PRODUCTION, DEVELOPMENT AND DISTRIBUTION AT HEART OF MIPTV
Cannes, 12 April 2018 – The television and digital entertainment industry’s hunger for audience-grabbing, new content saw all genres, at all stages of development and from an unprecedented range of international sources, represented at MIPTV 2018.
The combination of MIPTV, the inaugural CANNESERIES festival, MIPDoc, MIPFormats, the MIPDrama Summit, the first In Development and an expanded Junior@MIPTV programme of events provided 10,000 delegates from 102 countries with a unique menu of learning, networking and deal-making opportunities in Cannes this week.
“The consumption of entertainment content around the world has never been higher. The search for content that will attract and maintain audience loyalty has never been fiercer. What has become evident is that in the search for great content, the way shows are funded is evolving,” commented Laurine Garaude, Reed MIDEM’s Television Division Director.
Traditional sales activity remains at the heart of MIPTV but the lines between producers and distributors are blurring as distribution companies are investing in shows at every stage of the production timeline.
“There is a clear move towards increased coproduction partnerships and for more creatives to attend MIPTV to raise development financing from new sources. MIPTV’s mission is to help these creatives bring their ideas to the market and give distributors early stage access to the creatives’ projects,” said Laurine Garaude.
In a single week, companies at MIPTV showcased projects at different phases of the content creation value chain starting with concepts, development projects, commissioning, pre-selling, promotion, international sales and finishing with audiences watching completed shows.
On the eve of MIPTV’s April 9 opening, Cannes rolled out the pink carpet for the first edition of CANNESERIES, the Cannes International Series Festival which hosted public screenings as of April 4, starting with the latest season of ‘Versailles,’ before the Official Competition opening on April 7.
Setting the tone for the new international series celebration, a packed Palais des Festivals’ Grand Auditorium welcomed film director Jean-Jacques Annaud who presented exclusive footage of his first TV series ‘The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair.’ In a stylish opening ceremony, Annaud was joined on the pink carpet by CANNESERIES Jury President Harlan Coben, Michael Kenneth Williams, Patrick Dempsey, Ben Schnetzer, Antonio Fargas, Corinne Touzet, Michael Youn and Michelle Dockery.
With CANNESERIES showcasing completed episodes of new series, the MIPDrama Summit (April 8) saw 450 buyers discovering six, high-end international drama series at the ‘work in progress’ stage. The MIPDrama Buyers Coup de Coeur Award went to ‘Bullets,’ distributed by Sky Vision. Meanwhile, the 600 delegates at In Development, the new Cannes Drama Creative Forum produced by MIPTV and CANNESERIES, saw 12 drama projects pitched to production partners, broadcasters, investors and producers to fast-track their production launches. The two projects selected to receive funding support from In Development partners Federation Entertainment and La Fabrique des Formats were ‘The Sources of Evil’ produced by Wueste Film (Germany) and ‘Whatever, Linda’ produced by The Donaldson Company (Canada).
“MIPDrama, In Development and CANNESERIES provided our clients with unparalleled access to great drama at every stage of the production and sales cycle and the thrill of experiencing series in the prestigious setting of the Palais des Festivals Grand Auditorium,” commented Jerome Delhaye, Director of Reed MIDEM’s Entertainment Division.
For the factual programming community, MIPDoc and MIPFormats (April 7-8) represented the largest gathering of industry executives and programmes devoted to non-scripted entertainment. The MIPDoc International Pitch prize went to ‘Soora – Breaking the Silence’ from Germany’s New Docs. MIPFormats International Pitch winner was ‘Light My Fire’ from Italy’s BicFormats.
In the format business, new players from Turkey and South Korea joined the established format producers and distributors from the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Israel and Japan. In a significant development, China brought an array of Chinese-produced formats to MIPTV for the first ever ‘Wisdom in China: The New Land of Formats’ showcase of projects destined for the international market.
And in the youth sector, MIPTV 2018 saw an expanded Junior@MIPTV initiative with a focus on kids’ live action programming, a new kids’ live action pitch competition, the first Kids’ World Premiere Screening (‘Find Me In Paris’) and the only Emmy awards to be held outside the United States, the International Emmy Kids Awards.
Now fully-integrated in the entertainment ecosystem, new technology was abundant at MIPTV with 4K, 8K, Ultra HD, VR, AR and MR all being demonstrated in Cannes. Award-winning film director Robert Rodriguez attended MIPTV to keynote and present his live-action, short-form VR series, ‘The Limit.’
Rodriguez was part of a stellar line-up of industry leaders who took to the MIPTV conference stage. They included showrunner Harlan Coben, Facebook’s Head of Content Strategy & Planning, Matthew Henick,
four pioneering distributors who invest in early stage production - ITV Studios President International Maria Kyriacou, Cathy Payne, Chief Executive Endemol Shine International, Louise Pedersen, CEO all3media international and Keshet International’s COO & President Distribution Keren Shahar - Rohana Rozhan, CEO of Astro Group and Yang Weidong, President of Youkou, Alibaba Media & Entertainment Group.
Yang Weidong was one of this year’s four MIPTV Médailles d’Honneur alongside Pascal Breton, CEO, Federation Entertainment (France), Teresa Fernández-Valdés, Executive Producer, Bambú Producciones (Spain) and Izzet Pinto, Founder & CEO, Global Agency (Turkey).
MIPTV 2018 FAST FACTS
• Total participants – 10,000
• Exhibiting companies – 1,480
• Number of buyers – 3,600 including 1,000+ for VOD.
• Top 5 countries by companies attending – France, UK, USA, Germany Canada.
• Countries represented - 102
• Journalists at MIPTV - 450
• Number of programmes in MIPDoc library – 1,572
Top 5 viewed programmes at MIPDoc
- ‘The Story of Europe’ ZDF Enterprises, Germany.
- ‘Avocado: The True Cost of a Food Trend’ AB Intl. Distribution, France.
- ‘Pope: The Most Powerful Man in History’ FremantleMedia Intl. UK.
- ‘2077 – 10 Seconds to the Future’ Autentic Distribution, Germany.
- ‘A Day in the Life of Earth’ ZDF Enterprises, Germany.
THEY SAID IT IN CANNES
Here’s a selection of quotes from MIPTV and CANNESERIES
CANNESERIES
Fleur Pellerin, former French Culture Minister and CANNESERIES President on bringing the project to a successful launch at MIPTV: “In political life one has ideas but it is rare to see them come to fruition.”
Harlan Coben Showrunner and CANNESERIES Jury President on the first edition of the festival, “We’re in the Golden Age of TV. TV series have never been done better. It’s the right time for CANNESERIES…It’s great to be back in Cannes – a place that makes you think of magic – and I’m thrilled to be President of the jury of CANNESERIES – although I always say that you should never put me in charge of anything.”
IN DEVELOPMENT
Serge Hayat, CEO Cinémage investment fund on the goals of MIPTV and CANNESERIES new In Development initiative: “In Development has 3 objectives: “Discover new projects, connect with each other, and learn about what’s going on in financing, AI, book adaptations and so on.”
STORYTELLING
Matthew Henick Head of Content Planning and Strategy at Facebook on the future of storytelling: “The future of storytelling is social…a completely new video experience is emerging on mobile, with a potential for social and interactivity that we’re only beginning to tap…audiences want to connect both with the content but , more importantly, with each other.”
TRADITIONAL BROADCASTERS VS STREAMING SERVICES
Alex Mahon, CEO Channel 4 on how traditional broadcasters can attract young audiences who may be drawn to the major streaming services: “Young audiences are of course the people who move fastest and they absolutely are doing that. But the question is: have we got the content that engages with young audiences? So when we put on the shows that young audiences want to watch, they absolutely watch…but they watch it whether it’s live or on demand.”
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION WITH CHINA
Yang Weidong, President of Youkou, Alibaba Media & Entertainment Group on cooperation between China and international producers: “We need drama series and variety show formats, and also animation. I think the international experience and international production quality is still more advanced than our local production teams. We’ll catch up, but I think the global major production players can help us to improve our production quality, through cooperation. So we are starting to explore the possibility to coproduce variety shows, drama series and animation.”
THE CHANGING FINANCING ROLE OF DISTRIBUTORS
Maria Kyriacou, President of International, ITV Studios on the pivotal role distributors are playing in funding shows: “Distributors are no longer just providing top-up money…sometimes the bulk of funding is delivered by the distributor.”
Louise Pedersen, CEO all3media international on when distributors join production financing : “The key mission for all distributors is to sell more content from more producers to more customers. The challenge is how to get hold of that content and financing shows earlier is one way.”
DIVERSITY
Dato’ Rohana Rozhan, CEO Astro Group on diversity within the TV industry: “Our job is to tell stories, to empathise, to intuitively relate to the customers that we aspire to serve…And if the marketplace is 50/50 men and women, we should be that. If the market place is different races, different ethnicities, different religions, we should be that.”
Sean Cohan, President, International & Digital Media, A+E Networks on why he has joined the new MIP Markets Diversity Advisory Board: “I am joining because of the striking need for and continuing lack of inclusion and diversity and the air-tight business case for it. Some of the best creative is coming from places and voices that our industry hasn’t sought out. I got tired of looking around and not seeing rooms of professionals that reflect these dynamics.”
TECH
Claudia Vaccorone, Director Global Market Research & Customer Experience, Eutelsat on the roll out of Ultra High Definition: “It’s no longer a matter of if, but when, UHD becomes an international standard. We’ve been tracking the deployment of 4K/UHD channels and services worldwide. IN the six months since MIPCOM alone, we’ve seen a 26% increase.”
Jeremy Dalton, UK VR/AR Lead, PwC on the future for the Virtual and Augmented Realty sectors: “Everyone talks about Virtual Reality versus Augmented Reality and which is going to beat the other… this is just a nonsense. Both Virtual and Augmented Reality have different use cases. Virtual Reality is all about immersing yourself in a completely different world and time. Augmented Reality is when you remain in the real world, and are presented with virtual objects and information on top of that real world, to contextualise it.”
Discover all the MIPTV 2018 videos in the MIPMarkets YouTube Channel
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