Video Age International February-March 2016

10 March 2016 V I D E O A G E O ne could say that NATPEMiami 2016was a hot market in a cool place. Indeed, an unusual cold spell embraced Miami at its start, bringing the outside temperatures on par with the freezing air-conditioned temperatures that people in Miami like indoors; the climate made for brisk walking, heavy drinking and an abundance of cold remedies. The walking was due to several factors: back- to-back meetings, which required buyers to shuttle among four towers at the Fontainebleau Hotel (the market’s official venue), two market floors and the poolside cabanas, together with the conferences that, this year, were moved to the adjacent Eden Roc Hotel. The second market floor was carved out of the ballroom space previously occupied by the conferences. The heavy drinking was attributed to myriad parties, which began even before the start of the market on Sunday with VIP2000, followed on Monday with NATPE’s Welcoming Cocktail and Tuesday with NATPE’s opening party. This was in addition to A+E Networks, China TV Drama Production Industry, YiP and the mega party from Telemundo Internacional, which went overboard with 200 more participants than the 400 who had RSVP’d. More parties were given on Wednesday with the Book Launch Party, TVFI’s wine and cheese party, the Tartikoff Awards, NBCUniversal and Viacom parties, and more. A pleasant surprise was the fact that elevator lines at the Tresor Tower were short, mostly due to the fact that distributors’ suites were evenly scattered among the Fontainebleau’s four towers. This development also accounted for emptier corridors at the Tresor than during past NATPE editions, since most floors housed only one or two exhibition suites. As for the business part, some buyers reported meetings every half hour throughout the day. Some were looking for product, others met with sellers to renegotiate financial terms and others to screen rushes coming out of co-productions. U.S. domestic syndicators recorded a good number of TV station groups of all sizes, and some U.S. studios, like Sony Pictures, had only domestic divisions exhibiting. International distributors catered to buyers from the traditional LATAM territories as well as to a large number from Europe. Commented Starz’s Gene George, “For us, NATPE has three components: the relationship with U.S. stations, the Latin Americans (mostly free TV, which for us represents the thirdwindow) and selected international buyers, especially from France, Scandinavia and Germany.” George said that, “NATPE was very busy, especially due to the coordination of day-and-date international pay-TV releases, which is our first window.” The market was busy even on the third and last day — Thursday, January 21 — and if it hadn’t been for the weekend snow storm alert affecting the U.S.’s East Coast airports, many participants would have stayed longer. This NATPE showcased more exhibitors (315, including 35 new ones), more buyers (over 1,000) and more events (seven, including the Reality Breakthrough Awards). New this year was the Reality Buyers Hall, where reality show buyers had tables for meetings. Reality was a major focus at NATPE, with a two-day event that included the second annual Reality Breakthrough Awards and 11 conference sessions (out of the 58 scheduled total throughout the three-day market). Also making his debut was NATPE’s new COO, JP Bommel, who will take on the role after current chief Rod Perth retires this March. With 113 participating companies from nine countries, Europe sent a large contingent, second only to the U.S. (116 companies), while LATAM sent 20 exhibitors from five counties. In terms of participation, the bulk of attendees came from the U.S. and Canada (70 percent), followed by LATAM (14 percent) and Europe (11 percent). Whether January is a good time to introduce new shows, Telemundo’s Joysette Rivera said, “since [NATPE] is the first content market of the year, most if not all my clients [attend].” For Armoza Formats’ Avi Armoza, “it does A Growing Market With Plenty of Room to Grow Outside LATAM NATPE Report Left to right: A+E’s Hannah Carrady, Pawn Stars ’ Chumlee, A+E’s Chris Epple, Pawn Stars ’ Rick Harrison, A+E’s Jade Cayne at the A+E Networks party Eva Longoria between M6’s Bernard Majani and Thomas Valentin at the NBCUniversal party Mediaset Distribution’s Manuela Caputi and Sonia Danieli paid a visit to VideoAge ’s booth (Continued on Page 12)