Videoage International April 2019

18 April 2019 V I D E O A G E T he two daily editions of VideoAge at NATPE painted three different pictures of the 40th edition of the TV market, which was held in Miami Beach in January for its ninth consecu- tive year. The pictures included NATPE’s present challenges, its future issues, and the exhibitors who leveraged the market the most. The front page of the Day One Daily — which, like the Day Two edition, was distributed to all participants in their hotel rooms — focused on the market’s business at hand, reporting on the fact that the panelists at a good number of conferences were also exhibitors — a development that was most welcome. It also made note of the unusually large number of parties (which ultimately totaled 17 in a three-day period) and the challenges presented by several factors, such as the high costs associated with the market’s venue (the Fontainebleau hotel), the market’s narrow scope (limited to LATAM), the reduced number of participants, and the not-for- profit association’s finances. Those elements sparked an unusual NATPE board meeting on Wednesday January 23, the sec- ond day of the market. This sort of meeting is usu- ally held at the market’s conclusion. At the end of themeeting, NATPE’s CEO, JP Bommel, reported to VideoAge Daily that the board had full confidence in the association’s current management. During this exclusive interview with a Video- Age reporter, Bommel was presented with several suggestions harvested from participants and ex- hibitors alike. And here are some of them: One proposal was that the market floor should open at 9 a.m. — not 10 a.m. — on the first day of the event, in order to give buyers and sellers more time to conduct business, since many par- ticipants tend to leave on the earlier side. Another was that even though the increased participation of exhibitors as panelists was a widely approved development, many felt that the conferences should start on Day Two, or at least be relegated to the afternoons, so as not to steer buyers away from the market’s floors. A third idea was that the conferences should involve a larger number of buyers. Bommel responded to this one, stating that, this year, NATPE organized private gatherings of buyers and sellers. Another suggestion was for NATPE to offer free registration to buyers who commit to meeting with at least 35 sellers. In terms of efficiency, a widely expressed opin- ionwas to replace the ineffective outside organiza- tion that coordinated registrations this year. It was also said that NATPE’s online newsletter needs lots of improvement in order to be as in- formative and effective as the one produced, for instance, by NAB. For the needed expansion, suggestions included taking over themarket portion of the Jornadas Sep- tember event in Buenos Aires (which is organized by two Argentinean associations that are good at staging conferences, but not markets), and start- ing a TV market in Milan, Italy in July (when many TV executives tend to travel to Europe) to replace the old MIFED, whose demise was caused by politi- cal reasons — not industry-related issues. (It failed after leftist politicians moved it to Rome where it never really picked up steam.) In addition to NATPE Miami, the not-for-profit association currently stages two additional, al- beit smaller, markets: One for the independent distributors at the L.A. Screenings in May, the other in Budapest in June. The former event was reviewed in VideoAge ’s Day Two Daily. One suggestion expressed by a journalist for The Daily Television during the closing press confer- ence on the market’s last day was to organize food stands to counterbalance the high costs at the Fon- tainebleau hotel, and, if not possible in that hotel, to make arrangements with nearby hotels. At the same press conference, Bommel ex- plained that this NATPE moved along on three major (and different) levels: On the domestic (U.S.) side, which returned with first-run shows; on the international side, which showed some growth, especially with Japan doubling its pres- ence; and on the digital side. This latter classification, as indicated in a Vid- eoAge Monthly editorial, is code for Netflix and Amazon, who received more attention than was warranted, much more than other TV-buying or- ganizations. Bommel also pointed out that, this year, up to 35 percent of market participants were women. In addition, after acknowledging that 33 out of 116 speakers at the conference were also exhibi- tors, he pledged to increase that number. Howev- er, he stressed that it would not be used as a way to incentivize executives to exhibit. Andy Kaplan, NATPE’s chairman, who also participated at the press conference, reported that he gets many calls from executives who want to be on the pan- els “to tell their stories.” Then there are the limited options to replace the Fontainebleau as the market’s venue. As reported in VideoAge’s Day One Daily, Latin America (NATPE’s main focus) represents up to 12 percent of most exhibitors’ annual revenues. Companies therefore allocate an equal amount of their marketing budgets, which are met by utiliz- ing hotel suites. This will preclude exhibiting in convention centers (as happened in the distant past) and building expensive booths. One alternative floating around was to move the market to the nearby town of Fort Lauder- dale, which would offer a choice of equally large hotels, but at a fraction of the cost. This option met the favor of at least one major U.S. studio, which pointed out that it will only take 15 more minutes to get from the Miami airport to Fort Lauderdale. It was also pointed out that by mov- ing to Fort Lauderdale, most participants, who now commute to the market from their homes in Miami, would most likely have to rent hotel rooms at the convention hotel, thereby increasing NATPE’s revenues. Day Two of VideoAge ’s Daily focused on those The Miami Market’s Present And Future as Reported in VideoAge Daily NATPE Review A+E held a party at the Soho Beach House in Miami Beach: A+E International’s Edward Sabin, Ellen Lovejoy, Patrick Vien Paramount Pictures’ Dina Vangelisti Lionsgate’s Agapy Kapouranis and Kevin Beggs (Continued on Page 20)