Videoage International January 2021

16 January 2021 V I D E O A G E first local superhero story on free TV,” announced Gorentas. “We’ll also premiere other series, so we’ll be attending NATPE Miami with fresh content.” “We have a healthy offering of new pro- gramming across a broad number of feature film and original TV genres,” said Wohl. “FilmRise’s film division has a number of documentaries and features on deck, including LGBTQ+ documentary Deep in Vogue, a comedy that was to premiere at SXSW 2020 pre-pandemic, Drunk Bus , and the March release of Lilly’s Light , a kids musical feature film. From our FilmRise Originals and co-productions group, we just launched the second season of our forensic DNA crime documentary Bloodline Detectives , with the first season coming to digital platforms.” What percentage of your time will be devoted to making sales deals with your traditional partners and what percentage will be for finding new potential clients? “We have good penetration in all territories, but we will focus on finding new clients in Asia in particular,” said Turna. “As of right now, we are looking at a time di- stribution of 80 percent of our meetings devoted to our traditional partners and 20 percent to potential new ones,” said ACI’s O’Shaughnessy. “I do believe virtual markets will become an important tool for meeting new potential clients and we will be focusing on making those connections during this market,” said All3media’s Downing. “We aim, of course, to continue several ne- gotiations we have ongoing,” said Bonaria Fois. “This activity represents about half of our time at the show. We’ll dedicate the other half to finding new partnerships and collaborations, mainly focusing on fiction — in particular drama and comedy for teens and adults.” “While we enjoy the opportunity to catch up with our existing contacts,” added Baritz, “NATPE is always an excellent market for meeting new potential clients and partners. I will spend the majority of my time making new connections.” “The usual split is 80/20,” reported Me- handjiyska. “But given the variety of new digital platforms, we estimate the split will be 70/30.” “The GRB sales team is certainly here to sell, and partners old and neware certainlywelcome!” said Woodle. “We’re also always on the lookout for finished programs and formats in need of international distribution.” “I would say 70 percent to 75 percent of my time goes to existing client relations,” said ATV’s Gorentas. Will you also use NATPE Miami to “talk” about renegotiating deals, or do you prefer to hold these kinds of discussions on other occasions? “We are not renegotiating during this market, however we are acquiring material for the new year,” said O’Shaughnessy. “We believe NATPE Miami will provide us with an initial view of the industry’s needs.” Similarly, saidBaritz, “Iwillnotberenegotiating deals during NATPE. We prefer to have these discussions before or after events.” For Bonaria Fois of Mondo TV Iberoamérica, “it depends on the deals and the clients, to be honest. We have a very specific and personalized approach tailored for each one of our clients and collaborators, so it’s hard to generalize.” Electric’s Mehandjiyska was more pointed: “So far we haven’t had the need to renegotiate.” “Like every other market, we’ll talk about new deals and previous negotiations” at NATPE Miami, said Gorentas. “When you have limited timewith a client, youwant to present new shows, but ongoing negotiations are very important, too. So we’ll be mixing.” FilmRise’s Wohl was noncommittal: “We use NATPE to discuss deals at whatever stage they happen to be in, whether new business, a renewal, or renegotiation,” she said. NATPE Virtual is less expensive than NATPE Live, but is the ROI comparable? “The adaptation of market organizers to the virtual world took longer than expected,” complained Turna, “And to be honest, all the virtual markets we have attended in 2020 were mainly to support the industry. The ROI perspective was not the main focus.” “It’snotreallycomparable,”saidO’Shaughnessy. “Since it is the beginning of the year it’s difficult to assess if a physical event would have brought different business opportunities. We are excited to attend virtually and reconnect with our colleagues and buyers from around the world.” “As this is the first virtual NATPE [of the year],” said Wohl, “we’ve stepped up our support in many creative ways, which will generate the maximum impact and engagement with our clients and content partners. We’re optimistic about the results.” “We’re not getting the same results as with NATPE Live,” said Gorentas, “But we’re adapting to virtual markets even though there have been some technical difficulties.” Bonaria Fois noted that while it’s true that virtual is less expensive, “it still requires a fair amount of planning. To be honest, we have had lots of experience during the past year with virtual events and only a few have had the returns we hoped for. A market like NATPE Miami in particular is one that benefits from the physical presence of participants. The virtual mode is more challenging, but we plan to make the most of it.” “The investment of time with our clients is always time well spent,” said Woodle, “and doing it virtually during a pandemic is safe, yet productive, for all.” “The ROI with NATPE Virtual is greater than NATPE Live,” concluded Multicom’s Baritz. “While I prefer the opportunity to have face- to-face networking at events like NATPE, I feel that the virtual version will likely be equally productive and significantly less costly.” NATPE Miami 2021 Hud Woodle, EVP, International Sales and Operations, for GRB Studios Melissa Wohl, head of Sales at FilmRise Maria Bonaria Fois, CEO of Mondo TV Iberoamérica Jesse Baritz, director of Content Acquisition and Development for Multicom (Continued from Page 14)