Laurine Garaude Talks MIPTV Highlights

Attendance at the 51st edition of MIPTV is expected to be up on last year’s milestone event, according to Laurine Garaude, director of Reed MIDEM’s television division, with 11,000-plus executives expected to attend.

The number of buyers on site will be above 4,000, of which about 1,000 will come from the digital sector.

“What we’re seeing as a clear continuing trend is the strength of content from around the world,” Garaude tells World Screen. “We have many new exhibitors and new pavilions from China and Mexico and are expecting a very dynamic market.”

The theme of the event, taking place in Cannes next month, is “The New Age of Storytelling.” Garaude notes, “We have new storytellers from online and more traditional [platforms], new faces creating new forms of programming, stories from around the world, new forms of stories on many platforms and many devices. We’re seeing TV working very closely with the new online producers and platforms.”

That theme is reflected in the diverse lineup of Media Mastermind keynotes, which include YouTube’s Alex Carloss—who will accept the Pioneer Prize for the video platform at the International Digital Emmy Awards—Twitter’s Deb Roy, Maker Studios’ Ynon Kreiz, Starz’s Chris Albrecht, Tandem’s Rola Bauer with STUDIOCANAL’s Olivier Courson, Publicis’s Maurice Lévy and Red Arrow’s Jan Frouman. There will also be a number of sessions with leading producers and showrunners, among them Tom Fontana, Chris Long and Frank Spotnitz.

A new element of the conference this year is the MIP Digital Fronts, which has lined up YouTube, Maker Studios and Dailymotion as founding partners. “It’s the first international screenings of original online video,” Garaude says. Taking place on Wednesday and Thursday, the event will allow buyers to screen the best online content being produced around the world. “The goal is to launch an international digital marketplace. We have a built-in audience with all the acquisitions executives, as well as all the producers and the press, and we are working to bring in the media buyers and ad agencies and brands.”

Among those doing a digital front is Chipotle, selected as MIPTV Brand of the Year, for its original series Farmed and Dangerous. The show’s star, Ray Wise, will be on hand for the screening of the show. There will also be digital showcases from the likes of VICE, Vuguru, Smokebomb Entertainment and Little Dot Studios. Included in the MIPTV registration, the MIP Digital Fronts will also be accessible to those who solely want to attend the market for those two days, via a special discounted pass.

Also new is the Junior @ MIPTV strand on the Tuesday, encompassing a Future of Kids’ TV closed-door summit with 80-plus leading executives; a co-production marketplace designed to increase business between kids’ broadcasters and Asian content producers; and on Wednesday a keynote by Amazon Studios’ Tara Sorensen including a look at Amazon Studios’ new preschool series.

Also on Tuesday will be the Focus on Israel, spotlighting the creativity and innovative media concepts coming out of the country.

Returning for the fourth year is MIPCube, the forum for innovation and audience engagement, which will take up an even bigger space in the Palais for new technology demos, talks and more. Speakers on the schedule include Duopoly’s Catherine Tait, Nerdist’s Seth Laderman, Cheezburger’s Ben Huh and Vimeo’s Kerry Trainor.

Garaude also lists as a highlight the screenings taking place at MIPTV, led by the new Starz original Power and BBC’s The Honourable Woman. There will also be 4K/Ultra HD screenings throughout the week.