ITV

Tag: Reed Midem

  • Now MipTV roadshow to hit Bengaluru today

    Now MipTV roadshow to hit Bengaluru today

    BENGALURU: Today is the turn of India’s garden city Bengaluru (Bangalore)  to get insights on  how its animation, gaming, TV channel and production and film executives can take audiovisual content from Karnataka global through markets such as MipTV and MipCom which have been organised in Cannes for decades now.

     

    An intimate audience in Chennai  (having a similar profile) engaged with Reed Midem representatives Ted Baracos, Paul Barbaro and India representative Anil Wanvari on 20 January.

     

    “Bengaluru has built up its reputation as India’s Silicon Valley,” says Baracos. “We, at Reed Midem, would love to see it known for its prowess in the media and entertainment space too. MipTV and MipCom offer the biggest gatherings of buying and selling executives from TV and digital from all over the world, and can work well to catapult Bengaluru in front of these folks. It could well serve as a good starting point to start the Karnataka content export engine to new markets.”

     

    “For that to successfully happen, Karnataka’s industry will have to take a bold step in wanting to be a part of a content export  economy which runs into billions of dollars each year,” adds Barbaro. “In recent times, Korea, Russia, Turkey and even provinces in China have been step by step increasing their initiatives in this direction. There is a huge pie out there in the 100 or so countries that participate in MipCom and MipTV respectively.”

     

    To reach out to the community in Bengaluru, a partnership was struck by Reed Midem  with the Association of Bangalore’s Animation Industry (ABAI) a couple of years ago. And today’s get together will see that relationship bearing fruit as ABAI is sending scores of its representatives to attend the seminar entitled “Content without boundaries.”

     

    “MipTV offers scores of opportunities: right from simple syndication to co-production to licensing to co-creation,” says Wanvari. “The neighouring state of Andhra Pradesh has already taken strides in that direction and its government has been encouraging producers and creators to go global. I believe Karnataka’s content production industry can use these opportunities to gradually get their revenues moving northward.”

     

    The industry get together will take place this evening at the Hotel Aloft in the swanky IT district – the Whitefield area – from 7:00 pm onwards. 

     

    The road show will next move to Mumbai where a seminar is planned for 24 January.

  • MipTV roadshow to hit Chennai on 20 January

    MipTV roadshow to hit Chennai on 20 January

    MUMBAI: Paris-based Reed Midem, which produces the world’s biggest and most successful content markets MipTV and MipCom in the French Riviera seaside town of Cannes, is all set to begin a series of road shows in India which will feature seminars and interactions in three cities  – Chennai, Bengaluru and Mumbai – explaining how India’s content community can build its international sales and presence.

     

    The first of these will be hitting Chennai on 20 Januray 2014. To be held at the Hotel Benzz Park in the T. Nagar business area,  it is slated to be attended by a select group of invited professionals  from the southern India city’s animation, TV, film distribution and value-added services sectors.

     

    The theme of this year’s roadshows is “Content without boundaries.”

     

    Down for the second time in about six months from the Paris headquarters  of Reed Midem are director of new market development Ted Baracos and Asia sales head Paul Barbaro. Accompanying them is Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO Anil Wanvari, who is MipTV, MipCom and Midem India representative.

     

    Says Baracos: “We were quite delighted with the response from  India’s talented content creators when we had road shows in Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai last year.  Our theme then was: Can Indian content leave its stamp on the world? And India responded with a big yes. Attendance from the country was up almost 20 per cent as Indian companies came to MipCom in October 2013 to strike deals and pursue international market opportunties. So we decided to come back once again to connect with the community here.”

     

    Adds Barbaro: “Several Indian companies such as Shemaroo, Green Gold, Viacom18, Zee TV, DQ Entertainment, AVCGI have understood the power of MipCom and MipTV and have  successfully been using the platforms we provide to expand their content syndication, production and co-production businesses. We would like India’s  new content creators to understand, be a part and exploit the new entertainment economy in which content is likely to cease having borders, it will travel everywhere. Hence we  are here continuing our conversation with them through these road shows.”

     

    “I have been attending Mipcom and MipTV for more than 14 years and have seen Indian broadcasters, animation studios, service providers simply grow thanks to the contacts and deals they strike there,” says Wanvari. “The entrepreneurialism and hunger to conquer new markets can only see India’s content being consumed and even co-produced in markets never thought about before. It is important that more and more Indian firms understand and exploit this opportunity. It can bring home hundreds of millions of dollars in much needed forex into the Indian economy and probably grow the next Endemol or Fremantle out of India.”

     

    From Chennai, the team will then move to Bengaluru on 22 January and to Mumbai on 24 January. The entire road show has been put together and organised by Indiantelevision.com’s ITV 2.0 Productions division.

  • Mipcom/MipTV reach out to Mumbai’s content community

    Mipcom/MipTV reach out to Mumbai’s content community

    MUMBAI: The Mumbai leg of Reed Midem’s Mipcom and MipTV road show went off like a dream with an attendance from about 80 professionals from the world of television and digital content. It was addressed by Reed Midem international business development director Ted Baracos, Asia sales manager Paul Barbaro and Indian representative (and indiantelevision.com founder & CEO) Anil Wanvari.

     

    The theme like the other two venues was “Can Indian content leave its stamp on the world?” But unlike Delhi and Hyderabad, the attendees were primarily professionals from TV and digital content production, broadcast syndication and distribution.

     

    TV producers were represented by Shyamashish Bhattachharrya, JD Majethia, Sumeet Mittal, Rakesh Paswan, Abhigyan and Mrinal Jha, Sudhir Sharma, Lalit Sharma, Asad Abid, Ram Talkit, Rahul Sarangi and Roopak Saluja. Zee TV, Indiacast, 9XM, Sahara TV, Times Television Network, and Travel XP HD were some of the broadcasters who attended. Independent film producers Imtiaz Barolia and Javed Rahman Khan also attended. Amongst the distributors included Bhupin Chhadva, Yuvamira Dwivedi, Vivek Lath, Ratnakar Kumar, Sanjay Hinduja and Rashmmi Menon.

     

    Rajjat Barjatya, Sandeep Mehra and Ram Seshan made up the digital players. Education companies Educmedia and Laughing Buddha Entertainment Knowledge were in attendance.

     

    Extremely interactive, the two hour seminar had all the constituents expressing their views. Broadcasters expressed that the two markets are a must attend for TV professionals and that the two markets help generate substantial business for content syndication for them. “Indian TV shows command about $350 to $700 per half hour,” said one of the broadcasters. “The sticker price of non-fiction shows is about $1,500 and above,” said another. “Films sell at anywhere from $500 to $15,-20,000 depending on the territory,” said a third.

     

    According to them, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Russian, CIS, Mynamar, Poland, middle east and other east European markets are some of the markets which have taken to Indian content well. Most of the attendees expressed that they would like to see an Indian pavilion come up at MipTV and Mipcom, representing the Indian content creation industry, just like 26 other regions from all over the world are doing, Wanvari said he was in conversation with National Film Development Corporation to set up the pavilion once again this year, while the Animation, VFX, Comic & Gaming Industry of Andhra Pradesh was also in the process of doing the same for this year’s Mipcom from 7-10 October.

     

    Film producer Javed Khan expressed that Mipcom is very conducive to doing co-production deals. He is currently executing a coproduction film with support from Turkey. “We nearly closed one co-production contract at Mipcom three to four years ago,” he said.

     

    Creative professional and producer Rahul Sarangi spoke about a non-fiction format developed by him which is going on the floors in four different countries. “Indian broadcasters were not very accommodating of my paper format,” he says. “So I invested about $40,000 and created a nice trailer and one of the overseas format distributors agreed to license it. It will be seen in several countries very soon. Mipcom and MipTV have really helped me realise my ambitions. Now an Indian broadcaster is negotiating to buy the licence for India.”

     

    The entire room gave a rousing ovation to digital producer Rajjat Barjatya who has generated 1.5 billion views for his 45 odd channels on YouTube. “Indian content can travel and is already travelling through my channels,” he said. “The most popular offering is a video Ba Ba Black sheep which has got 76 odd million views,” he said. “And it is being watched by a German mother and her daughter, an English mother and her son.. it has crossed language and cultural boundaries.”

     

    TV producers stated that they were totally hemmed in by the fact that they did not have the rights to the content they produce, but they would nonetheless like to attend to expand their horizons. Baracos said the Indian case was not unique. He gave the example of UK independent producer organisation Pact. “The UK market was quite similar to India’s as is Japan. The producers lobbied with industry and government to get their rights back again,” said Baracos. “They were successful with a caveat: they would share revenues with broadcasters on sales they achieved. Today, the UK Indies pavilion is generating close to 30 million pounds worth of deals annually. Everyone is happy: the broadcasters, and the producers.”

     

    Barbaro highlighted that it is imperative that India builds a brand for itself at international markets. “Korea has done it over years; China is doing it. India needs to do it,” he said. “Today, their content is traveling all over the world. Yes, the government supports their efforts with funds, but the Indian content community needs to awaken the Indian government about the opportunities available and what other governments are doing to help and propagate their culture – and indirectly generate national economic benefits – through markets such as Mipcom and MipTV.”

  • MipCom, MipTV workshop planned for Hyderabad this evening

    MipCom, MipTV workshop planned for Hyderabad this evening

    MUMBAI: In the words of many a TV sales and acquisition executive. Paris-based Reed Midem’s MipTV, MipCom, Mip Junior, MipFormats, MipCube are absolutely unmissable (if a word like that can be created specially for this purpose).

     

    Close to 12,000 executives from more than 100 countries, 4000 buyers, 2000 plus exhibitors, hundreds of conferences and keynote speeches and interviews featuring industry global TV broadcast, production, creative, distribution, regulatory leaders are what make all of these a must-attend for the TV ecosystem for decades. A delegation of close to 120 TV professionals from India have been attending each of these markets for the past five-six years.

     

    An estimate is that close to three billion euros in transactions emanate from these markets annually as executives buy and sell animation shows, drama series, films, documentaries, non-fiction formats, digital content, explore emerging formats such as ultra HD (these days), paper formats, do co-production deals, and so on.

     

    And to propagate this message further and to connect with India’s vibrant content creation industry, indiantelevision.com CEO and MipTV, MipCom and Midem representative Anil Wanvari has been going on a whistle stop tour covering three of the major broadcast and content ecosystem cities of Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai, along with Reed Midem director marketing development Ted Baracos and Asia sales manager Paul Barbaro.

     

    The Delhi-leg of the road show culminated on 22 July and was extremely well attended by a clutch of animation entrepreneurs, documentary producers, broadcasters, digital content creators, distributors, film producers.

     

    Says long time Mipmarkets attendee TigerBells Animation founder Vivek Kalyan: “It was fabulous to have an interaction with Ted, Paul, and Anil and learn how we as content creators can further our prospects globally.”

     

    Adds independent documentary producer Pankaj Saxena: “It’s great that we had such a stimulating workshop. We are looking forward to such future interactions so we can create the right strategy to allow our content to leave a stamp on the world.”

     

    An interaction with close to 100 content creators and distributors is planned for Hyderabad later this evening. And another one for Saturday 27 July at 7 p.m. in Mumbai.

  • Green World Award for Yann Arthus-Bertrand at MIPTV

    Green World Award for Yann Arthus-Bertrand at MIPTV

    MUMBAI: French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand will receive the first ever Green World Award at MIPTV featuring MILIA. The new award has been created to recognize the efforts of industry professionals who have contributed to the global awareness of environmental issues.

    Bertrand will receive the Green World Award on Tuesday 17 April during a dinner for industry executives. He will also give a keynote speech in which he will discuss television’s role in the fight against global warming at the 44th annual MIPTV featuring MILIA event at Palais des Festivals, Cannes from 16 to 20 April.

    “We want to contribute to the awareness of environmental concerns through our tradeshows,” says Reed MIDEM Chief Executive Officer Paul Zilk.

    “Television has a huge impact on public opinion and education, and the creation and broadcasting of environment-focused programming is extremely important. The series of documentaries inspired by Bertrand called “From Above,” depict the world’s most pressing environmental challenges. 

    “I’m delighted to receive the MIPTV featuring MILIA Green World Award,” says Bertrand.

    “My commitment to sustainable development grew from studying the Earth on a daily basis, from encounters and from readings. I became aware that my photos were useful and that my own convictions gave them additional value. The more interest one takes in our planet and the more one realises the issues at stake, the greater the desire to actively engage in change for the better.”

    Bertrand has had a childhood passion for nature and has run a nature reserve in France and also studied behavior of lions in Kenya. This is where he published his first book ‘Lions’. He has worked as a photojournalist specializing in adventure sports, nature even tennis.

    His pictures have been published in leading international magazines including Paris Match, Geo, Life and The National Geographic.In July 2005, Bertrand created GoodPlanet.org, a non-profit organisation aiming to promote sustainable development.

    MIPTV featuring MILIA’s 2007 conference programme opens on the 16 April with a conference entitled “Is Green TV prime-time TV?”. The conference presents a panel of leading professionals specialising in the Green TV sector who will discuss the global development of environmental programmes.

  • RTL CEO Gerhard Zeiler to deliver keynote at Mip TV 2007

    RTL CEO Gerhard Zeiler to deliver keynote at Mip TV 2007

    MUMBAI: Reed Midem, which organises the television markets Mip TV and Mipcom in Cannes, France, has announced that European entertainment network RTL CEO Gerhard Zeiler will give a keynote speech at Mip TV/Milia 2007.

    Gerhard Zeiler returns to Cannes after being named Personality of the Year at Mipcom 2004 for his career. During his keynote, Zeiler will share his vision of how the leading networks across the world are responding to fragmented media distribution and embracing change.

    He says, “There’s an amazing amount of intuition involved in television. If you strike the right note, you don’t just reach viewers, you genuinely move and captivate them. Your content wins them over. That’s why, for me, television is the most complete medium.”

    Mip TV/Milia’s 2007 conference programme entitled ‘Capture Innovation’ will be taking a close look at cross-platform content, innovative formats and concepts. Other key topics to be discussed are the latest global developments in television programming, new business models, new marketing concepts, mobile TV content and new digital platforms such as mobile TV, IPTV, VoD and broadband TV.

  • MipTV reports a marginal rise in attendance

    MipTV reports a marginal rise in attendance

    MUMBAI: The recently concluded television event in Cannes, France MipTV featuring Milia had an attendance of 12,249 participants, compared to 12,163 in 2005.

    Company participation rose to 4,201 from 4,138 last year, while the number of acquisition executives in Cannes was 3,565, a five per cent increase on the 2005 level of 3,393.

    Reed Midem’s television division director Paul Johnson says, “MipTV featuring MILIA 2006 saw a significant rise in the number of companies and executives coming from the digital sector, particularly IPTV, mobile and interactive television specialists. Our figures show that we welcomed some 1,800 companies from the Internet and mobile sectors.

    “Our conference programme and a series of new initiatives such as Content 360 and the International Interactive Emmy Awards, reflect the changes taking place in the industry. MipTV featuring MILIA is not just a television market, it’s a content market.”

    The event had 45 sessions and over 170 speakers. For the first time ever, the conference programme welcomed seven keynote speakers, including AOL chairman and CEO Jonathan Miller, reality television producer Mark Burnett, BBC new media head Ashley Highfield, FremantleMedia’s Gary Carter, Takeshi Natsuno of NTT DoCoMo and Erik Huggers of Microsoft.

    Miller at the event announced that AOL had brought programming originally produced for its Internet video channels and was selling the shows to traditional broadcasters.

    A highlight of MipTV was the inaugural International Interactive Emmy Awards, organised by the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and Reed Midem. This is the first time that an Emmy Awards ceremony has taken place outside the US. A gala dinner, hosted by Desperate Housewives star Roger Bart.

    Among the other new initiatives launched in 2006, Content 360 set out to commission innovative content and interactive applications for mobile and broadband. Organised in partnership with the BBC, the Korean Broadcasting Commission and the National Film Board of Canada, Content 360 rewarded six company projects and provided €80,000 of development funding to be divided between the winners.

    For the first time in MipTV’s history, the annual Lifetime Achievement Award was attributed not to an industry individual but to a whole company, in the form of Japanese production powerhouse TOEI. TOEI Company chairman Tan Takaiwa and TOEI Animation chairman Tsutomu Tomari accepted the tribute on behalf of the entire TOEI group.

    Now in its ninth year, the two-day Mipdoc documentary and factual programme screenings, which precede MipTV, saw a 14 per cent rise in participation with 438 companies from 57 countries attending. Production and sales companies sent 1,192 programmes to the digital screening library, of which 769 were appearing at a market for the first time.

  • South Korean service wins interactive Emmy

    South Korean service wins interactive Emmy

    MUMBAI: The International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (Iatas) has announced the winners for the first International Interactive Emmy Awards.

    This was organised in partnership with Reed Midem, at the television event MipTV in Cannes, France. A channel, an interactive service and a programme from the UK, South Korea and France respectively won the first ever International Interactive Emmy Award in their category. The inaugural Pioneer Prize was presented to AOL chairman and CEO Jonathan Miller, for his contributions to the field of interactive television.

    The award for the best interactive television service went to Hello D, a service provided by CJ CableNet in South Korea. Hello D was the world’s first digital cable broadcasting to succeed in the OCAP. Hello D, a simple and convenient form of interactive digital broadcasting, offers over 100 different channels, 30 high quality audio channels, 21 PPV channels, and a VOD service.

    It is CJ CableNet’s digital cable service that offers a variety of information as well as interactive television. Hello D is Korea’s leading digital broadcasting that centers on high quality, easy navigation, and easy access. CJ CableNet is opening the door to a richer lifestyle and is ushering in a new tomorrow in the digital world.

    The best programme went to France 5’s Cult. It is a daily interactive one-hour live TV show dedicated to urban culture. Hosted by Ray Cokes, Cult targets the 15 to 35 year old demographic and offers a fast-paced anti-conformist show with a never-seen-before-in-France interactivity. Every viewer equipped with a webcam and a high-speed Internet connection could contribute, participate and react live from their homes during and after the show through the website.

    Cult also offers blogging, local news and live video messaging from concert halls using 3G phones. Cult provides an uplifting place for urban young adults and teens where their opinions are taken seriously and interactivity supports multiculturalism.

    Scamp in the UK was voted the best channel. It is the first and only dedicated interactive on-demand kids channel in the UK. Kids can view all their favorite shows back-to-back, work their way through all the episodes of a series or add any show to a personal favorites list with a simple button press. For those who haven’t yet learnt their ABCs, Scamp incorporates easy-to-navigate video walls, linking them to programming through all their favorite characters.

    Parents can also manage their kids’ viewing in the ‘Scamp for Grown Ups’ area, and the unique ‘Time for Bed’ feature automatically schedules 10 minutes of viewing interspersed with time-for-bed messages to help children wind down.

    Iatas president and CEO Bruce Paisner says, “We are proud to be at the forefront of the television industry with these three new International Interactive Emmy Awards”.

    The sold-out black-tie ceremony was attended by over 250 international key-players from the television, Internet and mobile industries including sponsors: AETN, AOL, Bold and Beautiful, Colorchips, Ericcson, Homechoice, Intel, KBS, Open TV and Sky.

    The International Interactive Emmy Awards at Mip TV was the first ever Emmy Awards ceremony held outside the US.

  • Riviera Resort Cannes readies for TV fiesta

    Riviera Resort Cannes readies for TV fiesta

    CANNES: Blue skies. Crystal clear sea. A full sun overhead. Warm sand. A cool breeze that wraps around you. Cafes and restaurants with tables lining the sidewalk and serving mouth watering yummy French food from Provence and Cote D’Azur. Not to forget the wines from Bordeaux.

    Welcome to Cannes on the famous French Riviera – home to the famed Film and Advertising Festivals and the lesser known TV festivals MipTV and MipCom.

    The Cannes Croisette is packed with people, one sees dogs of every shape and size, every breed and race, being led around by their masters and mistresses – also of every shape and size. The elderly walk slowly, stumblingly, the youngsters make big strides.

    The place is dotted with both young and old alike happy for a sunny escape to the warmer climes of this southern haven in France. A few kids are kicking a ball around on the sand, while others are hitting it around in a game of volleyball. A middle aged woman strips down, revealing a swim suit and plunges into the sea. Somewhere else an old couple sit on two chairs by the beach quietly holding hands, while another younger couple are kissing like they mean serious business.

    The rest of France seems to be upset with its government for trying to institute a practical labour law and has been protesting; Cannes seems to be oblivious to all of this. Thankfully so.

    30 March 2006 seems just perfect. The management at Reed Midem could not have asked for better weather. And even as it readies for its busiest MipDoc and MipTV ever, scores of trucks, vans, tents, containers, line up outside the Palais des Festivals and the Carlton Hotel. Close to 700 executives and workers are at work to bring out the 43rd MipTV. Twelve thousand TV broadcasting, and animation production, distribution and commissioning professionals and documentary producers are expected to descend on Cannes in the next two days for seven days of hectic back to back meetings, and deal making, followed by partying.

    Inside the Palais, carpets are being laid out, booths and kiosks being erected, direction markers being put up. Clearly, MipTV has arrived and made its mark globally as one of the biggest content markets in the world. The TV division is led by the young and good looking Paul Johnson who under the leadership of Paul Zilk has been working hard to globalise what was once a more Europe and America focused TV market. Asia has been the target for the past two years since the duo took over a couple of years ago. Two years ago, China was given the status of country of honour, last year it was Korea, this year it is Dubai. Two years from now it could well be India, if the TV, mobile and animation community so desire it!

    Wherever you look within and outside the Palais you can see the stamp of the west Asian kingdom of Dubai everywhere whether it is at the registration area where huge posters promoting the Dubai Media City or it is at the entrance to the Palais.

    The ESP Films gang of Vineet Gupta, Rajgopal, Harry and Rana

    This year gains significance from India’s viewpoint as more than 40 Indian producers and broadcasters have ventured out in order to increase their global competitiveness. First time attendees – actors and producers Anuj Saxena and JD Majethia – will add colour to the international TV star studded MipTV. Three – four years back there used to be barely 12-15 companies attending MipTV or MipCom. Other majors attending the market include Star TV (under Fortune Star, Hong Kong), Sahara One Media and Entertainment (to distribute their film library), Zee TV, the Ronnie Screwvala promoted UTV and Hungama TV, the Kishore and Sunil Lulla promoted Eros, Reliance Entertainment (senior executive Krishnan Durbhe is part of a speaking panel), WEG India (the private distributor of Hindi films), Endemol India (CEO Rajesh Kamath), Optimystix Entertainment, Maya Entertainment, Color Chips (the company has sponsored a table for its clients at the first International Interactive Television Emmy Awards being held at Cannes), Graphiti Multimedia, ESP Films (which won the documentary pitch last year at MipDoc), veteran documentary film maker Iqbal Malhotra of AIM Television, among many others.

    Sanjeev Sharma of optymistix (extreme right), along with Iqbal Malhotra of Aim Television and Ashutosh Barve of Maverick Productions.

    “What makes MipTV significant is the fact that the audiovisual content market is finding new outlets today. First there was just analog TV, now there’s digital and interactive TV and the mobile phone – and they are coming in a big way,” says Johnson. “You have majors such as Intel, Microsoft, AOL, Motorola – they are all coming to content markets such as MipTV and MipCom as buyers. They have learned that while they are leaders in technology there’s a lot they have to do from the creative content front in order to continue to retain their edge.”

    The changing paradigm of creative content has provided opportunity for the Indian community, which some players such as Indiagames have grabbed and have been producing games for Hollywood. Some animation studios too have been outsourcing for Hollywood, though a lot more needs to be done here. Large Indian players such as Reliance too are getting into content acquisition directly as is evidenced from its presence at MipCom. Hopefully others will also take advantage of the global opportunity in a business that is probably the world’s largest industry.