This year’s MIPTV opened on Palm Sunday and closed on a rainy Wednesday in Cannes. Perhaps due to the unconventionally early weekend start by Reed MIDEM to stay away from the Easter holiday, attendance at the market (unsurprisingly) fell, although marginally. According to Reed MIDEM, last year’s market saw some 11,500 attendees while this year’s exhibition reported 11,000 industry executives, a relatively small drop. Of the 11,000 attendees from more than 100 countries, an estimated 4,000 were buyers shopping for new titles offered by nearly 400 exhibitors.

Exhibitors and sellers pointed out that while some major deals were sealed, on the whole, it was a slow market.

In response, networks like A+E devised “Plan Bs” to achieve its objectives. “Although there was much talk about this year’s market being quieter than usual, our schedule remained packed as ever. For the clients who did not attend, we reached out in advance of the market to update them on our newest offerings,” said Ling-Sze Gan, Senior Director, International Content Sales, Asia Pacific.

The turnout from producers was optimistic though. In total, more than 1,220 international television production companies were represented in Cannes, of which 326 were first-time attendees – a 25 percent increase from last year.

Laurine Garaude, director of the Television Division at Reed MIDEM, explains the reason for this growth. “Producers increasingly need international financial partners and funding. They will find both again this year at the world’s largest TV market event, as production remains at the heart of MIPTV 2012.”

Also of significance is the size of the Chinese delegation, numbering more than 200 attendees. This is a big increase from a few years ago when the country’s presence was limited to a single small stand set up by the China International TV Corp (CITVC). In fact, a dozen provincial-level TV stations such as Jiangsu Broadcasting Corporation and Yunnan Broadcasting Group were also represented at the China United Pavilion this year.

Cheng Chunli, Deputy General Manager of China Radio, Film & Television Program Exchanging Center, CITVC, attributed this to the Chinese government placing greater emphasis on international co-productions. “They (Chinese exhibitors) have widely sought opportunities for international co-operation, ranging from producing together with foreign counterparts, packaged reversioning and introductions to mutual programme broadcasting in certain time periods.”

Elsewhere, more than 500 participants took part in the inaugural two-day MIPCube, where content creators brainstormed directly with technology providers to imagine innovative ways to deliver the best new TV experiences.

At MIPDoc, more than 700 delegates witnessed CCTV’s presentation of its successful documentary channel CCTV-9, which posts a staggering daily peak audience of 94 million viewers.

Last but not least, the third MIPFormats conference, pitching and matchmaking forum, welcomed some 600 participants from 54 countries. This year’s programme was the most ambitious yet, with more screenings, market analysis, networking opportunities, conference sessions, workshops and master classes than the two years before.

In conversation with…

Bruce Tuchman, President, AMC/Sundance Channels Global, on the challenges of bringing US lifestyle content to Asia.
“I think there are challenges and opportunities. A lot of the people on our channel are quite well-known around the world and they’re interesting – it’s entertaining TV shows. But we will also examine in the future what is the right mix or really local original productions or acquisitions combined with things from the US or other markets. We’re in the process of examining what that right mix is and fine-tuning it, and looking forward to what comes out on the other end.”

Sean Cohan, SVP, International, A+E Networks, on the poor economic outlook.
“Any broadcaster, any content provider will tell you it is important to be mindful of those conditions. While we’ve had to be mindful of it, it hasn’t impacted our approach negatively or unfavourably. If anything, the economic environment for us has been a real boon as a content investor because our team in the US has actually been ‘doubling down’ on content. Through the troubling economy, there are a lot of players out there that have actually cut investment and content but we’ve significantly increased investment and content. So we ultimately ended up with lots more to sell and lots more quality content in an environment where others competitively may be at a disadvantage.”

Karoline Spodsberg, Managing Director at Banijay International, on expansion in Asia.
“The Asia market is very important and increasingly so for us. We have just recently started, as a distributor, to focus a lot on Asian markets. Currently we have two shows on air in China. We really feel an increasing interest and need for non-scripted formats in that region of the world. The way we always approach new markets is we try to be humble to the situation.”

For the complete audio interviews, stay tuned to www.onscreenasia.com