20 LatAm Market Like Weather Service: Some Complaints, But Very Appreciated By mid-September only three press announcements had been released by RX, the Paris-based organizer of MIP Cancun. This is possibly due to the fact that this year’s Latin American TV market will be held five days later than last year’s, so even though it’s not such a big gap, announcements about new developments might not have been considered as pressing as in the past. The three-day event will start on November 19, 2024, — a mere 25 days after the final day of MIPCOM, its sister market in Cannes, and only 10 days before the Asia TV Forum (ATF), its corresponding market in Singapore, begins. These close-in-proximity dates will result in a reduced Latin presence at both MIPCOM and ATF. The event will once again be held at its traditional venue, the Moon Palace Convention Center (part of the large Moon Palace Resort), which is located just outside Cancun, Mexico. Last year’s event attracted more than 800 participants, including 172 distributors, 193 co-producers, 210 content buyers, and 43 commissioners. These all hailed from 45 countries. The event housed 130 market tables from 121 companies (some took extra tables), plus seven stands. These were located in the hall of the convention’s second floor, facing the large marketplace space where the meeting tables were located. The 71 coproduction tables were located on the first, or ground floor. For the overflow, two meetingpoint areas (A and B) were created, but had no assigned numbers, meaning that folks were free to use any available coffee tables and chairs, which at times were scarce. During last year’s edition, there were 29 prearranged meetings for each exhibiting content sales company and 23 for co-production companies. The same is expected this year. Back in 2014, MIP Cancun introduced the concept of pre-arranged meetings for exhibiting companies, which solved the problem of content buyers ignoring meeting requests from distributors with whom they were unfamiliar. LatAm buyers who are invited all-expenses-paid are required to attend meetings they are assigned to by the organizers, and exhibitors have limited discretion to reject meetings with some buyers. The secret here is to balance buyers that have a budget to acquire content with those who go to MIP Cancun just to “explore trends.” However, most invited buyers without a need to acquire content are up front and clearly state their situation at the start of each meeting. Some exhibitors’ strategy is to focus on new potential buyers and leave meetings with their current or known buyers for informal get-togethers at various gatherings within the market. Explained Thomas Devlin, president, International Sales & Marketing, for the Los Angeles-based Entertainment Studios Television, “LatAm buyers are very predictable. They buy from their loyal distributors.” In addition, a New York City-based content seller who won’t be at MIP Cancun this time due to the high cost of exhibiting for his company, pointed out that LatAm acquisition executives “don’t change much. They’re always the same [people],” and that “Miami,” meaning Content and/or NATPE “is much cheaper for me.” Now in her third year as head of MIP Cancun, Maria Perez-Belliere of RX France instructed her London-based publicists to provide VideoAge with some highlights for the market’s 11th edition: A “FAST and AVoD Americas” set of conferences will be staged across a full pre-market day on Tuesday October 19, and will focus on monetization and opportunities within advertising-led streaming. Across the main three-day program, October 20-22, two further additions are a Co-Production Summit (an invitation-only networking event and discussion) and the new Co-Production Bootcamp (a series of workshops covering areas including legal, tech, financing, and sustainability in co-productions). In addition to the pre-opening cocktail, opening party, and closing party, there will be dedicated networking lunches for all MIP Cancun attendees on November 20 and 21, 2024. About the high cost of attending with an exhibition table, last year Perez told VideoAge that the rate had “increased a bit, in line with inflation.” In 2023, participants reported various levels of costs. Those with tables paid the highest rate (and got to choose which buyers they wanted to meet with from a lengthy list), while “Visitors +” were charged a reduced rate. Both of these included hotel accommodations, as well as food and beverages. Plain “Visitors” got only an access badge and access to the list of buyers just a few days before the market’s start date and without pre-set meetings. Last year, the report from distributors was generally positive, even though it was pointed out that little content-buying took place due to the poor state of the economy in most Latin American countries. This year it is expected to be the same. Nonetheless, the market is thought to still be the best gathering place for the Latin American TV industry — an appointment that content buyers don’t want to miss, and that content sellers, producers, and the trade press cannot afford to miss. Plus, MIP Cancun is the perfect prelude to the two Miami, Florida TV markets that will take place in January and February 2025, where follow-ups take place and deals are hammered out. Insurgence’s Niccolo Messina, 7A Media’s Cesar Diaz, Netminds’ Rene Leda were among the participants at last year’s event. Record TV’s Grace Andrade, Delmar Andrade, and Thiago Castro at MIP Cancun 2023. VIDEOAGE October 2024 MIP Cancun Preview
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