Videoage International March/April 2021

22 March/April 2021 V I D E O A G E Lives of Trade Shows Reed MIDEM’s MIP-TV was the first major market to cancel its on-site event last April in Cannes. “Clientshavebeen incrediblysupportive,” said Reed MIDEM’s director of Communications Mike Williams, e-mailing from Paris. Williams pointed out that “5,000 people logged onto MIP- TV online, and 6,000 to the online edition of MIPCOM” last autumn. The 58th MIP-TV, set to take place April 12-16, 2021, will also be a digital experience. Reed MIDEM expects the entertainment content industry to return for MIPCOM 2021 (October 11-14 in Cannes) for their “first big face- to-face gathering since 2019,” Williams said. Another market that had to cancel as early as mid-March of last year was Series Mania in Lille, France. The lockdown was announced just a week before the scheduled event, so organizers quickly set up an online platform to access the festival’s content programming and pitching sessions. More recently, after scheduling the 2021 dates for May and June of this year, Series Mania pushed forward its original dates to August 26-September 2, and returned to a physical event. The International Broadcasting Convention (IBC), also cancelled its live event in September of last year. Instead, the organization offered a virtual supplement in the form of the IBC Showcase. IBC2021, the 52nd edition of the show, is on track for an in-person event September 10-13 at the RAI convention center in Amsterdam. In lieu of the in-person NAB Show in Las Vegas in 2020, the National Association of Broadcasters set up the NAB Show Express, a digital event that was moved from April to May. The broadcasters’ association initially scheduled this year’s event for April, but they have since re-scheduled the 2021 NAB Show to take place from October 9-13 as an in-person show in Las Vegas. As for the Independent Film and Television Alliance (IFTA), which organizes the American Film Market (AFM), “AFM 2020 took place online and was received incredibly well by the global industry with 50 percent more exhibitors, speakers, and sessions than AFM 2019,” said Jonathan Wolf, AFM’s managing director. Wolf also stated that “the AFM will welcome the industry back to Santa Monica,” California this November 2-7. The Asia TV Forum & Market 2020 took place entirely online. In its after-market report, organizers indicated that 1,215 companies participated. This year’s ATF will run from December 1-3 in Singapore as an in-person mar- ket. NATPE Virtual Miami 2021 was the first conference of the year, and organizers quickly recognized that they’d need to do something different due to video conferencing fatigue. They therefore produced the conference as one would “program a business television network, with four main channels covering Revenues, Audience Strategy, Acquisition and Distribution (the core business), and New Global Programming,” said NATPE CEO and president JP Bommel. About its NATPE International Budapest conference (scheduled for August 30-September 2) Bommel said, with realistic optimism, that the event is being prepared through “hybrid events combining small and safe attendance with streaming conferences.” Because of timing, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was able to pull off the 92nd Oscars ceremony in February 2020 ahead of the pandemic. The 93rd Academy Awards, however, were pushed back from their original date to April 25, 2021, when the awards ceremony will broadcast live on ABC from multiple locations. Similarly, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts was able to throw the BAFTA awards unscathed in February. However, the British Academy also puts together several other awards ceremonies, such as the games awards and TV craft awards, which were or-ganized as socially distanced shows under COVID regulations. The BAFTA 2021 Awards will be held the weekend of April 10-11 as two shows broadcast virtually from Royal Albert Hall in London. The Los Angeles-based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), also known as the Television Academy, which was founded in 1946, also had to pivot and adapt to the changes due to the pandemic, and its in-person member events and peer group professional development panels and activities all transitioned online, as well. According to a Television Academy spoke- sperson, they were very pleased with the 2019 Primetime Emmys, saying “host Jimmy Kimmel and the producers hit it out of the park, setting a new standard for what can be accomplished creatively.” Feedback from “viewers, U.S. critics, and licensees around the world was extremely positive,” the spokesperson added. (Continued from Cover) The Television Academy Foundation’s College Television Awards were presented online in a combined live/pre-taped pro- duction with well-known presenters. Its online seminars with leading television presenters enhance its renowned summer internship program. The 73rd Emmy Awards’ airdate and network (CBS) was recently announced. It will not only air on CBS this September 19, but on- demand on its sister streamer Paramount Plus, as well. The New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), now in its 66th year, has held all of its events virtually and does not expect to return to in-person events until 2022, according to Paul Pillitteri, SVP, Operations. NATAS is responsible for 19 regional Emmy Awards yearly, the Sports Emmys, News and Documentary Emmys, and the Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards. NATAS’s OTT platform, watch.theEmmys.tv, streams its shows. Pillitteri added that they are in discussions with CBS to broadcast the Daytime Emmy Awards as they did last year. The International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, which honors non-U.S. broadcasters with its Emmy Awards, held its annual gala in November online. Prior to the pandemic, the International Emmys were held in New York the Monday before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. While all the organizations have had their challenges in the past year due to the coronavirus, they do not expect to alter their businesses in the long term. When asked whether ATAS and NATAS might re-merge, reps for both organizations said they have had no discussions regarding merging as they have a “good working agreement” and “regularly confer with each other concerning events and other competition elements,” NATAS’s Pillitteri stated. He added that they have the “same relationship with the International Academy.” (*By Farrell Meisel) * Farrell Meisel is a broadcaster who has launched, managed, and consulted with media companies, including the first private Russian commercial network, TV6 Moscow for Turner Broadcasting, HBO International, TGRT Turkey, MediaCorp in Singapore, Alhurra TV (pan- Arabic news channel from Washington, D.C.), and Group One/1TV in Kabul, Afghanistan, among others. Luis Polanco contributed to these story. JP Bommel said, with realistic optimism, that NATPE is being prepared through “hybrid events combining small and safe attendance with streaming conferences.”