MIPTV 2017: co-productions, VR and formats from new origins

At MIPFormats there were buyers from everywhere, but also new producers offering formats with great creativity. The organization estimated an attendance of 1800 executives, from which almost 330 were buyers from 67 countries. The Japanese community took the scene at midday on Treasure Box Japan, which unveiled for its seven year in a row the eight brand new formats from Nippon TV, TV Asahi, NHK/NEP, TBS, TV Tokyo, Fuji TV, ABC and YTV. Physical, game shows, romance, celebrities, cooking and dating were the main topics.

Prensario found there not only traditional broadcasters and producers, but also OTTs, mainly from Europe, looking for formats to be adapted to their platforms. Conrad Riggs, head of unscripted, Amazon Originals: ‘Working for an OTT gives us a creative freedom that we would not experience at other networks. Our model is different from a linear broadcaster that must service advertisers in defined day-parts. We launched Lore, based on a podcast horror show, American Playboy, a factual reality about Hug Hefner, and Novak, about the tennis player’.

Opinions? Paul Gilbert, SVP, international formats, CBSSI: ‘Game shows, reality or docu-soap, it’s a wide-open game. Any could easily achieve success. My message to the producers is: keep beating your head against the wall until somebody say yes’. Paul Buccieri, president, A+E Studios & A+E Networks: ‘We produce over 1300 hours of contents from which one third (430 hours) are formats’.

Talking about new origins, the winner of the MIPFormats International Pitch, sponsored by all3media International (UK), was the transmedia docureality Loro Viejo (12 episodes), from Steven Morales Pineda, content director, ESUNA Casa Audiovisual (Colombia). Shangai Media Group (China) also launched the new format The Next with Endemol Shine as the exclusive distributor.

MIPDoc 19th edition was moved this year to the JW Marriot because the Hotel Martinez is being reconstructed. The virtual reality and co-productions were the hot themes during the first day of the show, which ends today. Anthony Geffne, CEO, Atlantic Productions (UK): ‘VR is driven by storytelling, not marketing gimmicks. You build a world and go on a journey that you cannot do in any other medium’.

Companies betting on VR? BBC (UK) launched The Voice of a Rebel and announced this year that it will create VR content linked to its blockbuster documentary series Planet Earth; Discovery produced VR versions of its global TV factual hits including Deadliest Catch and Shark Week; Viceland has joined forces with Samsung within the US to create a series of VR documentaries shorts; and Red Arrow (Germany) has acquired a majority stake in 44 Blue Productions (USA), a non fiction specialist with a VR studio.

Co-production has become a true fact in the industry, and documentaries are no exception. The main Screening of the first day was Big Pacific, a co-production between CCTV9 (China), NHNZ (New Zealand), ZDF & ZDF Enteprises (Germany), PBS (USA) and ARTE (France). ‘When thinking a co-production in this genre, science and wild life are the most effective ones to reach global audiences’, they all agreed.

Opinions? Jens Monath, commissioning editor, TerraX/ZDF: ‘We can’t consider Public TV the same way we did five years ago. The gap between commercial channels and pubcasters was reduced because of the audience increase of the demand of high end programming’. Peter Hamilton, specialized on business development for the unscripted media industry, concluded: ‘Because of the disruptive quality of our times, more and more programmers are recognizing the value of co-productions’.

The winner of the MIPDoc International Pitch was Warrior Women, a drama doc history series that chronicles the original Amazons of the Eurasian Steppe, produced by Sebastian Peiter and Richard Melman, co executive producers, Urban Canyon (UK).

There is a lot of expectation today about MIPDramas, which was moved to the Grand Auditorium at the Palais and gathers 700 global buyers that are having a first look over 12 series from Western Europe, Russia, Scandinavia and Latin America.

Nicolas Smirnoff, Fabricio Ferrara and Rodrigo Cantisano

MipTV 2017 Coverage
Wrap Up | April 6 | April 5 | April 4 | April 3 | April 2 | April 1