Videoage International - 2020: A Year in Review

24 January 2021 V I D E O A G E Seven Virtual Marts’ Score Card Report T o analyze the deluge of virtual markets that hit the entertainment industry in 2020, VideoAge contacted 11 executives from eight countries to comment on seven re- cent virtual markets: MIP-TV, the Cannes Film Festival, MIP China, NATPE Budapest, DISCOP Africa, Le Rendez-Vous, and MIPCOM. Dermot Horan , director of Acquisitions for Ireland’s public TV network RTE, said that he “didn’t use MIP-TV very much,” and generally found MIPCOM to be a more fruitful market. Tarmo Kivikallio , head of International Pro- gramAcquisitions for Finland’s public TV network YLE, attended Le Rendez-Vous and MIPCOM virtually. What he liked most about both markets was the ease of “screening from my sofa, with my own timetable.” However, he added, “If you watch a keynote or a panel discussion on screen, you could easily do something else at the same time, so it is actually more difficult to concentrate.” Lily Caputo , director of Programming for Canada’s TLN Media, participated in MIPCOM virtually, and reported that it “was a good replacement to the in-personmeetings.” However, she added, “most of us had some technical issues that we had to work around at some point.” David Kines president and co-founder of Canada’s Hollywood Suite, was originally plan- ning to “attend” MIPCOM, but ultimately he did not. “That’s the biggest problem with virtual conferences,” he said. “Despite the best of intentions it’s hard to block off the time to really zone in on them unless you get on a plane and go somewhere else.” Canada-based Krynn Wrigley , Gusto TV’s International Sales manager, logged onto MIPCOM online and found that “the features that stood out were the ‘Interested In You’ section, and the panel discussions.” Cecilia Presto , content buyer for Uruguay’s Canal 10, didn’t attend any of the aforementioned markets, but she confirmed registering for MIP Cancun Online Plus. Cesar O. Diaz , CEO of Miami, Florida-based 7A Media, reported: “I have not participated in any of the virtual markets mentioned. Given the price to participate as a seller/distributor, I couldn’t justify the cost to just showcase a couple of titles and then wait until the end to get a report of what clients may have watched or not.” MISTCO’s Aysegul Tuzun from Istanbul, Turkey attended MIP China and MIPCOM. “I liked MIP China as it offered a schedule agenda.” From her Los Angeles office, Melissa Wohl , head of Sales for New York-based FilmRise, attended MIPCOM, the Cannes Film Festival, and TIFF. “Virtual meeting rooms and appointment set-up were very easy,” she said. Dianne Bissoon , who is in charge of Content Acquisition and Development for Cable Bahamas, did not attend any of the virtual markets indicated for this survey, yet she did “attend” the L.A. Screenings and Dataxis (an event specializing in market research that is normally held at the Biltmore Hotel inMiami, Florida inmid-October). “I couldn’t say that I was 100 percent engaged because virtual conferences are distracting when you get interrupted by work emails or calls.” Fabrizio Battocchio, head of Format and Fac- tual at Italy’s Mediaset , simply said, “For the moment I’m only interested in participating in virtual markets that deal with formats, factual, and documentaries.” Jornadas Reflects A New Argentine Crisis F rom Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributor Omar Mendez reported that Buenos Aires- based Jornadas Internacionales will be entirely virtual. This is not extraordinary in and of itself since practically all of the world’s trade markets and conferences have been forced to go digital due to thepandemic.What is extraordinary is that the pay-TV fair is taking place at all, even though it moved from its traditional September dates to November 10-12. Argentine television currently suffers all the effects of the serious problems that plague other southern LATAMcountries. Argentina is suffering from an economic standpoint since the local currency, the peso, has depreciated at historic levels and is now worth less than a U.S. penny. It is also suffering from a financial standpoint as it has no money to repay the International Monetary Fund’s loans. Pedro Font: 1928-2020 U ntil recently, his agewas awell-kept secret, but what was well known about him were his peculiarities and his ingenuity. Pedro Font — whose full name was Pedro Jesus Vidaurreta Font — died in Denver, Colorado on October 17, 2020 due to complications from a combination of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. He was 82 years old. Font was a major force in the industry, who helped turn the Hispanic and multicultural TV markets into a multi-billion- dollar industry. AFM 2020 Review T he 41st annual American Film Market (AFM) took place on November 9, 2020. It “evolved” into a virtual Santa Monica, California (its traditional city) across eight virtual venues, and offered five features, including “Newsstand” and “Session Replays.” The virtual market continued “live” until November 13. With 562 exhibiting companies from 48 countries, this AFM edition was “bigger” than the 2019 rendition (which welcomed 375 exhibitors). The registered buying contingent was also larger, numbering 1,468 (up from last year’s 1,300) from 66 countries. As for the number of movies screened, the official count was 465 (up from 313 in 2019) from 184 companies, representing 24 countries. The AFM 2020 Online programming lineup had 70-plus sessions and 200 speakers. This was up from the 52 conferences and 150 speakers featured in 2019. The Picture-phones to Zoom Evolution T he world at large is currently experiencing “Zoom fatigue” due to the extensive use of virtual face-to-face technology. The question that nowarises is whether “Zoom meetings” (as video-conferencing and video- calling are now commonly called) will remain as popular and as widely used once the pandemic is finally extinguished. After the announcement that at least two effective vaccines against COVID-19 will soon be available, Zoom’s stock dropped 25 percent in two days. It should be noted that even thoughMicrosoft’s Skype was first in popularizing online video calls in 2003, the pandemic made public company Zoom, whose app was introduced in 2011, more popular. So much so that the word “zooming” has become as common a verb as “googling.” Interestingly enough, some people were looking forward to remote working as early as 1912. The Wall Street Journal reported that in the July 1912 edition of Cassier’s Magazine , engineers predicted that “when the telephone call comes with the face of the person who’s talking, it will be unnecessary to travel to and from work.” Video telephony was first imagined as early as 1880, but before it could reach a commercial form through AT&T in 1964, it went through several precursors, starting with Western Union’s wire photo in 1921, the closed-circuit videophone in 1936, and Western Union’s telecopying (or fax machine) in 1948. To have AT&T come out with the first commercial picture-phone in 1964, its Bell Labs started experimenting with the technology in 1927. However, AT&T discontinued it in 1973 since it did not become popular, possibly due to its cost: a monthly fee of $160 and 25¢ for each additional minute after the first 30 minutes. November 2020 Review