Videoage International October 2019

22 October 2019 V I D E O A G E T his year’s edition of NATPE Budapest Inter- national (NBI) came to a close unusually late in the month of June, running from June 25-27, 2019. Next year’s edition will be even later, ending on July 3, due to the 2020 UEFA Eu- ropean Football Championship games, some of which will take place in Budapest in the weeks leading up to NBI. NBI 2019, held at the InterContinental Hotel, welcomed about 1,500 participants coming from 70 countries. VideoAge asked a few of the attendees how they thought the Junemarket went. Responses, of course, varied. But there weren’t the usual protests about the U.S. studios’ screenings, which took place on Monday for Warner Bros., Tuesday morning for CBS, Tuesday afternoon for NBC/Uni, on Wednesday morning for MGM, and on Wednesday afternoon for Lionsgate. Matthew Frank, CEO of London-based TRX, an online licensing platform for TV rights, said, “[NBI] was similar to previous years — I like the fact that the market is more intimate than the MIP markets in Cannes. It was well attended by buyers and we had full diaries.” “This was my first NATPE Europe since the event was in Prague in 2015,” commented Eric Lapointe, president of And Now Global, an international film and television distribution company based out of Vancouver. “This year’s market would be hard to compare to the 2015 event, but I did feel it was easier to get meetings and also meet new people in the business.” Alessandro Venturi, sales manager at Italy’s Mondo TV, a producer and distributor speciali- zing in animated properties, said that, “the mar- ket seemed to be a little bit better than previous years —by that, of course, I mean in terms of par- ticipants and fruitful or constructive meetings.” “Clearly, this show has a strong appeal to buyers from CEE so it is less likely to have the at- tendance numbers of a Europe-wide exhibition,” he continued. “However, it is certainly a very effective exhibition for visitors from Eastern Europe, or those wanting to do TV-focused bu- siness with that region.” The market encompasses Central and Eastern Europe, CIS countries, and MENA territories, and expectedly, CEE territories were the most represented. Lapointe found “some interesting surprises with people attending from Spain, China, the Middle East, Canada, and the United States.” Mondo TV’s Venturi concurred, “As you might expect, the main areas involved were Eastern Europe and the former Yugoslavia. There was also a reasonable turnout from the Middle East, Russia (and the former CIS), China, and Latin America.” NATPE Budapest participants observed a more coordinated front on thepart of theorganizers.On that note, Lapointe offered, “The organizational choice to integrate panels throughout the week, instead of having them be on one day only, was better as it allows for people to incorporate the conversations that are relevant to them into their schedule instead of squishing everything on the first day when most people haven’t arrived yet.” This year, the market’s programming included the fourth edition of Pitch & Play Live!, a format competition in which the owner of the winning format wins development meetings with distributors, as well as complimentary registration for NATPE Miami 2020. The expert jury consisted of Andrea Gavacova, Format Sales director for Central and Eastern Europe, Fremantle; Peter Nunez, founder of NUNEZ NFE; and Nick Smith, executive vice president of Formats at All3media International. The winning format was Sanatorium of Love , a program that focuses on the experiences of six elderly women and six senior men at a mountainside resort, from TVP Poland. Overall, the market remained consistent, with Venturi commenting, “The turnout, in terms of both quality and quantity, appeared to roughly match that of previous editions of NATPE Budapest.” TRX’s Frank added, “I was happy with the level of attendance and would attend again next year.” Lapointe saw that “the space itself and the events did a great job of opening up opportunities for networking.” He then added, “Of course, there is still room to grow further by ensuring more buyers from the region do attend the market regularly year after year. It’s interesting to see buyers from other regions attending, but the priority for the market should be to continue making NATPE Budapest a consistent and reliable place for sales executives to do business in Central and Eastern Europe, first and foremost.” To Laarni J. Yu, head of international sales for the Philippines’ ABS-CBN, the market “was better than last year in terms of opportunities, meaning that we got inquiries that matched the content that we produce, and even formats. In our country we can match different cultures.” ABS-CBN returned to NATPE Budapest last year, after a two-year absence. “In the past the market was slow, but now it’s picking up,” Yu said, “on Tuesday [the market’s opening day] we had back-to-back meetings. Today, NATPE Budapest is a two-day market. Previously, it was just one day,” she concluded. Ekin Koyuncu of Turkey-based Kanal D, who focuses on the CEE region, said, “It was slower when compared to previous years, it felt like there was a decrease in buyers and an increase in sellers. The organization was good, though, and the hotel team was very helpful.” The Turkish state helps export its country’s TV content by funding 60 percent of marketing and promotional costs, and the results can also be seen at TV trade shows such as NATPE Budapest, where the so-called “seven sisters” (the coun- Better Than Last Year. Business Wasn’t Perfect, But Still the Only Game in Town NATPE Budapest Review (Continued on Page 24) Laarni J. Yu of the Philippines’ ABS-CBN Calinos’ Goryana Vasileva and Asli Serim Guliyev MGE’s Esperanza Garay with Mediaset’s Sonia Danieli, Manuela Caputi, and Claudia Marra NATPE’s JP Bommel with Matthew Frank of London-based TRX at the Buyers’ Reception