Asian Content Creators, European Buyers Power MIPTV Gains

Attendance at MIPTV is expected to be up some 20 percent from last year, led by several Asian countries increasing their presence at the market, plus gains in the number of buyers from key European territories, RX France’s Lucy Smith tells World Screen Newsflash.

The 60th edition of the spring international content and co-production market is set to welcome over 6,000 international delegates from April 17 to 19.

“People do want to get back to face-to-face,” says Smith, RX France’s entertainment division director and director of MIPTV, on what’s driving the improved numbers this year. “The appetite is strong for a big-scale, international, multi-genre market in the spring. That’s what our mission is.”

China, which hasn’t had a presence at MIPTV since 2019, will have a significant continent in Cannes. Smith also references Japan and Korea as other Asian markets that will have strong representation at MIPTV. She also points to the return of all of Turkey’s major content distributors via their own stands or as part of the Turkish pavilion.

“There’s also significant buyer growth coming from France, Germany, Italy, Spain and again, Turkey and China,” Smith adds. “There’s some interesting growth coming from Africa as well.”

More than 530 exhibiting companies and 1,600 buyers are expected to attend from 80-plus countries. Distributors that didn’t have stands last year but have returned this year include FOX Entertainment Global, Viaplay, FilmRise, Blue Ant Media, LEONINE Studios, Boat Rocker Media and Moonbug Entertainment, Smith says.

New to MIPTV this year is the FAST & GLOBAL SUMMIT. “FAST is important to the industry as a growth area,” Smith says. “Everyone is looking at FAST as the new revenue stream, especially given that traditional models in free TV and SVOD are under pressure. MIPTV is the ideal venue for a summit like this, given that we have the global community here from all aspects of the industry. We’re able to focus on the opportunities for the content producers, IP rightsholders, buyers, commissioners and the platforms and service providers.”

Smith says that the response to the new summit has been overwhelmingly positive, with the likes of Amagi, OKast, OTTera, Vevo and VICE, among others, signing up as sponsors, and speakers from the likes of Pluto TV, Samsung TV Plus, Rakuten and more.

The summit is part of MIPTV’s evolution, one that was announced back in 2019 and has continued through and post the pandemic. “We are trying to listen and take on what our clients need and what they’ve been asking for. We’re putting the buyers at the heart of everything we do. We heard the feedback about more screening opportunities, so we have Super Sunday as the pre-opening day. We have the MIPDOC International Buyer Screenings, the MIPDOC screenings library and the brand-new Canneseries international documentary competition.

“We’re also focusing on return on investment, delivering a compact but focused three-day market. We’re giving people the flexibility to take part in many different ways. We’ve focused on making sure that there’s more meeting space for all the different audiences. Because of the need for more exhibition space, we’ve reopened the P-1 level, which we’ve baptized Le Boulevard. It’s also been redesigned. We have lounge areas for people to have their meetings.  We’ve been trying to reinvent the experience as well. For the MIPDOC and MIPFORMATS community, we have a new producers’ hub and lounge in Rivera 8. We’ll continue to listen and evolve so that we really can meet the moment. We are organized and set up for business meetings, helping people connect. The buyers are there. The sellers are there. You are going to get a return on that investment.”

Smith also highlights the Future of Kids Summit, noting that the children’s content community “remains a really important audience at MIPTV.” MIPFORMATS is the platform for discovering new formats, with international showcases, case studies, The WIT’s beloved Fresh TV presentation and the return of the MIPFORMATS International Pitch with sponsor FOX Alternative Entertainment.