10 Surely there was lots of rain, normal for MIPTV in April, but unusual for MIPCOM in October. Nevertheless, the market was — for the exhibitors VideoAge contacted — good till the last drop of rain, which mercifully ended on the third day of the event. Though the rain ended on Wednesday, the trading continued throughout Thursday, the last day of the market, having started on Sunday, the day before the market officially began. Since the event was shortened by one day, many distributors are now taking advantage of Sunday to stage their cocktails, red-carpet runs, photo shoots and meetings at hotels or rented apartments. As far as business is concerned, Fred Haber, a veteran of TV trade shows who runs his namesake distribution company, summarized this year’s MIPCOM as “the strongest market as far as I can remember.” He called it “A stealth market; totally unexpected, the reverse of a perfect storm with new clients, existing clients and new territories.” “We were so busy, you wouldn’t believe it,” said Peter Iacono, Lionsgate’s president of International. He reported that the team was booked through Thursday, adding, “The rain did not keep people away.” Likewise, Audrey Kamga, Sales manager at Arte France stated, “It’s been a while since we’ve been this busy [at MIPCOM]. We were fully booked, and it seems that people are returning to MIPCOM in a big way.” This was a very valuable market for Pepe Echegaray of Power, who said, “In each meeting this time around, clients came in to actually buy, not just to see what we have to offer.” Echegaray was happy to report that he conducted meetings with clients from Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, pan regional cable and digital platforms. Thomas Davison, director of International Sales at APT Worldwide agreed that this particular market was very strong, saying, “We had a number of excellent meetings and even walk-by traffic. There were many new buyers, as well as buyers with whom we have established relationships that we always seek to enrich at MIPCOM.” The same was true for Armoza Formats, whose founder and CEO Avi Armoza reported that “All nine sales executives had a new meeting every hour,” and they even conducted meetings during lunch to maximize their time in Cannes. Off The Fence came with a large delegation of over 20 people this year to mark the company’s anniversary, and Sales executive Anouk van Dijk was happy to report that the company had a “very busy market with very few no-shows.” Georgina Eyre, head of Acquisitions at Off The Fence added, “MIPCOM is a very important market, and we do a good percentage of our business here.” However, Herb Lazarus, president of CarseyWerner (which this time returned to MIPCOM with a stand), downplayed the attendance figures reported by the organizers at a record 13,700 from 112 countries. He noted that what actually counts is the number of acquisition executives and the ratio between sellers and buyers. Lazarus also decried the large number of seminars, which tend to syphon off buyers from the exhibition floors. A Market Good Till the Last Drop Rain Didn’t Dampen Content Sales December 2014 MIPCOM Review SBS’s Krijn Helmer with Breakthrough Entertainment’s Jodi Mackie, Nat Abraham and Kate Blank Record TV Network’s Delmar Andrade and Edson Pfutzenreiter Mendes Donald Sutherlandwas inCannes for Tandem’sPirate’s Passage (Continued on Page 12)
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