Tanya McQueen PICKER SISTERS Gene Simmons GENE SIMMONS FAMILYJEWELSTM Rick Harrison PAWN STARS® ENTE LIFE IS © 2011 A&E Television Networks, LLC. All rights reserved. 1004. MOVIES CRIME LIFESTYLE ENTERTAINMENT BIOGRAPHY V I D E O • A G E JU N E 2 0 12 16 (Continued from Cover) Biarritz Makes French TV Ritzy VideoAge spoke with Mathieu Bejot, executive director of TV France International, and with registered exhibitors to find out their plans for this important event in their calendar year. This year, the event opens on a Monday morning, one day earlier than usual. TVFI’s Bejot explained that the decision to start the market a day earlier will “allow buyers to also attend the Cartoon Forum [September 11-14], to be held in the nearby city of Toulouse,” which lies a bit to the East of Biarritz, the coastal city located near the Spanish boarder that’s playing host to Le RendezVous. Bejot reported organizers are expecting 65 French companies to exhibit for 220230 buyers from over 50 countries. He expects that about half of the 1,300 programs introduced at Le Rendez-Vous to be new titles. Last year, the event drew 234 buyers from 157 international broadcasting companies, representing 56 countries. Sandrine Frantz of BoulogneBillancourt, France-based Lukarn announced that her company will present 20 programs from the library and approximately 50 from the new catalog that have not been presented at past markets. These titles are “mostly documentaries, but also some new classical music shows and pop rock shows,” she said. Also from Boulogne, System TV will be in Biarritz with seven new titles, according to Sales manager Hiam El Khoury-Brissard. Consistent with the French feel of the market, the company will shine a spotlight on the series Fabulous French Villages. Paris-based GAD will also bring a large number of titles that haven’t been presented at past markets. One Sales executive reported, “We have 21 new films.” Some of the highlights include: Beneath the Lingerie; London, Capital Under Strain; The Passage; The French Coast from the Sky and Faces from the Coast. On the other end of the spectrum, Paris-based Ankama will bring just one new title, Wakfu, to market, according to Romy Broda, International TV Sales manager. Exhibiting companies said that they will focus their efforts on a wide range of territories. While Lukarn’s Frantz reported she would not neglect her regular clients, she will also focus her efforts on Asia, and China especially, at this market. System TV’s El KhouryBrissard is concentrating on Europe, with a special emphasis on Scandinavia. Pamela Leu, head of International TV Sales for Paris-based Films Distribution noted that she’ll focus on Eastern Europe, Germany, Spain and Italy. Ankama’s Broda insisted the company is taking a broad approach, targeting “all territories.” According to TVFI’s Bejot, Le RendezVous “is our prime showcase event in terms of participants, effectiveness and resources (both human and financial). It helps generate up to 25 percent of annual sales for some of our members. More importantly, it is very focused and, like all screening events of the kind, it provides our members with immediate feedback from buyers.” Participants shouldn’t expect many big changes this time around. “The core of the event remains screening and meeting with French content providers, and we are not changing much to an event that’s running rather smoothly!,” Bejot said. He continued, “Our two goals [for the event] are to give buyers a chance to sit down and screen as much as they wish so they can get a good overview of the latest French production and to provide buyers with quality time with French content providers.” All of the exhibitors surveyed agreed that documentaries sell best at Le Rendez-Vous, with Films Distribution looking to capitalize on the trend with new documentary, A Special Day. Lukarn’s Frantz added that this genre “sells the best anywhere in terms of quantity, but not in terms of price.” Last year, animation titles generated the largest number of sales at 34.8 million euro, while documentaries boasted the largest growth (13.7 percent), rising to 26.4 million euro. Meanwhile, drama decreased 1.6 percent to 19.1million euro and format sales climbed 4.9 percent to 17.2 million euro. Films Distribution’s Leu has also found that feature films sell well at Le Rendez-Vous. Asked about how the market’s logistics are set up, Bejot responded, “Buyers pay their own transportation, at least to Paris, as we provide a chartered airplane from Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport to Biarritz and back. We offer accommodation, meals and market registration. We will also provide a shuttle from Biarritz to Toulouse for Cartoon Forum participants.” However, sellers must fend for themselves, as they “take care of their own transportation, and we charge them both for accommodation and meals and for part of the set-up.” But, he added, “TV France covers a large part of the overall budget of the event,” Bejot said. In terms of special events, Bejot commented, “We’re proud to host an International Emmy Awards Semi-final Judging for preschool programs the day before Le Rendez-Vous.” Additionally, he said, “our dinner parties will again focus on new programs in an entertaining way.” In addition to the traditional market overview conference, Bejot stated, “We will organize a conference on documentary and a press conference on the study we are conducting with CNC on export figures in 2011.” SA An evening soiree Buyers break for a seaside lunch The 2011 event opened with TVFI’s Mathieu Bejot and Xavier Gouyou Beauchamps offering an overview of the market Le Rendez-Vous features conferences and round tables Individual screening areas A view of the exhibition hall
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