MIPTV Reports Record Attendance

CANNES, April 19: With a
total of 13,224 participants as of yesterday, a 9 percent increase on last
year, MIPTV 2007 has become Reed MIDEM’s largest TV market in the
organization’s 44-year-history, Paul Johnson, the director of the TV division,
said at a press conference this morning.

A total of 4,553 companies
participated, a 9 percent gain, with the number of stands up 5 percent to 535.
A total of 107 countries were represented at this week’s market, up from the 97
at MIPTV last year. The number of exhibiting companies rose 11 percent to
1,681. The number of buyers, meanwhile, rose 7 percent to 3,797.

In announcing this year’s
statistics, Johnson noted the presence of a number of new Asian countries:
“Asia is really fueling the growth at MIPTV,” Johnson noted, adding that the
increased attendance was also driven by digital players like Second Life, MSN,
Joost, Babelgum and Yahoo!

Johnson also noted the
increasingly important role played by content creators at the market, previously
dominated by buyers and sellers. “We want to put an accent on creativity,”
Johnson said.

Another new trend at this
market was advertising, Johnson explained. “Traditionally, they’ve had nothing
do with this market. [Now] they want to become partners, co-producers of
content.”

Eco-friendly programming
also played a strong role, with a keynote by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, whose France
2 documentary Earth From Above
premiered to 4.5 million viewers this week, as well as a conference session on
Green TV.

Looking ahead, Johnson
announced that India would be the country of honor at MIPCOM, with a lineup
that is expected to include Zee chief Subhash Chandra as well as a number of
Bollywood celebrities. MIPCOM is also expected to have even more exhibition space,
with more details to be announced soon, Johnson said.