MIP Junior: How to Pitch!

Executives who are relatively new to the business of producing and distributing kids’ programming are the prime target of MIP Junior’s How to Pitch! kick-off workshop. While open to all MIP Junior delegates, the opening session is particularly recommended for newcomers to the international market. Organizers Reed MIDEM have assembled a panel of commissioners and distributors who will be dishing up tips for how to best present your project in the Saturday morning session (10 a.m.-11.15 a.m.).

Scheduled participants include Henrietta Hurford-Jones, director of CBeebies’ investment at BBC Worldwide; Barbara Uecker, head of programming and acquisitions for children’s television at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation; Heather Kenyon, VP of project development and sales at Starz Animation; Jon Rutherford, VP of international sales and acquisitions at Tricon Films & Television; and Olivier Dumont, managing director of Entertainment One (eOne) Family.

In sharing his thoughts on the panel, Dumont will be tapping into his broad experience in the kids’ business, which has seen him acquire properties as both a broadcaster and distributor. A former buyer for Canal J, Dumont spent many years running distribution at TV-Loonland before resurfacing as the head of Entertainment One’s kids’ and family division. The perfect pitch for a network executive, Dumont notes, will be different than that for a distributor that is considering investing in a property to take it out to the global market. "For a broadcaster, you need to have a clear idea of what shows they have on their air, so they can imagine it sitting next to this or that show that is doing well. A distributor wants to ensure that the property has the broadest commercial potential and can work in key territories, such as the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain. It’s two very different perspectives."

For a producer, having a pitch rejected is perhaps the worst outcome. But for Dumont, an equally disastrous result is if you reach the end of the pitch and you hear, "What’s it about?" He notes, "Sometimes people get so carried away by all the visuals, the technical aspects. You want to express the concept first before anything else."

Dumont is himself looking out for new properties to take on at eOne. "I want to be the number one go-to partner for independent producers who have great content for kids and families," says Dumont on raising eOne’s profile in the kids’ sector.