MIPTV 2013 Preview: A Note from the Editors

NEW YORK: World Screen’s editors provide a snapshot of the highlights of our MIPTV edition, which features a refreshed look and a lineup of features and interviews you won’t find anywhere else.

For more than half of MIPTV’s 50-year history, World Screen has been a firm fixture at the market. We’ve grown and evolved with the event, expanding our suite of publications, broadening our reach, launching onto new platforms. Our mandate, however, has remained the same: deliver the best insight and analysis into the issues that matter in international media, as well as exclusive interviews with top executives, creators, showrunners and on-screen talent. We do that in spades in this issue, which features a brand-new, refreshed look—beginning with our GQ-worthy front cover with Ryan Seacrest. One of Hollywood’s powerful under-40 set, Seacrest has, off the back of his on-screen role as the host of American Idol, built a media conglomerate that covers radio, hit reality TV franchises (yes, you can thank him for the ubiquitous Kardashians), and investments in pay TV and digital media.

Seacrest is just one of a number of famous faces that grace this issue—we also have exclusive interviews with Andrew Lincoln, star of The Walking Dead; Bryan Cranston, from Breaking Bad; and Vegas’s Dennis Quaid. All three feature in very hot American shows that have, like so many others from the U.S., developed avid fan bases across the globe. Why does the American system of development and production keep resulting in dramas, comedies and reality series that resonate worldwide? Elizabeth Guider and Anna Carugati attempt to answer that question in our special report on American television. Elizabeth, our contributing editor, spoke to a wide range of studio executives and showrunners to get a grip on the pilot season, May pickups and the alchemy of good writers’ rooms. Anna, World Screen’s group editorial director, had in-depth conversations with Homeland’s Howard Gordon and Touch’s Tim Kring about their shows, as well as a slew of top-level broadcast and network executives, including Discovery’s David Zaslav, A+E Networks’ Abbe Raven, CBS Television Studios’ David Stapf, ABC’s Paul Lee, Showtime’s David Nevins, FX’s John Landgraf, AMC’s Charlie Collier, USA’s Jeff Wachtel and Turner’s Michael Wright.

Here’s a full rundown of what else you’ll find in this edition. Follow the links below to access our digital editions online or on your iPad.

• Jon Feltheimer, co-chairman and CEO of Lionsgate, on the studio’s innovative approach to theatrical feature and television production.
• Gerhard Zeiler, the president of Turner Broadcasting System International, discusses his expansion strategy for the company.
• Noted American showrunner Tom Fontana reflects on working on European (Borgia) and Canadian (Copper) co-productions.
• Fernando Szew discusses MarVista’s tenth anniversary.
  

• Public broadcasters are facing the challenges of the digital age.
• A look at what’s happening in Germany’s media business.
• Sophie Turner Laing shares Sky’s strategy for investing in high-quality content.
• Alex Mahon, CEO of Shine Group, provides an update on the company’s activities across multiple territories and numerous genres.
• As ZDF turns 50, we hear from director-general Thomas Bellut, as well as Alexander Coridass, the president and CEO of ZDF Enterprises, which is turning 20.
• A profile of Foyle’s War looks at the resurrection of the hit drama.
  

• Case studies of five European-originated formats that have conquered the globe.
• Interactivity is at the heart of today’s most successful formats.
• Alex Mahon discusses Shine’s format business.
• Gideon Raff on the origins of Prisoners of War and how it became Showtime’s Homeland.
• Bertram van Munster, co-creator of the multi-Emmy Award-winning The Amazing Race, reveals the challenges, and rewards, of adapting this globetrotting brand worldwide.
  

• Developing apps has become an integral step in building hit kids’ brands.
• Producers and distributors on the fine art of making factual content for young ones.
• Claude Schmit, CEO of SUPER RTL, on how the German service has stayed ahead of the pack in the competitive kids’ landscape.
• As Family Channel turns 25, we offer up interviews with Joe Tedesco, senior VP and general manager of Astral Kids, and J. Kevin Wright, senior VP of programming at Astral Media.
• Steven DeNure, president and COO of DHX Media, on the thinking behind building a kids’ and family content powerhouse.
• Philippe Soutter, co-founder and president of PGS Entertainment, shares his view of the current children’s television industry.
  

• Food-based series led by engaging personalities continue to find slots across the globe.
• An exploration of the new developments in the hidden-camera genre.
• Profiling the niche business of distributing arts documentaries.
• David Zaslav, president and CEO of Discovery Communications, weighs in on the growth of the company’s newer brands.
• Abbe Raven, the president and CEO of A+E Networks, discusses the real-life characters that are delivering hits for HISTORY, A&E and Lifetime.
• Germaine Deagan Sweet talks about the strengths of National Geographic Channels’ content-sales activities.
  

• Interest in Asian drama series is picking up worldwide.
• Felipe L. Gozon, chairman and CEO of GMA Network, talks about what’s driving the gains at the Filipino broadcaster.
• ABS-CBN Broadcasting’s CEO, Charo Santos-Concio, reflects on the success of the group as it marks its 60th anniversary.
• Four buyers reveal their format wish lists.
  

• New opportunities are emerging for content sellers in sub-Saharan Africa.
• OSN’s CEO David Butorac provides an update on the gains made by the Middle East’s dominant pay-TV platform.
  

• Latin American distributors are exploring opportunities with over-the-top TV platforms in the region and across the globe.
• Actor, director and producer Diego Luna talks about his TV and film projects.
  

• Listings for more than 120 companies attending MIPTV.