Event Preview: Le Rendez-Vous

Since 1995, TV France International (TVFI)—which represents the interests of the French content-export industry—has been hosting Le Rendez-Vous in sunny Biarritz.

Taking place September 6 to 10 this year, Le Rendez-Vous is expecting some 69 exhibiting companies, encompassing French producers and distributors, to convene at the scenic Place Bellevue to meet with more than 270 buyers from across the globe.

“Le Rendez-Vous provides a comprehensive view of French production and is a showcase for the latest French programs,” says Mathieu Béjot, the executive director of TVFI, listing as examples TF1 International’s Harlan Coben’s No Second Chance and Zodiak Media’s The Returned (season two).

A key hallmark of the event is buyers’ ability to screen from a library of more than 1,200 programs. “For three days the video library is open to buyers,” Béjot says. “They can screen as much as they want. And all genres are represented—drama, animation, documentaries, performing arts, formats, game shows, the whole range.”

Running alongside the screenings is the opportunity for buyers to have one-on-one meetings with content owners “in a casual environment,” Béjot says. “People can screen something and can stop [the trailer] and meet the French content provider. So it’s a little different from MIPTV or MIPCOM, where you screen first and then have the market. You can do both at the same time [at Le Rendez-Vous], which makes it pretty efficient for people.”

In addition to the individual screening cubicles, there will be two premiere screenings at the Bellevue auditorium, for Terranoa’s +/- 5 Meters and the third season of Film & Picture’s The Churchmen. There will also be two themed dinners highlighting the new programs Taste Hunters, a 15-episode factual series, and Trepalium, a six-part drama for ARTE.

Heading into its 21st edition, Le Rendez-Vous has become a key event on the calendar for French distributors who, like content sellers across the globe, are adjusting to a rapidly changing business. Béjot highlights two challenges being faced by distributors everywhere.

“One is having to do more and more sales just to maintain your export figures. You’re selling to more and more smaller clients, and prices have come down in a lot of territories. So you have to sell more, which means more marketing, attending more markets, staying in touch with more people, signing more contracts, sending more materials to buyers. All your back office tends to be growing very quickly, but the financial result of the sale is not going up as fast.”

For TVFI, Le Rendez-Vous gives French content owners a chance to highlight their wares to leading traditional and digital buyers from markets around the world. Of particular focus this year will be Spain, with a dedicated session for distributors to meet with Spanish buyers. There will also be a session exploring the renewed drama business in Spain.

Le Rendez-Vous is also a platform for TVFI and CNC to release the annual export figures for 2014, showing how well French content has sold across the globe. In 2013, revenues from French content exports reached a record high of €137 million, an 8-percent rise.