M I P C O M R E V I E W Chad Hurley, founder and CEO of Internet video juggernaut YouTube, opened MIPCOM’s first-ever Broadband Video Summit, which went on for a full day, with panels and lectures geared towards TV on the Web. As far as territories garning attention there were several: Russia, Spain, Italy and the Latin American region as a whole. Russian companies represented a large and ever-growing contingent at MIPCOM and, on that front, the ones VideoAge contacted were mum about the recent news that Rupert Murdoch will be pulling out of Russia after Russian investigators raided the offices of News Corp.’s News Outdoor Group (NOG) in Moscow. NOG is Russia’s largest outdoor advertising company with more than 36,000 sites across 90 cities. According to one European consultant with extensive dealings in Russia, the reason why people were reluctant to talk is because “Russia is not yet a completely democratic country.” With the combination of an increasing presence of Latin American buyers and the worldwide popularity of Latin TV shows at an all-time high, it’s no wonder that Latin American companies were having a very busy MIPCOM. Diego Lerner, president of Disney Media Networks Latin American (DMNLA) announced that DMNLA’s distribution unit will now distribute all Disney and non-Disney branded content to the Hispanic market in the U.S. Fernando Barbosa, svp Distribution for DMNLA, and his Miami-based team will lead the new business venture, reporting to both Lerner and Janice Marinelli, president of Disney-ABC Domestic Television. During the same press conference, DMNLA and Discovery Networks Latin America announced a production agreement to create a local version of the reality show The Amazing Race for the entire region. In addition, DMNLA and Internet company Terra TV have expanded their partnership and announced a host of new programs for 2009. Terra will host Disney LA’s new “Catch Up” format, which will make primetime series such as Lost and Grey’s Anatomy available on the Web shortly after their TV premieres. In other Latin America news, executives from Buenos Aires-based company Flor Latina (previously known as the Latin Flower Company) were at MIPCOM for the first time with the new name, and said that the climate for Latins couldn’t be better. Raphael Correa Netto, director of International Sales for Brazil-based Globo TV International, also found that MIPCOM is, more than ever, a productive place for his company. “Taking part in MIPCOM [also] gives us a great opportunity to get closer to our clients in Africa and Asia,” he said. Cesar Diaz, vp of Sales for Miamibased Venevision International, remarked that, “it’s very important to us that people recognize that we’re not only about telenovelas.” Venevision is emphasizing its documentary content in addition to its usual arsenal of telenovelas. Spain was this MIPCOM’s country of honor, and one could say that the country’s TV sector is losing (with honor), the battle to win the hearts, minds and wallets of Latin America, Spain’s close kin. Indeed, the lack of a major presence of Spanish TV companies at both NATPE and the L.A. Screenings, two of the major Latin American trade shows, indicates what would seem to be capitulation. The trend, now, is for Spanish companies to leave their imprint on the region through co-ventures with Latin America and U.S.-based companies. On the domestic front, Spain is also facing a few drawbacks. For Ignacio Orive, president of Spain’s Elastic Rights, major changes loom in the immediate future. “We are rapidly moving from a market dominated by a few FTA channels, to one in which 40 to 45 channels are fighting over an NO V E M B E R/ DE C E M B E R 2 0 0 8 V I D E O • A G E 10 Above: Peace Arch’s Jacques de Suze, Victor Rodriguez, Mary Herne and Kevin Byles Above left: VideoAge’s traditional breakfast meeting Left: Televisa’s Fernando Perez Gavilan, A3’s Mercedes Gamero, Televisa’s Manuel Gilardi, Claudia Sahab and Ricardo Ehrsam Lionsgate’s Craig Cegielski, Sandra Stern and Kevin Beggs advertising pie that will not have grown, and may have even shrunk,” he asserted. Orive went on to explain that “pay-TV never really took off in Spain, so the owners of the pay channels have all started to move to DTT, which, especially in tough economic times, must be a bigger attraction than pay.” Currently, however, Spanish laws don’t allow for pay-DTT, and Orive questions whether 40 or 45 channels can survive on the same advertising pie, which hitherto had supported a maximum of 10. Imagina’s Geraldine Gonard is also concerned about the imminent fragmentation of Spain’s broadcasting market, “Distributors will have to make more sales as each of the sales made will be for less money,” she said. She also believes that “fragmentation is likely to lead to some early consolidation in the broadcast sector.” The theme of Wednesday’s traditional VideoAge breakfast was Africa, and in particular, the launch — next February 25-27 — of DISCOP Africa in the seaside city of Dakar. Patrick Jucaud of DISCOP East organizer Basic Lead, and Rick Feldman, president of event partner NATPE, were on hand to talk about their plans for the new market. Special guests from Nigerian company Daar Group, as well as representatives from eight other countries were in agreement that, for a variety of reasons, DISCOP Africa could take the place of the now-defunct Monte Carlo market. In his remarks, Jucaud stressed the importance of advertisers to the future development of broadcasting in Africa. As he put it, “they are crucial to the process.” Feldman, for his part, offered his outfit’s complete support for DISCOP Africa and went on to highlight a few additions to NATPE ’09. Participants can look forward to an expanded convention floor with a restaurant, a theater for high-tech demonstrations and double the floor space. Going back to MIPCOM, a surprise for some was the elimination of buyers’ pigeonholes, making it more difficult to reach them. Next to go are the press pigeonholes, while this year the organizers did away with all printed press information, since, it was said, it’s all available online. While it’s true that journalists don’t have the time to retype press releases and therefore it’s better to receive them online, the Internet is not too practical and rather time-consuming when in need of quick reference material or just to check people’s names and affiliations. Because the flow of people is now shifting from the Palais’ basement to the Riviera side of the convention center and, lately to the seaside next to the Riviera, the traffic in the “bunker” seemed light. This, however, did not indicate a reduced number of participants, which was tallied at 13,588, or a 1.6 percent increase over last October’s event. (Continued from page 8)
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