V I D E O A G E October 2022 28 attended the L.A. Screenings in May and said that dealing with the studios helps executives have a better sense of emerging trends and to understand how things are evolving in the industry. But she also feels that studio fare these days tends to be slanted towards younger demographics. Ilze Korjusa, head of Digital Content and Acquisitions for Latvia’s TET, is looking to buy both linear and digital rights, now that windows tend to be shorter (sometimes just three to six months, unless the channel has a stake in the production) and competition has increased. “Acquiring good content requires a lot of skills”, she said. TET’s main suppliers are still the U.S. studios and large U.K. companies (including HBO Max, with whom TET has an exclusive agreement). Korjusa pointed out that relationships with the studios have changed, with executives, for example, at Disney, trying to pitch old ABC titles now that new content is going directly to their platforms, or new entity Warner Bros. Discovery licensing content rights only up until the end of 2023. With the exception of Disney, at MIPCOM 2022, the U.S. studios are, once again, flexing their contentmuscles after two years of keeping low profiles, with Paramount taking over Disney’s former tent, Warner Bros. Discovery camping out on the pier, and NBCUni returning to its fourth level “mansion” on the Palais’ convention floor. NBCUni is also sponsoring the MIPJUNIOR Opening Party on Monday, October 15, which means that champagne is going to flow once more. The party will be held at the deluxe Majestic Hotel, across from the Palais, while the venue for MIPJUNIOR is located at the nearby JW Marriott Hotel. Each hotel is relatively pricey, especially considering that the Carlton Hotel will remain closed for renovations for another nine months, which caused rates for the fourand-five-star hotels in the region to skyrocket to 1,380 euro per night in the case of the Martinez — and that’s for the cheapest room available. Naturally, removing the 343 rooms that make up the Carlton has reduced the luxury hotel inventory in Cannes, contributing to the rate hike. RX, MIPCOM’s organizer, has set up a hotel desk manned by bnetwork, a Paris-based accommodation management company, which lists 17 “walk-distance” hotels from the Palais in Cannes. The company also lists other hotels would compete to report more sales at each market. For this MIPCOM, reps for RX France didn’t waste any of their summer period promoting and publicizing the market, sending multiple e-blasts starting as early as June. The international TV industry responded inkind, prompting RX to grandiously declare, last month, that MIPCOM is “The Mother of all Entertainment Content Markets.” This editionofMIPCOMwill see the reopening of major outdoor stands along the Croisette and surrounding the Palais des Festivals. This year will also see the return of The CoProduction Market. This aspect is something that the event organizers are very proud of, and they are taking every opportunity to remind participants that new to this year’s event will be the Seaview Producers Hub. Set against the backdrop of Cannes’ classic seaside view, the networking lounge and event space has been introduced to reflect the increased focus in exploring early-stage development and coproduction partnerships at themarket. TheHub provides plenty of outdoor and indoor seating for executives to conduct daily meetings, with priority given to creators, producers, and development executives. The Seaview Producers Hub comes with its own programming that begins with a firstday introduction from MIPCOM director Lucy Smith, conference director Tania Dugaro, and organizer Laura Gragg. The agenda includes discussions on changes facing international drama co-productions and local-language content, the boom in Spanish-language content, a spotlight on African drama producers, and a panel on new sources of funding and new content funding models. This year, the market starts a week later than it did in 2021, but that’s not all that unusual. Indeed, in the 1980s, MIPCOM often began in the middle of October. And, in 2019, it opened its doors on the 14th. A whopping 10,000 participants are officially expected, of which 3,000 are buyers, and some others are reps for 300 exhibition companies. The market will also likely lure in executives leaving the MIA market in Rome, Italy (October 11-15) or preparing to go to Monte Carlo for Sportel Monaco (October 24-26). Unlike with MIPCOM 2021, this time around, gatherings seem to be encouraged. Indeed, RX France initiated a landmark achievement by a global studio or platform by creating the first Studio of Distinction Award that will be presented to BBC Studios at MIPCOM. Receiving the honor will be Tom Fussell, CEO, BBC Studios; Tim Davie, Director-General, BBC; and BBC Studios’ Kids & Family managing director Cecilia Persson. Then, Marco Bassetti, CEO of Banijay Group, and Charlie Collier, recently-appointed president at Roku Media, will each present a keynote address. Their sessions, on the first and second days of the market, will be part of the Media Mastermind keynote series. The Cannes Diversify TV Awards will return on its “discount-rate” list that are further away from the MIPCOM event. The promoted “discount rate” is 40 percent, but the list doesn’t include the deluxe hotels. There is also the non-MIPCOM-sponsored Cannes-based BornToHost, which lists 494 house-based properties for rent. Fortunately, a successful market could mitigate the cost increases, which are all across the board. As indicated in VideoAge’s September market preview story, excluding any coup de theatre by Russia’s Vladimir Putin or China’s Xi Jinping, all signs point to a good market since everyone is itching to get back to the prepandemic period. MIPCOM itself will kick off two days after MIPJUNIOR and close its doors on October 20, after four days of (what attendees hope will include) intensive wheeling and dealing among buyers and sellers. Not that major deals are typically signed on the spot these days, but the excitement shown by some buyers could certainly revive the old practice of actually making some commitments during themarket. VideoAge has covered many TV markets in Cannes, and as it recalled in its April 2022 Issue, at MIP-TV 1982, Bert Cohen reported that his firm, Worldvision (a U.S. company that is no longer in business), sold Freedom Road (starring Muhammad Ali) to 50 countries on the spot. That announcement actually started a trend for a few years, wherein U.S. studio executives The Mother of All TV Marts (Continued from Cover) (Continued on Page 30) Excluding any coup de theatre by Russia’s Vladimir Putin or China’s Xi Jinping, all signs point to a good market since everybody is itching to get back.
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