Videoage International October 2019

30 October 2019 V I D E O A G E T oo much success might be unhealthy for MIP Cancun. This, in a nutshell, is the assessment coming from several past exhibitors about this upcoming MIP Cancun market, to be held November 20-22. In fact, some of them are planning to attend as participants. Their rationale is that the ratio of sellers to buyers no longer works in their favor because Reed MIDEM, the market’s organizer, tends to fill the acquisitions’ list with non-qualitative buyers in order to meet the up to 13 one-on-one meetings-per-day quota that is guaranteed to exhibitors. According to Benedicte Touchard de Morant, director of MIP Cancun, there will be 13 one-to-one meetings on day one and 13 on day two for distribution companies. On the third day, there will be seven meetings. “By attending as a participant I can save $2,500 and have five qualitative meetings (that I can pick), rather than spending $6,000 as an exhibitor and have no quality meetings because I’m forced to see buyers picked by the organizers,” commented one past exhibitor who wished to remain anonymous. It is important to point out, however, that the selection of the participating acquisition companies is a long process in which both the exhibitors and the organizers go back and forth. And even though it is not perfect, the exhibitors are ultimately able to accept or reject a good number of the buyers they want to meet with. Nonetheless, added another past exhibitor, “I was booked for the required 25-minute meeting with a food TV network buyer, who attended because it was an all-expenses-paid trip. Naturally, he wasn’t interested in the dramas, children’s shows, or documentaries that I was selling, so he sat there listening with a wandering mind.” At recent MIP Cancun editions, there were also complaints that some buyers were a little too honest when approaching the exhibitors’ tables, telling the execs sitting there outright that it was a dearth of funds that kept them from purchasing content. Another factor determining the sellers’ critical assessment of the market is that small TV stations and networks in Central and South America are stuffing their morning-to-afternoon schedules with locally produced programming consisting mainly of talk, news, gossip, and formats, while primetime schedules are filled by Turkish dramas. This leaves few time slots for other programs. In addition, innovative approaches to sales have not been successful. Past MIP Cancun exhibitors reported that selling shows as replacements for weaker ones (as the U.S. syndicators used to do domestically) doesn’t work in LATAM because small TV stations are not sophisticated enough. “When they buy, they do it just on instinct,” commented one seller. This, however, could be an area in which a resourceful organization such as Reed MIDEM could help by identifying weak time slots on small LATAM TV stations and the type of replacement shows that would do better in terms of ratings. Market organizers acknowledged that the market concept, even though innovative, can only expand the number of exhibitors in proportion to the number of acquisition executives it can invite. Under this business model the main approach for the market to grow its revenues is to increase participation costs, which will add to the exhibitors’ grievances. However, MIP Cancun’s Touchard de Morant stated, “The market will continue to grow. The first year we had 40 buyers and last year we had 180 buyers! The market will grow due to the addition of two more conferences about co-productions and content development. In addition, this year we added three new events: a formats competition (sponsored by All3media), a PRODU Award Ceremony, and a networking breakfast sponsored by the Worldwide Audio- visual Women’s Association (WAWA).” Then there is thequestionofwhetherMIPCancun cannibalizes MIPCOM or NATPE Miami. There are two schools of thought with regard to this topic. For cost reasons MIPCOMwas never a must-attend among small LATAM stations, but it was a favorite of large production and distribution companies, like Televisa, TV Azteca, and Caracol. But MIPCOM is becoming less important for large LATAM buyers these days, who still attend — albeit with fewer people — for strategic reasons. “They don’t want to go just to NATPE Miami [in January] and discover that some shows were sold to competitors at MIPCOM,” explained a LATAM TV executive. Also, MIPCOM is still important to LATAM’s independent distributors, who go toCannes to acquire product to distribute in Latin America. So, the rationale goes, small LATAM TV sta- tions stopped attending costly NATPE Miami in favor of all-expenses-paid MIP Cancun. But small LATAM TV stations were never a main staple of NATPE, which focuses on medium and large buyers who still attend in large numbers. In addition, contrary to MIPCOM, all LATAM indies distribute, and attend NATPE only to sell. The “cannibalization” issue can be added to another matter, as well. MIP Cancun is not a huge money-making event for Reed MIDEM, which also has to hope that the Moon Palace Resort, the market’s headquarters and hotel facilities, won’t raise its rates. MIP Cancun also lost ProMexico’s support. “We only received sponsorship from ProMexico, which, since last December, no longer exists,” explained Touchard de Morant. In addition, this year’s event is to take place late in the month of November, moving the market closer to NATPE Miami, which is set for January 21-23, 2020. These latest considerations got MIP Cancun and NATPE attendees alike to wonder aloud whether Cancun has more of a strategic than a business function for Reed MIDEM. The Ups and Downs of a Successful Market Facing Several Tricky Issues MIP Cancun Preview Benedicte Touchard de Morant One-on-one meetings are held in this area.