launched in multiple countries in September, and AcornTV launched in the UK in April and Portugal in October. Pluto TV will be launched in Spain by the end of this month and France and Italy in early 2021. ViacomCBS is planning to launch Paramount+ in the Nordics in early 2021. Each expansion has its own challenges, including content rights and marketing, but the largest players need to compete internationally if they are to continue to grow their subscriber base’.

The upcoming events will continue virtual? A good part of the industry was expecting to meet again in 2021, but it seems that in the first quarter or even at the first half, traditional events won’t happen physically. For instance, Kidscreen Summit has announced it will be a full online month show from February 8 to March 5. Natpe Miami has not made any announcement, but everything conducts to be virtual.  Even Reed Midem expects to have MIPTV back to the “real world” again in April, but the situation is uncertain. For the 4Q 2020, MIPCancun Online+ and ATF Online plan to cover the same dates as originally informed, on full digital events. 

What about today, Friday 16th? The last day of the ‘Mipcom Week’ offers several showcases from Turkey, Inter Medya and ATV, Russia with GPM, NTV and 1-2-3 Production, and Latin America with Globo (Brazil). Also, key content presentations from Cineflix (UK) for its Autumn launches and factual programming from ORF (Austria) and Vision Films (USA). Industry Spotlights includes TUBI’s Adam Lewinson, Chief Content Officer, Dean Devlin, CEO, Electric Entertainment, and Alex Amansio, CEO & Co-founder, Reflector Entertainment, about how he has learnt to embrace technology and trust the audience. To finish, we’ll have a very varied day.

Nicolás Smirnoff, Fabricio Ferrara and Alberto Buitron