The Week at MIPCOM

You couldn’t escape the question last week: where were you during the flood? The torrential downpours on the Saturday night before MIPCOM were unprecedented, knocking out internet access in most hotels and apartments and prompting MIPJunior to relocate to the Palais on Sunday due to water damage at the Martinez. Reed MIDEM deserves kudos for keeping the MIPCOM opening on track on Monday, managing to move the opening party, sponsored by TRT, to the Carlton literally over night. As our group editorial director, Anna Carugati, so articulately put it in her column from the market last week: “To Paul Zilk, Laurine Garaude and Jérôme Delhaye: it’s one thing to be professional and at the top of your game under normal circumstances—by normal, I mean a market that has the usual countless hitches and glitches that we attendees never even see because you solve them so efficiently. It’s quite another thing to manage an enormous crisis with speed, competence and class. As the French say, ‘Chapeau.’ It is an honor and a privilege to be your partners and friends.”

Reed MIDEM CEO Paul Zilk, in a MIPCOM wrap press release, noted, “Our clients showed remarkable understanding and with their help, coupled with that of the Palais des Festivals, the Mayor’s office and all our Cannes partners, MIPCOM took place with a minimum of disruption.” He said, “Our thoughts are with all those who were affected by this terrible event.”

By deal volume, buzz and, of course, numbers, MIPCOM was a vibrant, busy market this year. According to figures from Reed MIDEM, there were more than 13,700 delegates, including a record 4,800 buyers. The 4,800 buyers included 1,600 acquisition executives from digital and SVOD platforms.

“It’s been a very active and busy market,” said Laurine Garaude, director of the television division at Reed MIDEM, during a press briefing on the last day of MIPCOM. “It’s been extremely buoyant and reflects the diversity of the ecosystem. Standout drama was extremely visible, [as was the] rise in OTT and SVOD. All of that is linked. More channels, more standout content.”

Highlights of the week included high-profile drama screenings, among them The Last Panthers and The X-Files (which attracted a record 1,000 delegates on Tuesday night in the Grand Auditorium). Turkey was fêted as the Country of Honour. The country is currently reaping $300 million a year in content exports. It aims to hit $1 billion in content export revenues by 2023. The spotlight on the country attracted a record number of Turkish delegates—more than 400, double the number of attendees in 2014.

The market lined up an array of high-level Media Mastermind keynotes, including several moderated by World Screen’s Carugati. ITV Chief Executive Adam Crozier shared his strategy for turning the company into a global content creation and distribution behemoth and discussed the strength of its U.K. broadcasting assets. Showtime’s David Nevins and CBS Global Distribution Group’s Armando Nuñez discussed the expansion of the premium channel’s brand and content across the globe. Fox Television Group’s Gary Newman and Dana Walden, the MIPCOM Personalities of the Year, weighed in on the importance of risk-taking in order to drive creative content.

“A New Creative Excellence” was the theme of the conference program at MIPCOM, and the keynotes, panel discussions and conversations inside and outside of the Palais all indicated that in an ever-more-crowded market, being average is just not enough. We heard that sentiment from the 2015 World Screen Content Trendsetter Award recipients: MTG’s Jakob Mejlhede, FOX International Channels’ Jason Simms, Channel 5’s Katie Keenan and SVT’s Christian Wikander. Weighing in on trends in drama, the battle for exclusive rights, the impact of OTT platforms and day-and-date premieres in the Acquisition Superpanel, the four programmers said they are all on the hunt for standout content that will keep viewers attuned to their brands, whether in linear or on demand, on the TV set or another device. That need for unique, top-quality content is perhaps the one constant in a media ecosystem that is very much still evolving.

Want more MIPCOM news? Read our formats, drama and factual recaps, and tomorrow look out for our piece on what happened in the kids’ business last week.