Water Cooler

The 2010 edition of DISCOP East is set to take place June 23-25, as usual in the Sofitel Chain Bridge Hotel in Pest section of Budapest, Hungary. In its 18th iteration, the market is expected to play host to about 850 participants from around the globe. VideoAge connected with Patrick Jucaud, president of DISCOP organizer Basic Lead to find out what buyers and sellers have to look forward to this year, what regions he expects to be most active at the event and why the market remains loyal to its Budapest location.

VideoAge International: What's new at the market this year?
Patrick Jucaud: Since last year’s DISCOP East, the region has seen the launch of a staggering 51 new channels and television platforms. Viasat has launched new sports and nature channels in the Baltic region, Chello has launched two new sports channels in the region, and Romania has seen the launch of food channel TV Paprika. In the Ukraine, Digital Fly has launched a 70-channel pay platform. Later this year CTC Russia will launch Galileo, a factual channel it has already dubbed, “the Russian Discovery Channel,” while Polsat Film started broadcasting in Poland on 2 October 2009; and there are many, many, more. VOD is burgeoning too; Remfu Media has launched Kengurua TV, a VOD platform for Ukraine and Russia while in Hungary, Budapest Film has launched a range of new VOD services, at www.port.hu. In fact, across the region, new content outlets are springing up everywhere. And, even if, such rapid expansion is likely to be followed by a period of consolidation, all these new launches must still be good news. We certainly think so anyway. Which is why 36 of these new channels and platforms will be here at this year’s DISCOP, and, at the time of writing, discussions were ongoing with all the others.
VAI: All companies are looking to save money. What are the organizers doing to help exhibiting companies save money at the market?
PJ: We have considerably improved the quality of all of our pre-market organizational services in order to allow our participants to add at least two hours worth of meetings per each market day. We have also increased the number of low-cost exhibits. We have brought together two new national pavilions that were not at DISCOP East last year, one from Argentine and another one from Serbia, in order to help independent producers attend our market. Also, it is important to note that this is the fourth consecutive year that we have not increased our prices.
VAI: What are organizers doing to help exhibitors make money and promote their products this year?
PJ: We will be launching DISCOP Tube, a free online video library open to content buyers representing TV stations and other distribution platforms across Central, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The DISCOP Tube online video library will showcase content offered at the various DISCOP markets and will be accessible all year round via DISCOP’s website. During the markets themselves, buyers will be able to access the DISCOP Tube platform in a restricted lounge open at all times during the course of the three-day market.
           The DISCOP Tube streaming and uploading services will be powered by Mediapeers, one of the world’s leading developers of secured online, business-to-business viewing environments. While face-to-face meetings are central to the development of television content business in the 101 countries covered by DISCOP events, we are also responding to economical and technological factors encouraging online viewing practices.
           Fueled by new territorial licensing opportunities combined with a worldwide, ongoing digital switchover revolution for content suppliers, the number of potential “prospects” has grown exponentially in the last three years, and with it, the costs to properly service every single one of them. Using premium postal services to rush physical DVDs around the world, after or before a sales-centric market no longer makes sense. Helping buyers and sellers to travel “light” is a major priority for us, as is the spontaneous networking that can be derived from online environments.  We are sure that DISCOP Tube will be a huge benefit to our attendees, before, during and after each of our markets.”
VAI: How many buyers are you expecting? How many sellers?
PJ: We are expecting approximately 350 companies to attend as content sellers and about 500 companies as content buyers (TV Stations, Pay-TV platforms, territorial agents, home video distributors and other alternative content distribution platforms). Most important, we hope to increase the average number of “useful” meetings between participants by 20 percent this year, and we have been much more rigorous in the pre-registration process in order to only bring to the market companies interested in doing business on the spot. With four weeks to go before the opening of the next DISCOP market, 300 international content suppliers and 435 TV Stations, other content distribution platforms and territorial agents from Central and Eastern Europe are already registered.
           In 2009, DISCOP events brought together a combined number of 2160 participants, a 33 percent increase from 2008, demonstrating the growing importance of world regions such as Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Africa for audiovisual content business. Between all DISCOP events scheduled during 2010, we expect to bring a total of 2500 participants this year.
VAI: Do you have any predictions for which markets/regions will be increasing their presence or becoming more aggressive this year?
PJ: We see Turkey as becoming a major player in Central and Eastern Europe, both as a growingly important supplier of dramas and as a country with many television operators ready to acquire content from companies attending DISCOP East18. Turkey will host our DISCOP East 18 Welcome Party.
VAI:  How has the Budapest location worked for DISCOP? Have you ever considered making it an itinerant market and holding it in other locations in Eastern Europe such as Romania or Bulgaria?
PJ: We are very happy with Budapest and 95 percent of our participants are happy with the venue that we will be using for the 18th year now. We have often considered changing the location but we have always come back to the golden principle in our business: “Don’t change a venue that works”.

 

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Before the L.A. Screenings begins, the action revolves around New York City, which has been a hotbed of industry activity this week, with the U.S. network Upfronts in full swing. Fox and NBC made their pilot pick-up announcements on Monday, May 17, ABC followed on Tuesday, and CBS and The CW will bring up the rear with Upfronts on Wednesday the 19th and Thursday the 20th respectively. VideoAge’s complete list of new shows for the 2010-2011 season will be available in print and online on May 22.
           Meanwhile, the early pickup list shows NBC skewing towards drama, with seven one-hour drama orders as compared to five comedies and one reality show. Dramas include , distributed by NBC Universal, which follows the story of an honest cop who adopts the persona of a masked superhero after he is framed for a crime. On the comedy side is , centering on a group of friends who are not opposed to hooking up while they look for serious relationships.
           On Fox’s lineup are three new dramas and four new comedies, for a total of seven pick-ups. Romantic comedy Running Wilde comes from the creators of quirky laugher Arrested Development, and stars Will Arnett and Keri Russell as opposites who attract. Also debuting this fall will be Lonestar, a provocative drama set against the backdrop of the oil industry in Texas.
           For its part, ABC picked up 10 new shows, seven of which will be included in its primetime lineup. Medical drama “Off the Map” will join the ABC slate in midseason, while “Body of Proof,” which centers on forensics, will be makes its premiere in fall. Both series are distributed by Disney. On the comedy side is Matthew Perry vehicle Mr. Sunshine, as well as Happy Endings and family-oriented series Better Together.
           At press time, CBS and The CW had yet to make their announcements. However, early buzz indicated that sitcom Mike and Molly could be a sure thing for CBS. Created by Chuck Lorre, the series centers on a couple who meets at a support group for over-eaters. Though there is no word yet from mini-net The CW, its safe to safe it will pick up a good number of the five drama pilots it commissioned.

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By Erin Somers

 

Most distributors at the L.A. Screenings fall into one of two categories: indies and studios. But what about the companies that fall somewhere in the middle? VideoAge caught up with Sheila Aguirre, senior vice president of Sales and Development, Latin America and Hispanic U.S.A. for format powerhouse FremantleMedia Enterprises, and, to some extent, Gabriela Lopez, senior vice president of Argentina-based Ledafilms –– which distributes content to Latin America from U.S. studios –– to find what the L.A. Screenings are like for mini-majors.
           Aguirre was buoyant about the event. “We’re looking forward to being at L.A. Screenings this year, as always,” she said, “It gives us a great opportunity to tie up deals started at MIP-TV and catch up with clients that weren’t in Cannes.”
           Where product is concerned, Aguirre and company are focusing on finished series including Motor City Motors, Michelin Stars: The Pressure For Perfection and brand new cooking show Annabel Langbein: The Free Range Cook. Added Aguirre: “We have some of the best returning series and franchises that broadcasters can rely on.” Such returning shows include She’s Got the Look, Celebrity Apprentice, and the Martha Stewart Catalogue.
           In addition to the formats Fremantle launched at MIP-TV, Aguirre’s team is also bringing a host of game show formats. Titles include The Price Is Right, Let’s Make a Deal, Family Feud and Five Against Quizmaster.
           Asked about programming trends to expect at the Screenings, Aguirre remarked that the pan-regional channels in Latin America are expanding their programming grids. “There has been a particular rise in demand for factual and lifestyle programs,” she said.
           Ledafilms walks the line between studio and indie in the sense that it acts as a sales agent for Paramount Pictures-Dreamworks as well as independent companies like Los Angeles-based Lucasfilm. Gabriela Lopez said that, although a good number of companies her firm represents are focused primarily on Latin America, her team has other goals for the Screenings as well. “We’re also launching a new animated production project in association with Miami-based Exim and Italy’s Mondo TV,” she said. “It’s called Bondiband, and it will have worldwide distribution plus licensing and merchandising.”
           Lopez also predicted that although some sales will go to the independents, the Latins will get most of their product from the studios. “It’s very difficult to estimate a percentage,” she said, “But there is no doubt that the main amount of product acquired by the Latin networks comes from major studios and the largest independent Hollywood producers.”
           The full L.A. Screenings report will be available in the May 18 edition of VideoAge, first distributed in Los Angeles and later, mailed and posted online.

 

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By Dom Serafini

At one point the U.S. TV networks wanted to take over the studios. They lobbied Washington long and hard to the point that the opposite happened, and the studios took over the networks. Then, the new vertically integrated studio-networks started to fight with cable companies to the point where one got so fed up, it decided to buy the other out.
           It looks like the U.S. TV networks cannot stay out of trouble. The recent intentions of U.S. giant cable MSO’s Comcast to buy NBC Universal (and, in Canada, MSO Shaw’s to take over CanWest), will open a new set of challenges for the U.S. and Canadian TV industries before and after the deal is consummated, but it will also provide some long-term answers.
           In the U.S., the first challenge is represented by NBC’s TV network affiliates. Technically, with cable distribution reaching more than 80 percent of the U.S. population, networks don’t really need local affiliates anymore.
           The second challenge consists of competition among MSOs operating in the same market (including satellite, telcos and, soon, ISPs such as Google). With Comcast owning such programming-producing powerhouses as Universal, why should it help the competition by providing premium content?
           The third challenge is for the FCC, the U.S. regulatory agency. Because of the deal, it will have to tackle five major issues that are lingering on its agenda, some for a few years now: Net neutrality (the Commission is developing a National Broadband Plan), dot channels, cross-ownerships (all kinds), carriage fee requirements, and excessive consolidation. For the FCC, the Comcast-NBC deal represents the perfect storm.
           By owning NBC Universal, Comcast will, in effect, have full control over broadband access, content, distribution and carriage agreements. The fact that NBC owns 27 local TV stations (plus 173 not-owned affiliates), programming of their extra digital channels (the so-called “dot channels”) will also come into the picture.
           I’m sure that the whole thing will make for interesting reading for months to come. It cannot be years, because under the GE (owner of NBC Universal) and Comcast deal, the former will have to pay Vivendi (the French conglomerate that still owns 20 percent of NBC-Universal) $2 billion (out of a total $5.8 billion) by September 2010 if the deal isn’t closed by then.
           Basically, Comcast would not be buying NBC Universal if Vivendi was still to be in the picture afterward, and for GE, the entertainment group doesn’t mesh well with its nuclear reactor and other businesses.
           Personally, I’m in favor of the Comcast acquisition because only when dealing with an enormous entity that could threaten the whole social-political and economical system will regulators, financiers, politicians and entertainment executives be forced to restore sanity. Consumer advocates should realize this and quietly allow the deal to go through. Here the “too big to fail” concept will not work. Witness the Warner Bros.-AOL deal, which was an attempt to control both content and distribution, as well as the Hewlett-Packard/Compaq merger, the AT&T and TCI deal and even the Daimler-Chrysler deal. They were big entities. They failed. But their impact on society was minimal.
           Nowadays, only an out-of-this-world entity like the Comcast-NBC deal can cause the big bang necessary to bring back the elements needed by the socio-political-economical process to understand the folly of unlimited consolidation, and thus return the whole thing to more sane, manageable, egalitarian and sound bases.
           Don’t get me wrong; I fully understand that on one level, the basis of the Comcast-NBC deal makes sense because those “dumb pipes” (as the naked distribution system is called) need to be “content” with tons of programming. What I question is the size of the deal, not the purpose.
           In my view, anything that is too big is also too complicated to run (witness Toyota and GM), too fragile (look at hubs such as Dallas-Ft.Worth and Heathrow) and too unfair to competition, consumers and the socio-political process. Not to mention it stifles innovation.
           A newly minted example comes from the different approaches of two U.S. government agencies: NASA, for space exploration, and DARPA, the military research center credited with the invention of the Internet. While the former preferred to keep all its operations under one umbrella, the latter farmed everything out. Now, recognizing DARPA’s superior approach, NASA is following suit.
           The sooner the entertainment industry recognizes such logic, the sooner the sector will be revitalized and answers to the technological challenges will be developed.

 

 

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