(Continued on Page 8) 6 The 50th anniversary celebration of MIPTV (that ended April 11) took place under cool and sometimes rainy weather conditions. But even if the unstable weather was to be expected at that time of year, expectations for the event were a few degrees higher than in the past. Ultimately, the market turned out to be somewhat of a mixed bag, with some participants finding floor traffic down and others basking in the glow of the celebrations and the satisfaction of a decent market. In fact, the partly sunny weather with occasional rain showers was somewhat of a mirror for the market itself. “ThispastMIPwasaveryexcitingmarketforus,” said Natalie Osborne of 9 Story Entertainment. Not least of all because the company announced its deal to represent CCI Entertainment’s children’s library. Ivan Sanchez of Global Agency told VideoAge that on a scale of zero to 10, he would rate this MIP-TV an 8.5. “It went really well and we were very busy,” he said. “We were productively busy,” said Echo Bridge Entertainment’s Emilia Nuccio, making a distinction between being busy and actually accomplishing business. “Our clients came to see our new offerings, and the entire sales team was quite busy with clients from all over the world.” Yet, she added, “We did see fewer new people than in the past. There were fewer people who simply stopped by, but we were still busy with the appointments we arranged before the market.” The same was true for Esther vanMessel of First HandFilms: “Wehadahigh turnout for screenings during MIPDoc and our meetings throughout the rest of the market proved extremely productive,” she said. Though she too found that “the market this year did seem a bit slower than usual, but probably more from the perspective of ‘traffic’ in the Palais, because for us, we had back-to-backmeetings, so we didn’t feel [the slowdown] personally. Our schedule was more than fully booked with 60 meetings in three days, and our clients showed up for 99 percent of thosemeetings,” she said. Record TV Network’s Delmar Andrade also noticed that there were “fewer people around.” But he was quick to point out that “all of the meetings we scheduled in advance took place, so we have no complaints. We also had walk-ins, particularly from Asian territories, on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the floor traffic picked up little by little as the days went on. Ever since the company began focusing on epic series, our productions have become more attractive to the marketplace.” Plus, he added, “We truly believe that little by little the market is returning to normal.” For Jon Rutherford of Tricon Films & Television, MIP was “fantastic. We all noticed a drop in attendees, but because we represent so many genres, we were busy. Though we were booked, we always make time for last-minute walk-ins, as we cut into our lunch time, or tack on time later in the day,” he said. “We were busy,” said ITV – Inter Medya’s Can Okan. “But I understand in general it was very sparse.” However, he noted, “For us, the market was very successful. We sold a telenovela to VIP 2000 for distribution in Latin America, and we had a number of very productive meetings with the potential for format deals in Latin America.” Reportedly, the low floor traffic was due to the absence of many U.S. studios, and even though theofficial numbers indicate strongparticipation on par with past years, these numbers are said to reflect increasing sideline events such as MIPCube and other similar activities that have little to do with the actual buying and selling of TV content. In effect, MIP became a two-day market out of the four days allocated. On the market floor, opening day was slow in the morning, though it did pick up in the afternoon. Meanwhile, the second day was fairly busy all day long. The third day was busy in the morning, but slowed down by the afternoon. The fourth day was essentially closing time. One nice new perk on the market floor was the Veria Wellness Lounge, where MIP attendees could get free massages. And on the occasion of MIP’s 50th anniversary, there were plenty of parties. On Reed MIDEM’s end, the opening party kept guests entertained with performances, a birthday cake-cutting ceremony (with scrumptious cake) and fireworks on the A Partly Sunny 50th Celebration A good convention, but a questionable market that felt the studios’ reduced presence May 2013 MIP-TV Review Lionsgate’s president Jim Packer with M6’s Bernard Majani andVideoAge’s Monica Gorghetto Telefe’s Meca Salado Pizarro, Claudio Ipolitti, Julian Rodriguez Montero, Guillermo Borensztein, Maria Eugenia Costa, Dario Turovelzky CBS’s team at the Médaille d’Honneur Gala
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