Videoage International October 2017

16 October 2017 V I D E O A G E MIPCOM Preview Prior to MIPCOM, VideoAge conducted an informal survey to assess the mood of the upcoming market among several indie distributors. Italy’s Mediaset Distribution will focus on drama, launching crime series Rosy Abate , and highlighting season four of Tuscan Passion and series City Cops 2 . Danny Fisher, CEO and co-founder of New York City-based FilmRise, will be at MIPCOM with seven new movies, including Vengeance: A Love Story , Manifesto and The Vault . He emphasized that they “have North American rights to all titles.” Kerim Emrah Turna director of Sales and Business Development, Americas & Africa of Turkey’s Kanal D, will bring six new titles including: Mehmed the Conqueror , Price of Passion , Tales of Innocence and One Liter of Tears . Michael Lolato, senior vice president of International Distribution for the Los Angeles- based GRB Entertainment, boasted: “We have 24 new shows this year — one of our largest slates.” Also from Los Angeles, Multicom “will be taking at least 10 brand new films and series to MIPCOM,” said company president Irv Holender. As for the number of buyers, Manuela Caputi, head of Sales for Mediaset Distribution, said, “We normally meet with more than 100 buyers from all over the world,” while for Fisher, “I can’t give you an exact number at this time, however I can say this year we are meeting with the most buyers we ever have at MIPCOM.” He then added: “We have, including myself, four team members from FilmRise attending.” Emrah Turna reported a full schedule and his sales force at MIPCOM is expected “to meet more than 400 buyers.” Similarly upbeat was Lolato: “Our schedules are completely full (over 250 meetings between the team) and we are really excited for this market as we have really unique programs,” he said. Holender gave a more subdued number, indicating “over 50 buyers.” Regarding the cost of attending the trade show, for Caputi “MIPCOM is an important event for us and we keep investing in the market.” Said Fisher: “Ironically, our investment with MIPCOM has grown. This market has become more important to us as we experience rapid growth. Just last week we announced our additional $50 million funding, bringing our total acquisition funds raised to date to over $110 million.” Similarly, Turna commented: “We are increasing the size of the investment. This year we changed our location to R9.A32, and we have a bigger stand.” Holender pointed out, “We are expanding and growing every quarter.” The importance of investing on MIPCOM was also stressed by Buenos Aires-based Telefilms’ Tomas Darcyl, who simply pointed out, “We can find all of our partners there. It is always a great opportunity to present themwith all our projects and the new content we’re offering. At GRB, added Lolato, “We are always cost conscious but our investment has remained the same.” What worries Caputi the most are “fragmentation, political and social issues. Also traveling is getting to be an issue, from the weather to terrorists.” On the other hand, for Turna, “Economic instability in most of the developing countries and the growth problem of the advertisement revenues,” are the key concerns. For Holender, “While there is some political and social unrest, there’s also unprecedented growth in video distribution, especially in areas where high quality content is in demand and underserved.” On this topic, Lolato was direct: “Consolidation” is the main worry. A positive note came from Darcyl, who said, “We have no worries because we can count on a fantastic staff of over 160 people in our offices throughout Latin America and Spain and we have the best possible product, to which now we’re adding our own productions of films and TV series.” As for the seven trade shows being held in a two-week period (MIPCOM, Sportel, DISCOP, MIA, AFM, Japan Content, NAB), Caputi commented, “Mediaset Distribution is not directly attending AFM or Japan Content.” Fisher explained: “Since our acquisitions and library consists of feature films, documentaries and TV series, out of the aforementioned seven the trade shows, we only attend MIPCOM and AFM.” Similarly focused on movies, Darcyl said, “Before MIPCOM, we were at TIFF in Toronto and after Cannes we will be at AFM in Santa Monica.” And Holender concluded: “Multicom has to be selective about which trade shows to attend. In the specified two-week period, Multicom sends delegates to MIPCOM, AFM and NAB, as well as MIP Cancun, but we are open to attending a couple of the other ones if organizers spaced out the shows better.” (Continued from Page 14) “MIPCOM’s late dates are welcomed by buyers who can review the early ratings of new series and negotiate better license fees for those shows that didn’t perform well.” Netflix’s spider-men will be crawling all over the Palais and speaking at conferences. TV Azteca’s CEO Benjamin Salinas Sada will be at MIPCOM to celebrate the company’s 25th anniversary.