Videoage International February 2025

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

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