Globally, television is a more serious business

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

: 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.