Video Age International October 2016

28 October 2016 V I D E O A G E N ATPE Budapest kicked off on Monday, June 27 with the pre-market Warner Bros. and Lionsgate screenings and a reception for buyers. Between the events, over 120 of the 450-plus expected buyers were already in action at the InterContinental Hotel, the market’s official venue. By 10 a.m. the following day, the three-day market was already in full swing with packed corridors on the second floor, where the suites were located and at the crowded stands, boxes and tables on the first floor of the hotel. A total of 135 exhibiting companies catered to expected buyers, even though the final tally indicated no more than 400 buyers. In addition, a general complaint from indie distributors was the fact that many buyers would not answer their e-mails. It looked like NATPE Europe, now NATPE Budapest, returned to its pre-Prague and post-Budapest glory of four years ago. “I love Budapest,” commented Nidal M. Garcia, a buyer from Lebanon. “I stopped attending when it moved to Prague,” she added. The market’s first day started promptly with the CBS Studios’ screenings at 8 a.m., a 10-minute walk from the InterContinental. The same theater was used in the afternoon for the NBCUniversal screenings. At noon, one of the six official conferences — the HBO-sponsored luncheon where a new local production was previewed — was held at the Corso Restaurant on the hotel’s ground floor and at 3 p.m. Mediaset held a press conference for Rocco Siffredi, star of the company’s series presented at the trade show. The market’s second day began with a seminar that was not on the official schedule and was organized by the CCTV-China Pavilion at NATPE Budapest to introduce co-productions with Hungary, and held at the nearby Sofitel. The hotel was the original venue for NATPE in Europe when it was called Discop. The day concluded with the opening party staged at the InterContinental hotel, where the market organizers’ concern for the increased number of people mingling and meeting without registering was well in evidence. This often-practiced occurrence was brought to the attention of marketgoers as part of NATPE’s newcampaign to reduce the number of participants who attendwithout paying the registration fee, and take advantage of the open hotel lobby, bars and restaurants. This practice, much more pervasive at NATPE Miami, prompted market organizers to post a warning “Regarding unfair competition and parasitic business practices.” (see photo below) Commented Hajnalka Czövek, head of Kedd Kids: “We are based in Budapest, as Kedd is a Hungarian animation studio. We did not attend the market, we were invited only to the China- Hungarian media seminar at the Sofitel.” Even though the international press was invited to the China-Hungary seminar, the event was conducted in Chinese with Hungarian translation only. A total of 54 buying countries participated, and of these, 25 came from CEE territories. The problem was that a good number of buyers left on the market’s second day because their hotels were comped on Monday and Tuesday, possibly to attend the U.S. studios’ screenings. This prompted some indie distributors to suggest that NATPE should comp those same buyers for Tuesday and Wednesday instead. However, to some exhibitors, such as Italy’s RAI, Wednesday was the busiest day in terms of appointments. A random VideoAge survey of a few exhibitors indicated some recurring themes. Commented Kanal D’s Ezgi Ural: “The Budapest accommodations were definitely better than those in Prague. We had a lot of options with larger capacity hotels at lower costs. On average we met one buyer from each Balkan country, [but] even though it wasway better and beneficial when compared to last year’s NATPE Prague, it still lacked client diversity. In terms of product, NATPE in Europe Revitalized In Budapest, Yet Some Issues Linger CEE Content Biz Report Michelle Payne of CBSSI’s London office (third from r.) hosted CBS’ new season screenings at the Puskin Mozi Cinema in Budapest NATPE’s warning, posted by the elevators The closing party sponsored by Sony Pictures Television The area of the meeting boxes adjacent to the stand zone Margherita Zocaro of Italy’s RaiCom in the corridors of her InterContinental suite on the second floor NATPE’s COO JP Bommel (r.) at the buyers’ reception (Continued on Page 30)