in the country, it’s no wonder that TV outlets that cater to the nation’s Hispanic demographic continue to expand each day. Such companies were well represented at NATPE. One such firm is Burbank, California-based Liberman Broadcasting Inc. (LBI), which has been growing along with its market. Lenard Liberman, evp of LBI, told VideoAge that his company now reaches about 40 percent of the Hispanic market, and aims to achieve 65 or 70 percent penetration by the end of this year. On the pay-TV side, Alterna’TV is one of many subscriptionbased networks cropping up. Though the company’s headquarters are in Mexico City, it is committed to bringing pan-Hispanic programming to its customers in the U.S. Leonardo Alvarado, the firm’s director, described his company’s goal thus: “The basis of the business is to reach vertical markets, like Mexicans living within the U.S.” In order to do so, he and his team have focused on special interest channels. Latin America may be the bestrepresented region at NATPE, but talk still turned often to Berlin and Africa — sites of two markets held in February. Just one week after the doors of the Mandalay Bay convention center swung shut on NATPE ’09, the 59th annual Berlin International Film Festival (also known as the Berlinale) kicked off. From February 5-15, Berlinale and its affiliate, the European Film Market (EFM), saw a slew of entertainment industry bigwigs looking for the next big movie. Ken Dubow, president of Worldwide Distribution for Santa Monica, California-based PorchLight, explained that PorchLight attends both NATPE and the Berlinale in order to focus on buyers from different regions. “At NATPE, we’re focused on U.S. and Latin V I D E O • A G E MA R C H/ AP R I L 2 0 0 9 16 N A T P E ( C o n t i n u e d ) E1 Entertainment’s Taste Buds with Lisa Wookey RAI Trade’s Paolo Noseda Lightworks’ David Nunez, David Dreilinger, Angelica Celaya, John Cuddihy, Armando Castro and director Agustin promotingGabriel: Amor Inmortal, which was shot in Miami, FL, Bogota, Colombia, and Venice and Rome, Italy. (Continued from Page 14) buyers,” he said. “We don’t see as many Europeans or Asians there anymore, so we focus our product on what’s available in the Western hemisphere.” He remarked that for his company, the EFM has surpassed NATPE in terms of relevance. “NATPE’s relevance has diminished with its inability to attract global buyers to Vegas,” he said. For Racquel Mesina, director of International Sales for Toronto’s Cinemavault, the two markets have very different focal points. “The focus of Berlin is towards the theatrical and home entertainment markets, in contrast to NATPE attendees who are primarily seeking television product.” At VideoAge’s annual NATPE breakfast, the topic du jour was the inaugural DISCOP Africa, which was held February 25-27 in Dakar, Senegal. The big news about Africa was that even before the very first event took place, a second one was already being planned. Tentatively titled DISCOP Africa Part Two, the market will be held September 16-18 at the Nairobi Hilton in Nairobi, which is located in Englishspeaking Kenya. Since the Dakar market sold out so quickly, organizers, including Paris-based Patrick Jucaud, decided that a second event, to be held later this year, would be the best thing for the emerging market. In total, NATPE featured 242 exhibitors, split between the convention floor and THEhotel. There were also some 300 buyers from 35 countries. And though numbers were unavailable, VideoAge estimated that some 3,000 people participated this year. According to Feldman, 7,500 people attended NATPE 2008. The market boasted 57 seminars — 10 of which were actually deemed worthwhile by VideoAge. That’s a scant 18 percent, but it’s much better than the previous year’s NATPE when there were 61 seminars and only nine, or 15 percent, were considered important. Of these significant seminars, three of the best attended were a keynote offered by Lionsgate CEO and co-chairman Jon Feltheimer, and Q & As with Anne Sweeney, co-chair of Disney Media Networks and president of the DisneyABC Television Group, and Ben Silverman, the rookie co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios. All three spoke about why, despite increasingly dire predictions, none believes that television is on its deathbed. Feltheimer called the entertainment industry “vibrant and ripe” for opportunity. “Everywhere you turn people are talking about how bad things are, but our industry has never had greater potential for growth,” he said. Sweeney echoed his thoughts, noting: “The TV biz has never stood still. It’s built to change every single hour every single year. This is a period of great revolution.” Finally, when Silverman took the stage, he said that the “DVR is an unbelievably awesome tool for the consumers” and that “digital distribution was an inevitability” that networks should learn how to adapt to if they hope to survive.
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