Globally, television is a more serious business

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: For those who are not familiar, the Marche International de Programmes de Television exhibition is an event for production and selling of global audiovisual and digital entertainment content. When the average Joe Bloggs hears the word ‘Cannes’, the thoughts of a red carpet, flowing champagne and flouncing celebrities come to mind. Just to clear the confusion, that is the Cannes Film Festival, which takes place in the second fortnight of May. However, the relatively un-hyped MIP or MIPTV (as it is called, in short), which also takes place in the township of Cannes (but in April), acts as a showcase for broadcasters and content producers to display their programmes for international sale.

I’ve just returned from the arduous but extremely productive 2008 edition of MIP last weekend, with my share of observations and learning. This year, there were far fewer parties and at the same time there were far more A-listers of the sort usually associated with a visit to Cannes in May rather than April—which only reaffirms that leaders from the entertainment world regard MIP as a far more serious and intense market for hard business than the Cannes Film Festival (next month), where the emphasis is as much (if not more) on schmoozing and partying, as it is on the exchange of dollars.

While the Cannes Film Festival brings me in touch with the glamorous side of the industry

I work in, and perhaps closer to a larger spectrum of international distributors whom I must deal with as part of my job, the event confines itself to the critics, stars, film makers, studios and the omnipresent celebri-ties who prance around each other. MIPTV, in sharp contrast, makes no bones about restricting itself to a hub for serious business—television business, to be more specific.

That said, within the rapidly changing media landscape, new technologies were the core of this year’s MIP. A number of companies promoted new digital broadcast platforms—mobile TV, the broadcasting of TV signals and on-demand video content to mobile phones and other devices. Content producers and technology companies were also promoting high definition (HD) television, Internet protocol television (IPTV) and video-on-demand services, with scores of exhibitors present from the Asia-Pacific region where mobile TV is expanding at an alarming pace.

Yet, MIP demonstrated that despite the startlingly rapid emergence of new technologies, the power of ‘old media’ (television and radio) cannot be undermined or underestimated. While the industry must pursue new technologies to stay in control of a fragmenting media market, a healthy mix of old and new technologies should be embraced to allow audiences to make the most of content.

Although most attendees at MIP are typically broadcasters and television content producers, this year, quite a few advertisers and brands, and even feature film distributors from the world over (who otherwise regard the Cannes Film Festival as their mecca), made their presence felt on the selling floor.

Advertisers and brands were around to look for ways to become part of content and find a way to embrace new media technologies and digital platforms in their advertising strategies. Ogilvy became the first entertainment agency to take a stand at MIP to figure out how its clients can be the entertainment, rather than the interruption between it.

Indian broadcasters such as Sony, Zee, Star, NDTV Imagine and the upcoming Reliance and Viacom initiatives, were busy selling existing programmes and concurrently procuring new formats and series. The Indian motion picture industry was represented by marketing and distribution execs from Eros and The Indian Film Company/Studio 18, licensing their movie catalogs to multiple media platforms from various countries, the most formidable being Pay Television and Free Television.

The Rose, Penne and Tiramisu in the evening were the best wrap to a hard day’s work at what was an incredibly active and arduous market!

—The author has a breadth of experience in film production, marketing and distribution. At present, he heads Marketing & Distribution for the UK & Europe at Studio 18.