14 This year, NATPE was held for the third consecutive time at the Fontainebleau Resort in Miami Beach — where it will remain in 2014 as well — at the end of a sunny and warm January. This time the organization celebrated the 50th anniversary of its inception, even though the market itself has only been staged for the past 35 years. For the occasion, the market was hopping with parties and stars such as Larry King, Arsenio Hall and Jason Priestley. But these weren’t the only things keeping the market hopping — plenty of attendees made their way to Miami Beach with buying and selling TV content on their minds. According to the Miami Herald, some 5,000 attendees from 60 countries took part in the market, marking a 19 percent increase in overall attendance compared to last year. On the exhibition floor, in poolside cabanas and hotel suites, VideoAgecaught up with a number of exhibitors during and post-market, asking them to weigh in on just how successful it was. Valerie Cabrera, EVP of Entertainment One (eOne), reported that the company was very busy this year. “All of our schedules were full, however we were able to accommodate a few additional appointments on the ground,” she said from her Beverly Hills office. Plus, Cabrera found that in general, “market sales were up from last year.” “NATPE was definitely more active in 2013 — both for Starz Worldwide Distribution and the conference at large,” concurred Gene George, Starz’s Beverly Hills-based EVP. “The greater overall activity was due in part to the increase in attendance,” he said. Starz brought its full sales team to NATPE this year, and their schedules were “fully booked. Along with our usual meetings, we also met multiple broadcasters from France, Spain and Scandinavia,” George noted. Melissa Wohl, SVP of Worldwide Distribution, and Diana Zakis, VP of Worldwide Distribution for the U.K.’s Content Television and Digital, both reported that “Meeting schedules are always packed, especially with U.S. and Latin American buyers, but this year we also had meetings with a number of new channels, as well as an increased number of digital platforms.” In fact, Content’s TV and digital executives from both their London and Los Angeles offices conducted more than 150 meetings at NATPE this year. “Despite the fact that everyone had full schedules, we were able to accommodate some walk-in meetings. One of the great things about attending these markets is the opportunity to meet new clients and to introduce our product,” Wohl and Zakis said. The team was kept busy with buyers fromLatin America (the pan-regional channels and free-TV channels from various countries, along with digital platforms), the U.S. and U.S. Hispanic, Canada, Spain, France, Germany and the Middle East. Esperanza Garay, SVP of Sales and Acquisitions for Latin America at Miami-based Telemundo Internacional, reported that her “schedule was completely full without a break all throughout the market” and because “NATPE is only three days long, and customers’ time is very restricted, [it was] only possible to hold half-hour meetings with each company.” She did not have time for walk-ins. This year was a milestone for Toronto-based Peace Point Rights, which exhibited with a stand for the first time (Peace Point Rights is the distribution arm of Peace Point Entertainment and was launched in March of 2012). “Although we’ve attendedmany times, thiswas our first time exhibiting, and we found it to be fantastic. The show floor was extremely busy,” said president and CEO Les Tomlin. “We had three sales people in Miami, and our schedules were filled, plus we also had some great walk-ins. There are alwayswalk-ins, so the quality of them is important, and we have deals already pending from many of those meetings,” Tomlin said, adding that he and his team met with panregional Latin American clients, U.S. Hispanic buyers, and buyers from Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama and Australia. “Our review of the whole market was very positive, and we’re happy to be doing a significant amount of business out of it. It was overall a very positive experience,” he said. According to Power’s Miami-based senior representative for LatinAmerica, PepeEchegaray, the market was successful because the U.K. company was on hand with a slate of finished programming, whereas last year much of its slate was still in production. “When you have the programs finished [as opposed to in production], clients really go for them,” he said. Plus, he was confident that “the economy in most of the Latin American countries is improving and stabilizing, so people have a good budget for 2013 and are ready to make decisions and buy product. This was better than last year because at that time, people didn’t know how much money they had [in their budgets] and needed to wait for the L.A. Screenings [to make decisions]. This year was very positiveandIhope it continues thatwayandnothing upsets the trend we’re seeing at this point.” Echegaray added that, “In the suites, we don’t usually get many walk-ins, but since clients came to meetings early, and walk-ins came in ready to buy, I had plenty of time to see them, even though we had a solid schedule.” Going into the market, he had 32 scheduledmeetings, and beganmeeting with clients on Sunday afternoon, the day before the market actually started. He also conducted meetings on Thursday, and was booked through Wednesday, the last day of the market. Echegaray also said he thought the elevator situation had improved over last year, and Peace Point Rights’ Tomlin concurred, saying, “being on the show floor negated the elevator issue.” eOne’s Cabrera agreed that while “the elevators were still an issue [it wasn’t] as bad as in previous years and both buyers and sellers seemed to be able to work around it quite nicely.” Yet, Content’s Wohl and Zakis both found that “the elevators in the Tresor Tower were still problematic,with longwait times at certainpoints during the day, affecting our meeting start time and causing delays.” But, they tempered their comment, adding, “we enjoy being in Miami for NATPE; it has become a lively market to start off the year and the Fontainebleau is a good venue.” However, one issue that left a bit of a sour taste in Echegaray’s mouth was the exorbitant costs of the Fontainebleau. For example, it was impossible to purchase a glass of house wine for less than $21, he said. “The cost of NATPE continues to increase at an alarming pace, and it’s not just the cost of badges, By Sara Alessi Activity, Attendance and Costs Climb for Mart’s 50th March/April 2013 NATPE Review Gaumont International Television’s Tim Farish, Richard Frankie, Erik Pack and Globo TV’s Paula Miranda PE Media’s Pepe Echegaray and Raul Escudero, Peace Point Rights’ Eric Muller and Les Tomlin The cost of NATPE continues to increase at an alarming pace, and it’s not just the cost of badges, suites and stands. (Continued on Page 16)
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