INTERNATIONAL www.VideoAge.org In 1939, Winston Churchill said, “Russia is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” The same can be said in 2025 about the European Union’s Media Freedom Act (EMFA), which technically became operational on May 1, 2024, though most of its new rules won’t fully apply until August 8, 2025. To get some EMFA clarifications, VideoAge contacted the E.U. government’s media office; two Eurodeputies — one from Germany, the other from Italy; Professor Mark Cole, co-author of the EMFA; the E.U. government’s European Audiovisual Observatory (part of the Council of Europe), two European public broadcast executives, and the European Broadcasting Union’s press center, among others. The responses were not fully forthcoming. One of the public broadcast executives declined to comment, while Tarmo Kivikallio of YLE, Finland’s public TV network, said Just a few weeks ago in Miami, the industry watched a face-off between Content Americas, Realscreen Summit, and NATPE Global. This time the contest for market supremacy is between the London Screenings, the BBC Showcase, and MIP London. My 2¢. No buyers: A cry amid thousands of new TV channels Series Mania Forum gets its “fare” share of sales activities Without a king, late-night TV turns into daytime shows L.A. Screenings: A phoenix that will rise over Los Angeles Page 26 Page 14 Page 8 Page 6 THE BUSINESS JOURNAL OF FILM, BROADCASTING, STREAMING, PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION February/March 2025 - VOL. 45 NO. 2 - $9.75 The E.U. Media Freedom Act Could Be Great if Understood Moving Talent from Social Media to OTT and Legacy Media MIP London Builds On Screenings, BBC Showcase (Continued on Page 16) (Continued on Page 20) (Continued on Page 18) Below is a transcript of a podcast with Bianca Serafini, former head of Content Licensing at Viral Nation, hosted by VideoAge’s editorial staff, and available on all major digital platforms. VideoAge: You are a pioneer for using Social Media talent for OTT productions. Can you explain how it came about? Bianca Serafini: When I was at FilmRise [for six years], prior to my recent role at Viral Nation, GALADRIEL STINEMAN KEVIN JOY DENISE GOSSETT An American Cinema Inspires Production Available Worldwide
MAIN OFFICES 216 EAST 75TH STREET NEW YORK, NY 10021 TEL: (212) 288-3933 WWW.VIDEOAGEINTERNATIONAL.COM WWW.VIDEOAGE.ORG VIALE ABRUZZI 30 20131 MILAN, ITALY EDITOR-in-CHIEF DOM SERAFINI EDITORIAL TEAM SARA ALESSI (NY) BILL BRIOUX (CANADA) ENZO CHIARULLO (ITALY) LEAH HOCHBAUM ROSNER (NY) SUSAN HORNIK (L.A.) CAROLINE INTERTAGLIA (FRANCE) OMAR MENDEZ (ARGENTINA) LUIS POLANCO (NY) MIKE REYNOLDS (L.A.) MARIA ZUPPELLO (BRAZIL) PUBLISHER MONICA GORGHETTO BUSINESS OFFICE LEN FINKEL LEGAL OFFICE STEVE SCHIFFMAN WEB MANAGER BRUNO MARRACINO DESIGN/LAYOUT CLAUDIO MATTIONI, CARMINE RASPAOLO VIDEO AGE INTERNATIONAL (ISSN 0278-5013 USPS 601-230) IS PUBLISHED SEVEN TIMES A YEAR,. PLUS DAILIES, BY TV TRADE MEDIA, INC. © TV TRADE MEDIA INC. 2025. THE ENTIRE CONTENTS OF VIDEO AGE INTERNATIONAL ARE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT IN THE U.S., U.K., AND ALL COUNTRIES SIGNATORY TO THE BERNE CONVENTIO AND THE PAN-AMERICAN CONVENTION. SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO VIDEO AGE INTERNATIONAL, 216 EAST 75TH STREET, SUITE 1W, NEW YORK, NY 10021, U.S.A. PURSUANT TO THE U.S. COPYRIGHTS ACT OF 1976, THE RIGHTS OF ALL CONTENT DONE ON ASSIGNMENT FOR ALL VIDEOAGE PUBLICATIONS ARE HELD BY THE PUBLISHER OF VIDEOAGE, WHICH COMMISSIONED THEM TV outlets are multiplying with SVoD, AVoD, and FAST. The number of quality TV productions is dropping. Advertising money is increasing. Linear TV continues to be profitable. And yet, the content distribution industry is crying in unison: “No one is buying.” What gives? Page 26 Cover Stories News The E.U. Media Freedom Act could be great if understood First MIP London rides on the wave of London Screenings and the BBC Showcase Moving talent from Social Media to OTT and legacy media 8. Book Review: The god of U.S. late-night TV: A new book chronicles the life and times of Johnny Carson 10. Content Americas, Realscreen, NATPE: Three Miami markets in the midst of seven other markets 24. Security at airports can be practical, but at times pointless. Plus, calendar of events Features 6. World: The L.A. Screenings Phoenix Rises With a Slew of TV Series Renewals 14. Series Mania preview: TV series spearhead an international conference mania
6 Isabella Marquez, the organizer of L.A. Independents, the market that takes place just before the studios’ L.A. Screenings, is looking for a new venue, since the costs associated with Fairmont Century Plaza hotel housing have become unbearably exorbitant. Still the Century Plaza will be the new site for the 2025 AFM, set for November 11-16, 2025. As for the 2025-2026 TV season, at this early stage (mid-February), the talks are about renewals more than pilots, since there is currently just one newly ordered series: Tomorrow, a New Amsterdam sequel, for NBC. The major U.S. commercial TV broadcast networks have renewed a total of 26 series. Scores of cable TV channels have also renewed lots of current shows. Below is a preliminary list of renewals: ABC: 9-1-1: Renewed for season 8; Abbott Elementary: Renewed for season 5; Grey’s Anatomy: Renewed for season 21; High Potential: Renewed for season 2; The Rookie: Renewed for season 7; Will Trent: Renewed for season 3. CBS: Elsbeth: Renewed for season 2; FBI: Renewed for three more seasons; FBI International: Renewed for season 4; FBI Most Wanted: Renewed for season 6; Fire Country: Renewed for season 3; Matlock: Renewed for season 2. The CW: All American: Renewed for season 7; Sullivan’s Crossing: Renewed for season 3; Wild Cards: Renewed for season 2. FOX: Alert: Missing Persons Unit: Renewed for season 3; The Cleaning Lady: Renewed for season 4; Krapopolis: Renewed for seasons 3 and 4; The Masked Singer: Renewed for season 13; Murder in a Small Town: Renewed for season 2; Next Level Chef: Renewed for season 4; Universal Basic Guys: Renewed for season 2. NBC: Kelly Clarkson Show: Renewed for season 7; St. Denis Medical: Renewed for season 2; The Voice: Renewed for season 27; Access Hollywood: Renewed through 2026. AMC: Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire: Renewed for season 3; Dark Winds: Renewed for season 3; The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon: Renewed for season 3. FX: American Horror Story: Renewed for season 13; The Bear: Renewed for season 4; Welcome to Wrexham: Renewed for season 4. VideoAge’s symbol for this year’s edition of the L.A. Screenings is the phoenix, the mythological bird that rises from the ashes. The Screenings, now in its 62nd year, is scheduled to start on May 15 for the independents and on May 17 for the major studios. The Upfront presentations for broadcast TV, which are held in New York City, will start on May 12, 2025, and end on May 15. And from the information that we’ve thus far gathered from the major studios, it appears that the L.A. Screenings will start with NBCUniversal on May 17. Warner Bros. Discovery will screen May 19-20, while Disney LatAm’s screenings are currently set for May 21. Paramount Global is set for May 17-18, Sony and Fox for May 18, and Lionsgate for May 17. The traditional Telefilms screenings and cocktail will take place on the evening of May 17. Los Angeles, and the local entertainment industry, has been suffering a lot of late — first from the talent and writer strikes and more recently from devastating fires. The L.A. Screenings Phoenix Rises (Continued From Page 4) VIDEOAGE February 2025 World CEE'S FAVORITE AND LARGEST TV MARKET WITH A VIEW 9 – 12 JUN 2025 neweumarket.com/dubrovnik
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8 A long-awaited biography from journalist Bill Zehme pulls the curtain back on the life of late-night titan Johnny Carson. The God of U.S. Late-Night TV: A New Book Chronicles the Life and Times of Johnny Carson By Luis Polanco Late-night television is a bit of a misnomer — by today’s standards, that is. Sure, in the past, you had to stay up past primetime programming in the U.S. in order to watch Jack Paar or Merv Griffin or Johnny Carson, but in the age of streaming and Social Media and online video sharing, latenight programming is within reach anytime of the day — in the morning, at noon, in the evening, and even in the middle of the night. Clips of current late-night programs are repackaged for socials because some audiences are more likely to watch the repackaged clips than watch the shows live. The change of viewing patterns hasn’t helped late-night TV, and neither have the fluctuating levels of talent among the shows’ hosts. This reviewer, for one, is not going to stay up past midnight for Jimmy Fallon or Seth Meyers. There’s also the issue of budget shrinkage. The Tonight Show, the jewel in the late-night crown that has broadcast on NBC since 1954, is now a four nights per week program instead of five. Meanwhile, Late Night With Seth Meyers cut its live band. Late-night programming does have a magic to it, though. Johnny Carson once talked about what that magic might be in conversation with actor Tony Randall on a show that aired on Tuesday, September 18, 1973. “You see, Tony, at this time of night, people who watch the show are ready to go to bed, lie down, and sleep. A lot of them would like to think that they will wake up in the morning,” Carson said. “My job is to give them that feeling — that there will be a tomorrow.” Carson is the subject of the long-awaited biography, Carson the Magnificent (336 pgs., Simon & Schuster, 2024, $30), written by Bill Zehme and Mike Thomas. While there is much to glean from the life of a comedic titan whose name is synonymous with late-night TV, the story behind the book is equally as touching. Bill Zehme — a journalist, resident of Chicago, Illinois, co-author of memoirs of celebrity comedians like Jay Leno and Regis Philbin, and author of The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra, and Lost in the Funhouse: The Life and Mind of Andy Kaufman — was a lifetime fan of Carson and chased the opportunity to interview him. In 2002, he finally secured the assignment a decade after Carson’s retirement from late-night. In 2005, after Carson passed from emphysema, Zehme went to work on a biography — a decade’s worth of researching, writing, and conducting interviews with those close to Carson — that would get published and completed with the help of Zehme’s former research assistant Mike Thomas, after Zehme’s own death from cancer in 2023. The time and effort clearly shows in the elegantly written biography, which covers Carson’s life before, during, and after celebrity. A quick biographical rundown: Carson was born on October 23, 1925 in Corning Iowa. At the age of eight, his father, Homer, who worked as a power company manager, moved the family to Norfolk, Nebraska. After high school, Carson hitchhiked to Hollywood — a story with mythical significance in Carson lore. He joined the U.S. Navy in 1943, then attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he majored in journalism. (His college thesis, titled “How to Write Comedy for Radio,” bode well for his future.) In 1950, Carson began a career in broadcast radio that turned into a career in television, where he hosted the variety show The Johnny Carson Show from 1955 to 1956, and then Who Do You Trust? from 1957 to 1962. That last year also led to his long-running job as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and the rest, as they say, is history. Once he left TV, he sort of disappeared from his role as a public figure. Who was Carson behind the veil of his role as a comedic TV host? Zehme was interested in unthreading the mystery behind Carson’s public and private selves. “[Carson] would be meticulously aware of what pieces of himself he projected forth and what separate salient truths he would keep tucked away,” wrote Zehme. “Only he could know for sure how much of his authentic self would step before an audience, but whoever he seemed to be when so stationed was always a happy comfort.” For Zehme, the difference in comportment and temperament could even be noticed in youth: “[H]e could always be this one way (charismatic, commanding, engaged) — and he could also always be that other way (removed, intractable, missing in action) — but never simultaneously, since that would be difficult for even him to pull off.” That difficulty between those two states of being (charismatic/removed) could be one way to understand Carson’s notoriously secluded life after The Tonight Show. Throughout Carson the Magnificent, Zehme gave Carson a god-like importance in the realm of entertainment. Describing when Carson put in his resignation to NBC corporate executives at Carnegie Hall in New York, Zehme wrote, “And this was received as hurled Olympian thunder, and there was reeling and rolling and, by the following spring, as his vacancy encroached, strange portents of transition came to bear.” Zehme, not one for understatement, painted Carson’s departure with the gravitas of a blind bard singing of the power of the gods. Other people put Carson on that pedestal as well. Zehme noticed. “I have heard one sentence spoken several times in the years he left television, much less the planet: ‘Johnny Carson saved my life.’” And yet, maybe to give audiences the feeling “that there will be a tomorrow” is the gift of a god. Who was Carson behind the veil of his role as a comedic TV host? VIDEOAGE February 2025 Book Review
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10 Content Americas, Realscreen, NATPE Global: Three Marts in The Midst of Many Other TV Events The outcome of the recently concluded third annual Content Americas can be summarized by Sonia Fleck of the Singapore-based Bomanbridge, who attended this LatAm-focused TV market for the first time, and noted that her company’s “presence at the Miami market indicates that Asian TV has reached Latin America” as she represents the “bridge between East and West.” While Content Americas — the first of the three consecutive TV markets in Miami — was a LatAm market, the second and third events, Realscreen Summit and NATPE, were billed as “global.” Realscreen Summit started on February 3, followed by NATPE Global on February 5 — both at the Miami InterContinental Hotel, which was sold out for both events. Some participants treated it as one five-day market stretching from February 3 to February 7. Content Americas started on Monday, January 20, which was a busy day indeed, with the presidential inauguration and the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in the U.S., the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and preparations getting underway for the Sundance Film Festival (which started January 22 in Park City). In addition, the Caribbean Cable Telecommunications Association held an event in Miami on January 23, and the first ever Clúster Audiovisual de Madrid took place on January 28. Content Americas’ organizers reported a total of 2,278 participants, including 1,000 buyers and 175 exhibiting companies. In 2026, the market will begin on January 19, and will return to the Hilton Hotel in downtown Miami. One of the things that returning attendees made sure to keep an eye on at this year’s Content Americas was the slow elevator situation at the hotel. This year, the wait at peak traffic times to get to the exhibitors who were holding court in suites was five minutes at most — a definite improvement over last year’s event. The other issue to monitor was how the folks in charge of the Rose d’Or Latinos Awards dealt with the overcrowded main conference room. This time around, they did better with the overflow, funneling people into the adjacent foyer, which was also the venue for the subsequent awards party. Then there was the (sometimes) fraught situation of determining who was planning to attend all three Miami events. Some participants went back to Los Angeles or New York and returned to Miami 11 days later for NATPE. After the conclusion of Content Americas, reports of the business conducted there were overwhelmingly positive, with enthusiastic reviews from exhibitors and content buyers alike. As VideoAge Daily pointed out in its Day two edition, the conference and seminar sections did not present any major disruptions for the buyers and sellers in attendance. Among the most significant ones was a keynote from Telemundo’s Luis Fernandez, who presented the Miami-based company’s overall strategy, and Content’s big kids TV playout, with five separate seminars focusing on the business of children’s television, which started at 10 a.m. on Wednesday and continued up until 3 p.m. There was also a presentation from Disney Latin America’s Leonardo Aranguibel in which he discussed commissioning needs, opportunities in co-production, and new business models. All in all, there were a total of 24 sessions spread over the three-day event that did not take too much of buyers’ time away from the market’s floors. However, a few buyers who would have liked to attend some conferences, but couldn’t due to conflicting meeting schedules, suggested to have the conferences all clustered on just one day at the start of the (Continued on Page 12) Lionsgate’s Juan Ignacio Hernandez, Raul Meneses at Content Americas FilmRise’s Jonitha Keymoore and Melissa Wohl announced a co-production deal with Phoenix TV’s Jaimi West and Miles Jarvis at NATPE. Record TV’s Thiago Castro at Content Americas Kanal D International’s Elif Tatoglu and Duda Perman at Content Americas VIDEOAGE February 2025 Miami TV Markets
12 (Continued From Page 10) event, with all the rest of the days devoted exclusively to the market. Moving on, the dates for Realscreen Summit and NATPE Global conflicted with the Grammy Awards (February 3), the Digital Entertainment Group’s EnTech Fest (February 5), and the Critics Choice Awards (February 8), all three in Los Angeles. Also, both events confronted a very busy February month with Berlin’s European Film Market or EFM (February 15-19); London Screenings (February 24-28); the BBC Showcase in London (February 24 and 25); MIP London (February 24-27); the CDSA Summit from the Content Delivery & Security Association, also in London (February 27), and the Video Service Forum (February 25-27) in Marina del Ray, California. Adding even more activity, participants in the Miami Marathon ran around the InterContinental Hotel the day before the Summit’s opening day, but caused little disruption. The Realscreen Summit was described as an unscripted and nonfiction conference. Chairs were hot commodities here —there were very few stands — as the event was built around meetings among producers, coproducers, developers, and financiers. The Summit also saw a number of parties, which were great for meeting people outside of preset appointments, as well as many organized breakfasts and luncheons, including a preawards show cocktail prior to the induction of Cris Abrego, co-founder and CEO of Hyphenate Media Group, chairman of the Television Academy, and former CEO of Endemol Shine North America, into the Realscreen Hall of Fame, recognized for his career, which has spanned more than two decades. Still, executives who came early for NATPE found the Summit “different from what we’re used to.” One participant described the event as a “place to hear pitches for productions and a way to meet the people on the dais that are difficult to reach.” Others, like reps from film commissions from Florida (and even as far as Romania) were at the Summit to pitch their facilities, rebates, and incentives to producers. On Tuesday, February 4, while the Summit continued, the venue was slowly transformed into the more familiar layout with tables and stands — and hotel suites were readied — for the start of NATPE at 9 a.m. the next day. NATPE Global, which held its second annual event since its reincarnation, moved to the month of February to distance itself from January’s LatAm-focused Content Americas in Miami, and in the process making February a very busy month, indeed, for the international entertainment industry. Claire Macdonald, NATPE Global’s Executive Director — from the Toronto, Canada-based Brunico publishing group that organizes various international TV conventions, including NATPE Budapest — made sure that, this year, the exhibitors’ list was released well in advance (so that buyers could schedule their meetings in a convenient way). “We shared the first floorplan and exhibitor list by December 20th.” In terms of attendance, NATPE recorded a total of 120 exhibitors and 2,350 participants, of which 700 were registered as content buyers. A total of 550 participants from the Summit remained for NATPE. As for recreational activities, there was a cocktail party on Wednesday night, February 5, straddling the Summit and NATPE. That same evening featured the NATPE Honors Award Gala, a new program designed to celebrate the visionary leaders in the industry, which, this year included Paul Buccieri, president and chairman, A+E Networks Group, and Luis Fernández, chairman, NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises. At one of NATPE’s conferences on Wednesday, Dan Cohen, Paramount Global’s Chief Content Licensing Officer, launched a FAST channel from author Tony Robbins. And finally, the WAWA Woman of the Year Awards presentation and networking cocktail took place on Thursday. On the busy market side, NATPE offered its usual tables, stands, cabanas, and hotel suites to exhibitors. The 21 suites rented to 17 companies (including all the Hollywood studios) were located on the 31st, 32nd, and 33rd floors of the InterContinental Hotel. Among the exhibitors with stands were ACI, Multicom, and Vision Films. And companies such as Condista from Miami and Shout! Studios from Los Angeles held court at the five poolside cabanas. Multicom Entertainment’s Ryne Dillon, Niloo Badie, Darrin Holender at their NATPE stand. ACI’s Chevonne O’Shaughnessy and Billy Dundee showcased a NATPE slate topped by new film Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries. NATPE Global moved to the month of February to distance itself from January’s LatAm-focused Content Americas in Miami, and in the process made February a very busy month. VIDEOAGE February 2025 Miami TV Markets
A GLOBAL AGENCY ORIGINAL
14 There seems to be a movement to dethrone Series Mania, the king of TV conferences devoted to the development and production of international TV series that will take place in Lille, in northern France, March 25-27. Today, in addition to Lille, we have Turin, in northern Italy, with SerialMania (held October 14, 2024 to February 24, 2025); Cannes, in southern France, with Canneseries (April 2429, 2025); and Cologne, in northern Germany, with Seriencamp (June 3-5, 2025). Nevertheless, Series Mania is still the world’s premier TV series conference and festival, even though this year, after several years of growth, the number of TV series submitted to the festival has stabilized at around 350 from a wide range of countries, while the number of conferences and keynotes reaches 55 — all of which are broadcast live and available on replay. Overall, the 2025 event is expected to welcome more than last year’s record number of 4,000 participants from 60 countries, possibly, according to Francesco Capurro, director of Series Mania Forum, due to the closing of MIPTV in Cannes, leaving the month of April without a trade show. This is despite the fact that, pointed out Capurro, “Our DNA is more content and financial developments and co-productions.” Capurro added that the closing of MIPTV would “for sure increase the number of participants,” but he declined to confirm whether next year’s Series Mania would take advantage of the spring vacuum by moving the event toward a more climatecongenial April. The Series Mania Forum (the professional portion of the festival) continues its expansion within the Lille Grand Palais with new exhibition and networking zones offering more meeting spaces for participants and exhibitors. The Business Square joins the Delegates’ Hall and the Business Lounge, both of which are fully booked with more than 60 exhibitors, including All3Media, Inter Medya, Cineflix, NHK, BBC Studios, and for the first time, StudioCanal. This year, the (professional) Forum section will unfold March 25-27 at the Lille Convention Center (Lille Grand Palais), while on March 24, the first “Buyers Upfront” event will be staged at the Lille Chamber of Commerce building. The festival, conference, and market will take place in various venues throughout the city. The “Upfront” is an invitation-only event for some 100 buyers, showcasing excerpts from 10 series that have global appeal. Via a videoconference interview, Capurro said that, although only 100 buyers will be invited to the Upfronts, “A larger number of content buyers will be roaming throughout the Festival and Forum.” Curated by the Series Mania Festival’s artistic team, the Upfronts will include series about to be released or still in post-production. They will consist of up to 10 series (from an original 12) and each series will be given a 15-minute screen slot. The popularity of TV series festivals around the world seems to go hand-in-hand with international political and social drama. Last year, the Russo-Ukrainian and Israel–Hamas conflicts drastically reduced the number of applicants from those territories. Then there were the Hollywood strikes that paralyzed film and TV production in the U.S. for several months, which explained why the 2024 lineup contained fewer American premieres. This year, Series Mania will be facing the consequences of the Los Angeles metro areas’ fires that destroyed 18,000 structures and displaced thousands of people, and the election of an unpredictable U.S. president, Donald Trump. Plus, stated Laurence Herszberg, Series Mania’s founder and general director, “the audiovisual industry is now facing three major challenges: A funding crisis marked by a battle to capture advertising budgets; a sociological challenge given today’s shift to social platforms; and an industrial revolution, driven by AI.” These topics will be discussed at the Lille Dialogues on March 27. Not that the competing TV series events will fare better, with the organizers of the Turin event declining to say whether SerialMania will be an annual happening or just a one-time affair. On the Canneseries side, RX, which organizes MIPCOM Cannes, will no longer be associated with Canneseries, since the April MIPTV market ended its run and the inaugural MIP London event took its place, but in February. MIPCOM added Cannes to its name recently, perhaps to appease the city of Cannes, what with MIP relocating to London. As a result, Canneseries, the municipalityorganized TV festival, is losing its sidekick. This situation is similar to what happened with the Monte Carlo Festival after the closing of the associated Monte Carlo TV market. The Canneseries press office did not reply to our inquiry as to whether it’s planning to go solo or is in search of a new partner. However, we found out that, unofficially, the province of Alpes-Cote D’Azur (PACA for short, where Cannes is located) will chip in with support and logistics. Francesco Capurro, director of Series Mania Forum At Series Mania 2024: (l. to r.) Inter Medya’s Sinem Aliskan, Can Okan, Beatriz Cea Okan TV Series Spearhead an International Conference Mania VIDEOAGE February 2025 Series Mania Preview
16 (Continued from Cover) that EMFA is a response to Hungary and Poland implementing public policies and measures that restricted press freedom in those countries. “The EMFA is an instrument that tries to support media freedom and prevent member states from restricting media freedom,” Kivikallio said. “In most [E.U.] member states, such as Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, etc., EMFA will have a limited impact. It remains to be seen whether EMFA will be effective in supporting media freedom in Hungary.” Alexandra Geese, Germany’s deputy in the E.U. Parliament, did not reply to VideoAge’s e-mail requests for clarifications, while her Italian colleague, E.U. Deputy Ignazio R. Marino, wrote back explaining: “the intention of the European Commission’s proposal is two-fold. Firstly, it aims to help state-owned public media access financial support, considering the fierce competition between online platforms and privately owned media. On the other hand,” he said, “it tries to limit governments’ grasp on the editorial line of public media to avoid undue interference in the independence of journalists and news.” Marino, who’s also a former mayor of Rome, added: “In other words, the E.U. Media Freedom Act does not prevent states and governments from financing media organizations such as [Italy’s] RAI and [the U.K.’s] BBC. It merely asks these governments to respect specific rules laid down in Article 5 of the [EMFA] Regulation.” One official at the Strasbourg, France-based European Audiovisual Observatory suggested reaching out to Mark D. Cole, a professor of Media and Telecommunication Law at the University of Luxembourg and director for Academic Affairs at the Institute of European Media Law (EMR) in Saarbrücken, Germany, who co-wrote the act with Christina Etteldorf, Senior Research Scientist at the EMR. Etteldorf sent back a detailed explanation, pointing out that “public service media and ‘state-owned’ media are something entirely different: something that the EMFA is specifically seeking to prevent.” She also pointed out that public service media “may no longer be financed by member states.” VideoAge’s position was that the public service media financed by the state (via taxes or license fees), or by a government (through its finance budget) seem different, but in effect are the same in the sense that, directly or indirectly, governments control public service media ownerships and set their income. And indeed, E.U. Deputy Marino aknowledged that “governments can directly finance state-owned media as the regulation is silent regarding this specific aspect. Still, it foresees in Article 6 the obligation to disclose information through the development of national media ownership databases. Article 6 is also very specific on the information to be disclosed, such as names (or legal names) of direct/indirect owners and their shares and the total amount of public funds received from public authorities and entities. Recital 31 of the regulation helps the national legislators to define the nature of these funds and how to avoid possible interference: ‘Such funding should be preferably decided and appropriated on a multi-year basis, in line with the public service remit of public service media providers, to avoid the risk of undue influence from yearly budget negotiation.’” Act co-author Christina Etteldorf also reiterated that “what the EMFA is supposed to achieve, and only that, is to guarantee the independence of public service media, i.e. their freedom from political influence regarding editorial content and decisions. Financing can indeed be an aspect of this.” She added that “[It] does not mean that financing public service media would be forbidden but rather, on the opposite, the conditions for it must be transparent. It must ensure that public service media can fulfill their public remit and must not lead to states having influence on editorial issues. Financing from the state budget is therefore still possible, but rules must be created to ensure that this does not lead to such influence being exerted. Take Germany as an example: here we have a system in which the broadcasting licence fee is set by law (as regards the obligation of the citizens to pay and the amount they have to pay), but is not paid out of taxes and thus out of the state budget, but is instead collected separately by an independent institution with sovereign authority. It is also set in an independent procedure, which would go too far to explain here. Such a constellation would be just as conceivable under the EMFA as financing from state budget with corresponding protective mechanisms for independence.” In the U.S., public service media outlets resolved the economic issue by getting finances via public contributions (donations, grants, fundraising, merchandising, billboard advertising). In the U.S., public broadcasting comprises the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), Public Television, and National Public Radio (NPR). Public Television is comprised of 350 local TV stations nationwide grouped under Public Broadcast Service (PBS), which was established in 1969, while NPR comprises 1,000 local radio stations. Created in 1970, NPR functions as a national syndicator and it is funded by radio stations’ membership fees. CPB is a publicly funded non-profit corporation created in 1967 to financially support public broadcasting. Private, tax-deductible donations also finance individual local stations. The federal government provides CPB’s $535 million a year budget, of which 95 percent goes to local stations. President Donald Trump wants to defund CPB as a punishment for its liberal bias. Designated for the hatchet job is the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), co-headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk. However, some conservative Republicans are having second thoughts, as indicated by Howard Husock, a conservative former CPB board member who noted in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece that defunding CPB will put public broadcasting out of Congressional (now controlled by Republicans) supervision. Liberal financial groups, institutions, and individuals could easily compensate for the lack of government funding, and actually increase public broadcasting’s income. In VideoAge’s view, that the EMFA wants to ensure that “the editorial independence of public service media providers is safeguarded” is commendable, but unfortunately declaring that “funding procedures for public service media providers are based on transparent and objective criteria laid down in advance,” will have little, if any, effect on a government determined to control them. Finally, it has been reported that the legal basis of this regulation raises questions about the division of powers between the E.U. and the member states. The authors themselves outlined the disagreements currently existing on this point within Europe and went on to explain that Hungary has even raised a legal action before the Court of Justice of the European Union, aiming at the annulment of the EMFA. (Dom Serafini) Tarmo Kivikallio of Finland’s YLE Ignazio R. Marino, deputy in the E.U. Parliament and a former mayor of Rome, Italy VIDEOAGE February 2025 E.U. Media
(Continued From Cover) 18 The fifth annual Screenings is taking place between Sunday, February 23, and Friday, February 28, in a variety of hotels, including the Ham Yard, Charlotte Street, and Soho Hotel, as well as event venues such as Icetank Studios and BAFTA; and cinemas, like Picturehouse Central, Odeon, Curzon, and The Vue. There’s also Central St. Giles (NBCUniversal’s office building), for a total of 14 venues. The BBC Showcase, now in its 49th year, is taking place on Monday, February 24, and Tuesday, February 25, at 180 Studios on 180 Strand, an iconic Brutalist building that has been transformed into a cultural center. The inaugural MIP London focuses its wares in two venues: The Savoy Hotel and the interconnected Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) building, and it takes place February 23 to 27. Indeed, it’s going to be a busy week for content buyers and distributors, all trying to capitalize on one another, with the London Screenings riding on the crest of the BBC Showcase, and MIP London on the London Screenings’ success and, most likely, other distribution companies screening independently and individually taking advantage of all of them. As for the number of international buyers, an estimated 700 total acquisition executives are invited by the distributors for the London Screenings. Most of the distribution companies screen for one full day (a few of them for two or more days) and some reported buyers’ participation “in the hundreds.” Those acquisition executives who have committed to some of the London Screenings will be hard-pressed to hop to MIP, and if they do, it will be for short bursts of time. However, some buyers will opt for a chance to meet with as many distributors as possible at MIP London rather than attend a few full-day screenings. Explained Dermot Horan, director of Acquisitions and Co-productions at Ireland’s RTE: “I split up with my deputy, Brian [Walsh], in order to attend as many screenings as possible, and even then we don’t get to see everyone. The distributors know about the congestion, and many of them send online screeners the following week, with a note saying ‘Sorry you couldn’t make our screening, but here are links to what we showed last week.’” MIP London comes courtesy of RX, the multinational France-based trade show organizer. Heading MIP London (and MIPCOM Cannes) is Brit Lucy Smith. MIP London is replacing the venerable MIPTV, which closed after a 61-year run in Cannes, France. RX France, which has reportedly committed to two years at the Savoy Place, is expecting 1,300 participants for suites, meeting tables, and floor exhibits, and 2,000 delegates overall. If the market becomes successful it will expand into a convention center. For this year, RX reported that “over 600 buyers from 60 countries have registered as per [mid] January,” and that one-third of these are coming to London for that week for the first time. For MIP, buyers will be able to register on site, and there is no charge for qualified buyers. Individual delegate registration cost is 500 pounds (U.S. $600). However, some MIP London exhibitors reported that, because of the free registration, some buyers registered their names even though they are not planning to attend. In addition, a few companies from Turkey reported that it was difficult to get U.K. entry visas. Overall, the six-day London events could see a total of 2,600 international TV executives. All of the three key events are evolving in an area encompassed by the square formed by the “tube” (metro) stations of Green Park, Oxford Circus, Holborn, and Temple, served by the Central (red), Circle (yellow), and District (green) metro lines. The Screenings is organized by a group of British content distribution companies, including All3Media, Banijay, Cineflix, Passion, and ITV, none of which will be at MIP London. Other participants are also opting to skip out on MIP London, as pointed out by VideoAge in its January Issue, when Sarah Tong, director of Sales at the London-based Hat Trick, said: “We’re not attending [MIP London], as we will be holding our own private event at the London Screenings.” The London Screenings has lined up 35 international distribution companies, including all of Hollywood’s major studios. MIP London has the support of most independents, such as FilmRise from the U.S. and Global Agency from Turkey, plus the Hollywood studios, including FOX Entertainment, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Walt Disney, and Warner Bros. Discovery, for a total of 31 exhibition companies. The busiest day of the Screenings is Wednesday, with 13 companies screening their content, followed by Tuesday (12 companies), and Thursday (11 companies). Additional screenings will take place on Friday (four companies), and Monday (three companies). On Tuesday, three companies — Hat Trick, DCD, and APC — are teaming up for a joint threehour screening to create the critical mass to attract more content buyers. Monday, February 24, will also see the opening party sponsored by Avalon Entertainment, while MGM is having drinks, and the BBC is having a cocktail reception. On Sunday, only Studio Canal is screening. However, there will be multiple receptions thrown by individual distribution companies throughout the week. An All3Media rep reported: “We run three genres as individual but consecutive events. We start with drama (with lunch whilst screening), then unscripted then formats.” For the MIP London portion, its opening party is set for the evening of Sunday, February 23. Organizers have also set up a variety of seminars on each day of the market. What has today evolved into the London Screenings actually began in Brighton in 1976 as a BBC Showcase for 25 European buyers. During the 1980s, the BBC Showcase moved around to Sussex, Bournemouth, Edinburgh, Bristol, Stratford-Upon-Avon, and Harrogate before returning to Brighton. In 2012, it found a new home in Liverpool. It went virtual in 2021 and 2022 because of the pandemic, as so many other events did. When it first started, the London Screenings originally took the slot immediately after the BBC Showcase market, which was then held in Liverpool in February. But four years ago, a group of U.K. TV content distributors, including All3Media, Banijay Rights, eOne (now part of Lionsgate), Fremantle, and ITV Studios got together to coordinate their screenings around the BBC Showcase and established the London TV Screenings, as they’re known today. ITV reportedly functioned as the clearinghouse to coordinate the screening dates and times and also posted the screenings calendar online. In 2022, when the BBC canceled its inperson Showcase due to COVID worries, other distributors took up the BBC’s calendar dates for their London Screenings, which lasted a full week in London. In 2023, the BBC was back, but with a shorter Showcase that it hosted in conjunction with the London Screenings. All screenings are located within a five-minute walk of each other in London’s West End. All3Media International staff with buyers at The Odeon Leicester Square for London Screenings 2024 MIP London venues: The Savoy Hotel and the interconnected Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) building VIDEOAGE February 2025 London Callings
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(Continued From Cover) (Continued on Page 22) 20 there were very few TV shows that were being greenlit, so there was very little for us to pick up. Because of that, we had to get creative with what we were acquiring. So we started looking at creator content. The production value of creator content during that time skyrocketed. Their production teams were smaller, more nimble, and not union-based. They were faster and just more efficient at acquiring content that we knew had an embedded audience. We knew with various analytical tools, such as View Stats and Tubular Labs, that there was a strong demographic of viewers of all ages, but especially under 18, that weren’t being serviced in other aspects of traditional legacy media. So that’s when we figured it would be a great time to try out creator content syndication. We were able to get a couple of creators off the ground that ended up, in the span of a year, performing very well. VA: Companies now have divisions that deal with branding for content creators and influencers, usually through talent agents who are also actively recruiting bloggers and influencers. Do you prefer dealing with such agents or going directly to talent? BS: It’s two-fold. It depends on the talent. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. Depending on their “vertical” [i.e. creator content genre], on how large and nimble their teams are, and also on what they want to accomplish. Not every creator wants to be on YouTube forever. Some of them want to transition into film and television, want to get into merch lines, want to pivot to something entirely different. So I can’t say which one I prefer, but having an agent can help the process and move along getting the deal done, which can be overwhelming for certain creators [since] they’re not people who have a background in film or television. On the flip side, [agents] can create a bottleneck where you’re not talking directly to the creator. That being said, I don’t know if the languages that people in traditional and legacy media speak are really the same as a creator, so having an interpreter with the agent can be beneficial long-term. VA: Can you explain the difference between a content creator who deals with long-form content, for example, YouTube, Facebook, etc., and influencers who work with short-form content on platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter, now X. BS: I don’t know if there is such a big difference between creator and influencer. Those two terms have really become one, which is just creator of content. The medium doesn’t necessarily make one a creator or one an influencer, especially with younger generations watching TikTok and looking at Instagram the way older generations would traditional television. A creator is a creator, and just because you have a fan base on YouTube doesn’t necessarily mean that it translates to TikTok or vice versa. So I would just refer to them as creators. VA: Do you know how much an influencer could make per year, or per month, what kind of money? BS: It depends. It’s kind of like saying how much does an actor make a year? You can have someone who makes multiple millions of dollars a year, and you can have someone who makes a couple thousand dollars and has other jobs on the side, where being a creator isn’t their full-time gig yet. We are seeing an oversaturation of people trying to get into the creator market, which is to be expected. There’s just such an abundance of talent and of content being made and of various mediums between the Social Media platforms, that there are just a lot of people trying to get into this space. Not all of them can be successful, and that is true for acting and singing and any other talent-based business. Right now, digital media, especially outlets such as AVoD and FAST, are basically driving the production of low-cost programs, and that’s what is benefiting the influencers, because basically, there are thousands of FAST channels to refurbish their programming, their schedule. They survive on very little money, basically they do percentage of advertising for revenue-sharing. So everyone is now going into it. I was recently at MIPCOM where I’ve met people, television programmers, [people from] television stations over there, that are moving to influence Social Media, talent, pushing them to their own channels. VA: Did you foresee this development early on? BS: FAST is really just a refurbished version of broadcast TV. It just happens to be on OTT rather than on linear television. But because FAST really needs a younger demographic of viewers to survive, it really sees a lot of its audience come from Gen X and Boomers. They need to find a way to enter that younger audience base. And creators are an excellent way for them to do that. But not every creator FAST channel is going to work. That’s true for any kind of television show or film or FAST channel, vertical or general. But I think that it’s an excellent place for them to start garnering a little bit of attention from those younger demographics that don’t really consider FAST an option or as a viewing experience at all. So instead of pushing FAST on younger audiences, getting creators excited about FAST makes more sense to me. But one of the problems that I’ve been hearing from FAST producers and content distributors is that there will not be enough libraries to feed those FAST channels. It’s inevitable that they may go to Social Media talent to put more programming to the television schedule for their FAST channels. There’s no alternative. For the most part, right now, it’s still cheaper and more nimble to acquire creator content instead of going through the litany of acquiring a traditional library. Creators aren’t being serviced in the FAST space as much as any other library, any traditional library. It’s a great opportunity for them to test it out. And that’s very appealing. Because it’s new content, it brings a new demographic. They’re running out of content so it just makes sense. That being said, it’s not a one size fits all approach. If you are popular on a horizontally shot platform like TikTok or Instagram, I don’t really see currently — I mean, maybe in the next five to 10 years — I don’t see how you’re going to succeed on FAST. But if you are a high-production-valued YouTube channel, shot horizontally, you have a really good opportunity with FAST to get your content seen elsewhere outside of the regular mediums you’ve been using. VA: How can a FAST channel operator produce shows with the business model where basically it’s just revenue-sharing with minimum guarantees (MGs)? How can you produce shows with a kind of business model where the revenue is very low? BS: Well, you’re just syndicating what’s currently on YouTube. So it’s more like a second window opportunity rather than a new original series. Now, something that you could do, which I haven’t seen, but you’re going to see FAST channels indicating YouTube content that’s very popular and very topical and has a great audience base. And then once that FAST channel gains some momentum, we’re going to see original series be greenlit into that channel. VA: But where is the financing coming from? I mean, I think once you start seeing the revenue come in from the FAST side, which just stems from the library, right? Bianca Serafini, OTT Licensing specialist VIDEOAGE February 2025 Social Media & OTT
(Continued From Page 20) 22 BS: No new original content, just a second window opportunity. Once you start seeing that there is an appetite for that kind of content, for that specific creator, the financing and the forecasting mix is a lot easier to do on that specific talent. Most Social Media talents are sponsored by brands. And also, broadcasters see the Social Media talents as a positive influence because they can bring an incredible number of viewers. So the brand will move them once the Social Media talents move to broadcast. Those are conversations that I’m even having right now. Platforms are very interested in how they can reap a part of the pie that creators are garnering from their brand sponsorships. And figuring out that model, how, let’s say if you were Amazon Prime. But if you were Prime Video or Freevee and there was a way for you to add an element of a brand sponsorship to your content from your creators that automatically links it to Amazon Prime, those are going to become more and more common. VA: Since advertisers’ brands need vast audiences, is there a model where the same commercial can be broadcast on several FAST channels to get more viewership? BS: Absolutely. And if that advertisement comes from a sponsorship that comes from a creator and it’s a creator-led channel, that’s an obvious tie-in. So the same content could be in multiple platforms? Absolutely. You could also make an exclusive window and find ways to render that exclusivity more meaningful. If you have a really big creator and a platform wants to pay an MG or a license fee up front for that talent to be on their platform for X amount of time, I also find that to be to be another way forward. I can’t see why it can’t operate as any other traditional library. VA: How can a company operate something like 500 FAST channels? You need an incredible amount of programming to program those kind of channels. Where are they going to find that incredible number of new programs? BS: Hopefully they’ll start looking at the creator economy and seeing what they’re missing. They’re leaving money on the table by not engaging with these creators either through their agencies or to them directly. There’s so much content on YouTube and being the most watched platform on Earth, it has an audience base and can garner a really fervent fan base as well. So, if platforms — be they FAST platforms, be they traditional platforms — anyone is interested in expanding their programming slate, they should look at creator content. VA: Could Artificial Intelligence allow the same content to be shown in different countries in different languages? Is it possible to do it right now? BS: I don’t know if it’s possible to do it right now. AI is going to play a very considerable part in in the new generation of media and distribution and business models. That’s inevitable. I definitely see it playing a strong role in the creator space. I mean, just today a press release came out about how YouTube and the CIA are collaborating to ensure that deep fakes aren’t taking away monetization from creators by using their likenesses. So we’re going to see more partnerships between AI and content creators. VIDEOAGE February 2025 Social Media & OTT THE 62ND L.A. SCREENINGS RISES UNDER THE SIGN OF THE PHOENIX VideoAge will be there as it has been since it came up with the name “L.A. Screenings” in 1983 (formerly known as the May Screenings).
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