MAY 2 0 0 9 Hotel conference catering to documentaries, MIPDOC. The event created opportunities for finding coproduction partners and facilitated some good old-fashioned buying and selling. Gene George, evp of Los Angeles-based Starz Media, viewed MIPDOC as the perfect venue for building his company’s documentary brand, with a focus on distributing only entertainment-themed docs, so that the Starz name becomes synonymous with that type of programming. In addition to the numerous screenings and business deals that were done, MIPDOC offered keynotes from Emmy-winning documentarian Rory Kennedy and Academy Awardnominated filmmaker Liz Garbus, who spoke on the theme of “Social Change Through Documentary.” Typically, MIP isn’t a big market for Latin American buyers. However, it boasts a large contingent of Latin American distributors, who had the L.A. Screenings (to be held May 19-29) on their minds during their time in Cannes, mainly because the Screenings are being held a week later than in past years. Silvana D’Angelo of the Buenos Aires, Argentina-based Flor Latina Entertainment Group spoke for many of her counterparts when she said that the later Screenings are actually a good thing for Latin Americans. “We need time to do follow-ups, [otherwise] we run the risk of not giving clients the proper attention,” she said. In addition to the business done at MIP ’09, there were a number of seminars, panels and speeches designed to lure attendees off the floor, including a keynote from Ynon Kreiz, CEO of Netherlands-based Endemol Group, who delivered a speech detailing how content creators need to be bold and innovative in order to achieve growth, and a “Television Everywhere” panel that addressed the issue of how to monetize Internet and mobile TV. Additionally, Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of U.K. advertising and marketing communications giant WPP Group, gave a speech called: “What screens will they watch — and what will be on them?” Though the Sorrell speech was well attended, many found the event to be a bit of a disappointment since the guru decided to address topics that were triedand-true (and trite), such as the recession, instead of offering anything new and insightful. Two predictions that dominated this keynote were the need for the cost of content and advertising inventory to fall and the bright future for mobile content — not the enlightening words one expects from an industry legend. Next year’s MIP-TV will be held April 12-16, 2010, considerably later than this year’s event, which started March 28 with MIPDOC. M I P - T V R e v i e w ( c o n t ’ d ) (Continued from Page 10) Televisa’s Claudia Silva, Comarex’s Ana Zaira Sanchez and WWE’s Emilio Revelo at VideoAge’s informal meeting to discuss plans for L.A. Screenings 2009 E1 Entertainment’s Prentiss Fraser, John Morayniss, Ben Bishop, Valerie Cabrera, Laszlo Barna and Peter Emerson Venevision’s Cesar Diaz and Jose Antonio Espinal with the Chinese contingent, headed by SARFT’s Vice Minister, Tian Jin Latin distribution contingent with RSI execs “ With the exception of Latin American buyers, only a few of whom traditionally attend MIP anyway, all international TV buying companies were in attendance, just with fewer acquisition executives V I D E O • A G E 12
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