Content in the spotlight

The rapid growth in the number of TV broadcasters and online content carriers around the world, coupled with the internationalisation of content production, resulted in the biggest MIPCOM ever. A report

The 30th edition of MIPCOM welcomed executives from a record 112 countries and an all-time high 13,700 delegates – including more than 4,600 buyers of which 1,300 were acquiring digital and VOD rights. Throughout the week, it was clear that the industry’s priority was to get original global content out to a growing global audience. With content driving the business, distributors are diversifying their catalogues to meet new consumer and broadcaster demands.

“This has been a record-breaking and a particularly memorable edition of MIPCOM,” noted Laurine Garaude, Director of Reed MIDEM’s Television Division.

“We saw extensive deal making and energy on the show floor, with Mexico as Country of Honour, a record number of key programme launches at the MIPCOM World Premiere TV Screening and the first MIPJunior World Premiere TV Screening – and an amazing line-up of top industry executives and celebrities.”

The drive for original content was the focus of this year’s MIPCOM. The increasingly competitive market and the explosion of delivery platforms are fuelling the hunger for original content. Traditional business models and metrics are fast disappearing as players experiment with new ways of doing business. This was brought to the forefront at a series of discussions during the event.

James Murdoch, Co-Chief Operating Officer, 21st Century Fox, described the pre-MIPCOM merger of Shine, Endemol and Core Media as being an opportunity too good to miss, creating a global leader in entertainment production.

Director M Night Shyamalan, attending his inaugural MIPCOM, explained that his decision to finally direct his first TV series, Fox’s Wayward Pines, was spurred by the power of TV to create art for audiences, with budgets and artistic freedom that are becoming rarer in the film sector. Shyamalan isn’t alone in making the move into TV. Harlan Coben, best-selling author of mystery and thriller novels, came to Cannes with TF1’s No Second Chance, the first of his books ever to be adapted for TV. Coben admitted that he had never really been interested in television until he began to see the quality of series such as Breaking Bad.

Reflecting the blurring of lines between film and TV, MIPCOM hosted the first Film Commissions Day. Olivier-René Veillon, CEO of the Ile-de-France Film Commission, told his conference audience that the commissions are becoming increasingly aware that they need to consider the importance of TV for their business.

Netflix’s Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos hinted that the entry of digital streaming services into Asia is “just a matter of timing.” He said Netflix’s recent arrival in France and Germany has provided encouraging viewing hours per subscriber results and that in addition to financing French drama series Marseille, Netflix is talking to Gallic animation companies on co-producing original cartoons.

Twitter’s head of TV creative, Fred Graver, stressed the importance of social TV to the business.

Maker Studios’ CEO Ynon Kreiz told his MIPCOM audience that given the shortened attention span of the millennial generation, the demand for short-form video content is going to grow.

He said Disney’s acquisition of Maker Studios extended the media giant’s business into short-form and allowed Maker Studios to leverage the global Disney resources. Chinese internet entrepreneur and Sohu.com CEO, Charles Zhang, said the Chinese Netflix equivalent would invest heavily in original content, develop in-house online series, increase acquisitions from independent Chinese producers and begin buying Hollywood movies. Danish toymaker Lego is following on from its megahit feature The Lego Movie, by moving into television next year.

The TV and film producer, music label boss and internationally-renowned talent show judge Simon Cowell received the MIPCOM Personality of the Year Award.

MIPCOM’s Country of Honour programme, produced in partnership with ProMexico, saw a record 125 Mexican companies in Cannes.

The multitude of deals signed during the week was diverse in nature. Viacom closed a multi-year agreement with Amazon Prime in the UK, which included UK rights to Kung Fu Panda and Awkward. Mexico’s TV Azteca tied with Electus International to take Mexican rights to the US distributor’s Food Fighters culinary reality hit. French pay-tv Canal+ came on board as the first broadcaster to back Italian crime drama Zero Zero Zero from Italian production company Cattleya.

In the flourishing Latin American market, Argentinian producers Germina Films and Prisma Cine inked a co-production deal with Brazil’s Plural for a 13-episode drama series.

BBC Worldwide confirmed that the BBC’s Natural History Unit is teaming up with Japan’s NHK to co-produce a new natural history series Wild Japan. A+E Networks concluded a raft of deals with

EMEA broadcasters for lifetime original movies.