Videoage International December 2017
24 December 2017 V I D E O A G E O n October 25, just five days after MIPCOM ended in Cannes, DISCOP Johannesburg opened its doors at the Sandton Convention Center. More than 150 exhibitors — scattered in stands, pavilions, meeting tables and viewing boxes — welcomed 1,506 attendees in South Africa’s largest city. African companies such as The Africa Channel, Digital Lab Africa, SABC and Cote Ouest Audiovisuel were once again housed in large stands, as were U.S. and global companies Zee, Sony Pictures, NBCUniversal, Televisa, BBC and Eutelsat, all of which returned to Johannesburg with large exhibiting booths. New this year was the presence of a German Pavilion as Germany was the guest country at this edition. The proximity of this event to MIPCOM was a frequent topic of conversation, with many fatigued U.S. and Latin American exhibitors forced to stay over in Europe before making the trip over to South Africa. They all faced the problem of the critical post-MIPCOM follow- up, which couldn’t be done in a timely manner. Televisa’s Mario Castro pointed out that he “had to do a lot of follow-up work during the weekend while preparing for this other market,” while TV Azteca’s Berta Orozco admitted she was writing follow-up emails at her stand in between meetings on the first day of DISCOP. To address this issue, DISCOP boss, Patrick Zuchowicki, announced that the 2018 market will be held later, November 16-19. Although MIP Cancun traditionally occupies that week, most distributors said that they would welcome the change, especially considering that the two events focus on different types of buyers and territories, and different sales people are usually assigned to attend each market. The new dates will also jettison the conflict with Japan’s TIFFCOM, which took place in Tokyo at the same time as the African trade show. Another frequent topic of conversation among distributors in attendance at DISCOP was the high number of no-shows and appointments cancelled at the last minute. ABS-CBN’s Laarni Yu — who has gone to Johannesburg for years — felt that the database of buyers in attendance did not correspond to the executives actually at the market. That feeling was shared by Mondo TV’s Micheline Azoury — also a long-time supporter of the event —who stressed that most of the sales deals made with Mondo’s African clients are a consequence of existing relationships, not due to their presence at DISCOP. Kanal D’s KerimEmrah Turna said he’d like to see DISCOP organizers take action to rectify this issue, and strongly stressed how the format of MIP Cancun — with highly controlled and timed meeting schedules — is extremely efficient and productive. Organizers actually did make an effort to tackle this problem this year, setting up an office on the exhibition floor where distributors could file a “No Show Report Form” so that organizers could contact the buyers in default, obtain an explanation for the missed appointment and, if possible, reschedule. Discovery Learning’s Bruce Rabinowitz commended the organizers for “forwarding” buyers to his meeting table, once he complained abouttheno-shows.Asforscheduledappointments that actually did occur on time, distributors registered brisk activity. Comarex’s Adela Velasco pointed out that she had a very busy first day and concluded most of her business then. As far as the product being offered at DISCOP, since many titles are still new in these territories — with a vast potential for expansion — some sellers chose to focus on content that’ll work better for local audiences. Televisa’s Castro explained that his firm’s old-fashioned telenovelas are currently more appreciated than the “modernized” ones since African audiences prefer more traditional “Cinderella” stories. GMA’s Raymond Soriano, who was attending DISCOP for the third time, explained that he was concentrating on selling non-exclusive rights for the company’s English- dubbed drama series (which are in high demand). He said that he would need to license this product to at least four different African buyers just to recoup the cost of dubbing, which is about U.S.$1,000 per episode. Emrah Turna agreed that English-language product is what drives Kanal D’s sales efforts at DISCOP, and it is because of this (and the fact that African buyers are still paying low prices for content) that the company has invested a lot in this market. It is to be noted that dubbing companies (for both the English and French languages) were prominent among the market’s participants. On the conference side, all panels and sessions were held on the exhibition floor, instead of the conference rooms located on the upper level of the Sandton Center. Two auditorium areas were set up. The Mahala TV Theater was for pitching and screening sessions, while the Next Gen Theater was for master classes, talks and seminars. Next Gen panels included a day one session featuring a discussion on how local creators and international kids’ channels partner to develop local content. The next day’s activities included a talk by GRB’s Liz Levenson on opportunities for American and African producers, as well as an afternoon session on what makes a TV series travel well. Day three focused on Turkish TV and film, and featured a master class on “African comic books to animation feature films,” among other sessions. All panels and classes were well attended. Conflicting Dates With MIPCOM Strain Market Strength, Not Enthusiasm DISCOP Africa Report The Africa Channel, L. to r.: Brendan Gabriel, Karen Juve, Lynneise Joseph, Narendra Reddy, straight to DISCOP fromMIPCOM. NBCUniversal’s Lavern Swartz, Lara Ingle Kanal D’s Kerim Emrah Turna and Selim Türkmen, stopped over at their Istanbul headquarters before heading to DISCOP The Mahala TV Theater for pitching and screening sessions
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