Event Preview: NATPE Miami

NATPE is celebrating its tenth anniversary at the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach, with the marketplace and conference taking place January 21 to 23. And there will be plenty of celebrating—from a Monday night kick-off party at LIV Nightclub to Tuesday’s opening soiree by the pool and VIP dinner to the presentation of the inaugural Premio Ícono TV Latina Award.

“It’s going to be a great year,” JP Bommel, NATPE’s president and CEO, tells World Screen Weekly. “With all of the changes and disruption in the way that content is distributed, NATPE is always about content, it’s about storytelling. There are so many opportunities now to find new audiences and engage with them.”

The event will take place under the theme “Opportunities in the Evolution of Content.” Bommel explains, “There’s so much evolution that we wanted to explore every aspect of that, whether it’s OTTs, consolidation, co-production. It’s about what the money-making opportunities are and how you get to them.”

He highlights how in this new streaming era of content, U.S. studios and distributors are looking at international markets as an opportunity to make money and compensate for some of the loss of revenue that they may see from the decreasing licensing fees. “They are looking at some very specific markets, which we cover,” Bommel says, pointing to Latin America, the Middle East, Japan and India.

NATPE estimates around 200 new buyers coming this year, including many from the OTT space. There will be nine international pavilions as well, with global growth in the exhibitors, according to Bommel. “You’ll see things this year at NATPE that you haven’t seen before,” he promises. “We’re creating new experiences; we are doing screening rooms, VIP rooms and different things to make sure that people connect and have an opportunity to get together and discuss deals.”

The conference program is built on six tracks: Brands x Content, Content Evolution, International Focus, Station Group Summit, Streaming Plus and Unscripted. Sessions will range from a focus on streaming, audience engagement and the future of AVOD to launching original programming, monetizing content in today’s multiplatform world and much more.

“We really feel we’re a one-stop-shop for the commerce of content,” says Bommel. “We are focused on three things: relationships and how we connect our members with the decision-makers and leaders in this space; opportunity and the deals we are creating through the marketplace; and intelligence and intel from the conferences.”

While NATPE Miami is certainly about facilitating deals, fostering connections and providing business intelligence, “it’s also about celebration,” Bommel adds. “We are so honored and excited to have World Screen as a partner for the Premio Ícono TV Latina Award.”

The inaugural award is being presented to Viacom International Media Networks’ Pierluigi Gazzolo, who has been promoted to president of OTT International and Viacom International Studios. Gazzolo will be honored with the award during the conference’s annual Latin American Summit in Miami on January 23 following a one-on-one discussion with World Screen’s group editorial director, Anna Carugati.

Also in the awards circuit, NATPE’s 17th annual Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award recipients are actress Christine Baranski; ABC Entertainment President Karey Burke; television creator, producer and writer Courtney A. Kemp; Marcos Santana, president of NBCUniversal’s Telemundo Global Studios; and Jeff Zucker, chairman of WarnerMedia News and Sports and President of CNN Worldwide.

NATPE has also revived the iconic Iris Awards for 2020. The honorees are Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury Co-Presidents Mort Marcus and Ira Bernstein, receiving the Career Achievement Award; Perry Sook, receiving the Lew Klein Leadership Award; and the weekly syndicated political show Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien receiving the Iris Award of Excellence.

The Global TV Demand Awards, presented by Parrot Analytics, will recognize the most popular TV shows in the world in 12 categories, ranging from most in-demand digital original to most in-demand superhero series as well as exports from Latin America, Europe and Asia.

“NATPE is definitely set for growth,” Bommel says with an optimistic view. “People see a lot of opportunities. We have always focused on Latin America, and there’s a rebound there of distribution opportunities. There’s a great dynamic in the industry.”

He says that the challenge for the organization now is to help its members curate their content. “How do you make the content known by the audience? We are going to work on that for our members, on how we can provide better opportunities. Of course, there’s nothing like seeing the content at a marketplace, so whether it’s in Miami, Budapest or L.A., we want to give opportunities to discover that content.”