Event Preview: DISCOP West Asia

NEW YORK: The third edition of DISCOP West Asia, which is to take place from March 5 to 7 at the Ceylan InterContinental Hotel in Istanbul, is set to welcome more than 750 delegates and is already pacing for a record year.

The event is set to welcome more than 750 delegates, following on a successful second edition that saw an overall increase in attendance of 25 percent over the previous year.

“The second edition [built on the launch] because what had happened at the first edition was the fact that the war in Libya had just started, so that had an impact,” says Patrick Jucaud-Zuchowicki, the general manager of event organizer Basic Lead. “Last year things were much calmer. We had 650 people who attended and it was very productive. The fact that we’ve decided to plan and organize this event in Istanbul has had a great impact because Turkey has become a major production center. For us, a combination of being in Istanbul and working with every single producer of content in Turkey has allowed us to really build on our market very well.”

New for this year, Basic Lead has decided to incorporate its DISCOPRO track, which has taken place at other DISCOP markets, into the three-day event. “We have decided that it was important to have a co-production component to this market,” says Jucaud-Zuchowicki. “Co-production is a very important word nowadays; everybody is trying to do co-productions. What we’ve come to realize, both with DISCOP West Asia and DISCOP in Africa, is that in the regions that we cover co-production opportunities between regional partners is really the way to go. That’s what a lot of people are now considering doing, trying to work with local co-producers. We have reshaped our markets so that we can also service producers looking for regional partnerships.”

Other parts of the conference schedule focus on the rising drama co-production opportunities with Latin America, the success of cross-border TV format concepts produced in the Middle East and new content monetization models that will impact the TV business, including product placement and branded content production.

“The other area that we have developed is the licensing area,” Jucaud-Zuchowicki explains. “Last year we came to realize that there is a very strong licensing industry coming out of Turkey, both fueled by the fact that Turkey itself is a big and very strong marketplace and also fueled by the fact that Turkey has been a manufacturing powerhouse for many years already. We saw that there were already a lot of entertainment brands and TV brands that are being licensed in Turkey, and they are making a lot of money. So we spoke to some of our clients and they said it would be a good idea to try to add a licensing and merchandising component to the market so that we could really take full advantage of the fact that we’re in Turkey.”

Jucaud-Zuchowicki says that there are many other reasons that having an annual event in Istanbul is important, namely that the territories in West Asia are emerging as bright spots in the global TV landscape. “We have had Turkish clients for the last ten years at DISCOP in Budapest [which is now under the banner of NATPE Budapest], and we’ve seen those producers and distributors grow tremendously, growing beyond just their national marketplace, so we’ve seen a lot of content being produced from that region that’s really becoming more and more popular. It’s very important for us to really try to go deeper and deeper into those places, to find new emerging marketplaces. We see that Istanbul is a very central hub; it’s close to Central Asia, Caucasus and every single Middle Eastern country, so this combination has allowed us to really discover that there are still lots of untapped opportunities in that part of the world.”

Overall, says Jucaud-Zuchowicki, it is important to give buyers, sellers and producers of content a forum to meet to face to face, which is why markets like DISCOP West Asia are beneficial for doing business. “We want attendees to understand that there is indeed potential business in the region, which is slowly but surely moving in the right direction as far as the television business is concerned. They’ve become aware of the fact that regional co-productions are growing and that’s what we’re really trying to achieve. We want them to realize that the timing is right to consider that the territories in West Asia are strategically important.”

And Basic Lead is continuing to grow and evolve the DISCOP West Asia event. As it has done with its DISCOP market in Africa, the organizers are planning to move out of a hotel setting and into a convention center. The plan is to be in a full-fledged convention setting in Istanbul for 2014.