NATPE Budapest Wraps with “Renewed Energy”

BUDAPEST: NATPE Budapest held its final day of the 2016 market and conference today, with positive sentiments all around that the return to the Hungarian capital proved successful.

“There’s excitement to be back here,” JP Bommel, the COO and managing director of NATPE, told World Screen Newsflash. “Everybody had tons of meetings. It’s due mostly to the fact that we brought the buyers back. We have 432 registered buyers, which is amazing. All of the buyers from the Central and Eastern European region are here,” and in all the diverse group of international buyers hail from 54 countries and 236 different companies.

“The bottom line is that being back in Budapest is a renewed energy,” said Bommel.

Indeed, the market tables, viewing boxes and suites at the InterContinental were bustling this week and the conference sessions—each day had one at breakfast and one at lunch—were all filled up. “The increase in attendance from [last year’s event in] Prague is about 54 percent,” Bommel shared with us, noting 136 exhibiting companies and 30 exhibiting countries. “And the ratio of buyers to sellers is really good.”

Bommel said that the goal of the conference track this year was to give regional players a global platform to showcase their creativity. “We also wanted to give the regional CEE producers an opportunity to get involved in co-productions,” he noted.

“The theme for me is: Local is the new global,” said Bommel. “Yes we wanted to do a regional market, but what happens when you do a regional market—and especially when you focus on fresh, new local content—is that you bring interest from a lot of the [global] companies that want to acquire content. There’s never been so much demand for content.”

NATPE will be held in Budapest again next year, Bommel confirmed, and there will continue to be a focus on local content. “I think our international guests were thrilled that we brought that in and we will continue to do it. We loved the Pitch & Play event and will hopefully develop that more for next year. Everything you saw this week we will develop [further] with an idea that this is a celebration of television from all angles. We wanted to make sure there was both a local and global flavor so everybody can build relationships.”