Videoage International October 2017

26 October 2017 V I D E O A G E NATPE Budapest Report The U.S. Studios Showed Their Power, Buyers Responded & Indies Benefitted M onday, June 19, was a very hectic pre- market day at NATPE Budapest 2017 with an early morning Warner Bros. Screenings that continued after lunch, followed by an afternoon Lionsgate Screening, which was preceded by cocktails. The late afternoon continued just as hectically, with a buyers’ reception, and a massive, but brief, Wi-Fi service interruption at the InterContinental Hotel, the market venue, which aggravated the frenzied participants. As for the screenings, Warner Bros. featured seven new shows in the morning and two after lunch. Lionsgate screened 14 promos and two full episodes. The studios each had between 80 and 100 buyers in attendance. The next day it was the 140 exhibition companies’ turn to open up for business with over 400 registered buyers. Exhibitors were split between the market floor stands, tables and the suites on the second floor. It was also a “marathon day” for some buyers, who screened five full shows during the morning at CBSSI, took a break for an NBCUniversal lunch in the same theater (while the NBCUni execs were setting up) and then screened six more shows in the afternoon from NBCUni. All this while 20th Century Fox was also screening six full episodes (plus promos) of their new series and offering lunch at a different theater some 1.5 kilometers away. Three studios took turns screening at the Puskin Theater (Warner Bros, CBS and NBCUni), while Fox screened at the Toldi Theater, and Lionsgate at one of the InterContinental meeting rooms. All U.S. studios participated at this NATPE Budapest, with Sony also sponsoring the opening By the afternoon, exhibitors reported good traffic both on the floor and in the hotel suites’ corridors. After a slow start, Wednesday opened with a China Showcase at the InterContinental, while in the afternoon there was a press conference by Italy’s Mediaset to highlight its new format Donnavventura Challenge . Seven additional conferences were scattered among the three-day market with two luncheons sponsored by Viacom and Kanal D respectively. Two trends are worth noting: This time, indie exhibitors were not complaining about the studios’ off-site screenings taking away buyers from the floor; and there was a dwindling presence of Latin American companies, which years ago constituted the exhibition’s lion share. Today, only six Latin sellers remained as exhibitors, and Latin TV’s main competitors, the Turkish companies, too, had somewhat At the 20th Century Fox screenings (l. to r.): Lauren James, Simon Bathe, Dorothy Crompton At the NBCUniversal screenings (l. to r.): Anthony Asfour, ManuelaMorar, Ben Cowling, Daryna Pyrogova, Sheraz Tahir At the CBS screenings (l. to r.): Noelia Nicolas, Michelle Payne, Caroline Hurmson (Continued on Page 28) (l. to r.) Mediaset’s Manuela Caputi, Sonia Danieli, Claudia Marra night party on Tuesday, and Disney, MGM and Paramount renting large suites (these latter ones did not have general screenings).