12 Market Has Changed, But Buying and Selling is Still the Same as in 1994 In last month’s issue of VideoAge I reminisced about my MIPCOM experiences of 30 years ago, in the early 1990s before email, cell phones and digital video would make all our lives easier and more efficient. Recently, some 29 years after my last visit to Cannes, I returned to walk the floors once more and take in the MIPCOM experience anew, with wide eyes and a keen sense about how the business has changed, and how it has stayed the same. I’d hoped to meet some of the friends and coworkers I’d seen here so long ago but found that to be quite a challenge. I told myself it’s become a “young person’s business” before realizing that the average age of those here was likely the same as it was 30 years ago, and that it was I who had gotten older. The business has been taken over by a new generation. I walked the floor, talking to people, taking in panels and presentations, screenings, and social events. In one sense I felt as if time hadn’t passed at all, but I realized that aspects of our business have changed substantially since MIPCOM’s early years. Innovation Lab? What the heck is that? Where are the VHS tapes I stacked on the shelves of my Genesis International stand in the smoky Palais basement three decades ago? Aside from the technical differences (which I imagine 30 years from now will make even today’s methods seem antiquated), the business of buying and selling television and film product has not substantially changed. Sure, streaming, OTT, and other methods of delivery are different, but even as was stated in Roku’s Innovation Lab discussion on the second day of MIPCOM, the old methods of viewing won’t be disappearing entirely (streaming is currently 40 percent of TV viewing, and Roku is the portal for half of all operating systems in the U.S.). With all the changes taking place at such a rapid pace, Lucy Smith, Entertainment Division director, RX, reminded us that the industry is resilient and regenerative. “The demand for entertainment is not going away, but we have to figure it out,” Smith said, pointing to the fact that 3,200 buyers attended this year’s conference. From the distributors’ side, there are always challenges. New opportunities arise while others fade away. At one time, when many countries had only one or two broadcast networks (mostly government-controlled), with restrictions regarding how many of their programs could come from outside of their territories, it was tough for the distributors with less clout to close deals. When new channels were created with cable and satellite in the 1990s, there were many more opportunities to sell, and producers of all sizes were thriving. Now, with many companies merging into global powerhouses, it’s tougher again to be able to close deals as many of their programming commitments go to their multinational production partners. Another challenge today compared to 30 years ago is that “buyers” at the international conferences aren’t necessarily buyers. “Many program acquisition people aren’t buyers now,” one distribution executive told me. “They’re ‘information collectors’ (i.e., junior level employees tasked with seeing what’s out there and available), who can’t make deals. In the past, program directors could make deals, now we don’t even screen shows at our stand. We pitch, send the video to someone who screens it back at their office (many times someone other than the person who took the pitch), and you’re lucky if you can close a deal in a few weeks. Many times it’s months or even a year before a deal is made. At least one benefit of the process taking time is that we can update the potential buyer on our progress, with additional sales points, including ratings success stories and additional video to share.” One interesting aspect of the television scene in the United States is that subtitled programs are no longer the pariah they were 30 years ago. Sheila Morris of Morris Marketing shared with me her views: “International programming in general is accepted and embraced. Many of the most popular shows on Netflix and other streamers are now viewed with subtitles,” she said. Morris also shed light on a number of the differences press and public relations professionals dealt with between the early 1990s and today: “We’d have to ship boxes with press releases and photos, spend hours placing them in pigeon holes (slots for each of the gathered press) in the press room, and when there were updates on sales success stories, it was done on typewriters, and you were lucky if you were able to get photographs duplicated and distributed quickly.” “Before the era of cell phones, emails and texts,” another distributor told me, “the only way to get ahold of someone to change a meeting was to call their hotel and leave a message, hoping against hope that they’d get it in time.” On the flip side of that, though, recalled Morris, executives weren’t tied to their computers and cell phones, so they could get away to long lunches or dinners without interruption. “MIP was six days, MIPCOM was five,” she told me. “The Martinez Hotel bar was the place to go after a long day of business, where even more business could be done.” What struck me this year, after an absence of almost 30, is that other than MIPCOM’s official opening party at the Majestic Hotel, there was no buzz on the floor each day about which big party to attend each evening. Not every exhibitor was inside the Palais as they were so long ago; tents outside this year housed some of the larger companies like Paramount and Lionsgate. Consequently, the battle for prime floor space in the Palais, which used to be brutal for small companies like those I worked for, now allows every exhibitor a chance to maximize their space and exposure. Finally, I must say that one thing which hasn’t changed is the enthusiasm and drive that I see in the people on the market floor. It’s the same business, but at its heart with industry changes coming at the speed of light, I’m impressed at how this generation of television and film executives is wearing the mantle and carrying us into the future of television and digital entertainment. *Douglas Friedman has spent 40 years as a television marketing executive for networks, stations, and distributors. He is now a freelance writer based in San Diego, California. By Douglas Friedman* VIDEOAGE November 2024 MIPCOM Report
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