NATPE Budapest finished this late June with very good total numbers: 735 registered people, including 366 buyers, more than expected. There were 120 exhibitors and all in all, 61 different countries present. The challenge of the change of ownership (from NATPE association to Canadian Brunico) and the situation of two Budapest events in two weeks, haven’t affected the good experience. The event grew 15% vs. last year in participants, and according to the opinions collected by Prensario, most of the attendees had a good market. After the pandemic, the networking of the events is very valuable.
Claire Macdonald, SVP & ED, NATPE Global, Brunico Communications: ‘We’ve had a fantastic response, from the industry and especially the buyers, who were very loyal. I think the boat party was a great event that helped people to connect more and enjoy the Danube. We’ve learned a lot in this event, there are tips that we are going to modify to make it more efficient. When we took over the NATPE Brand in January, we literally had less than six months to get it up. With all this good energy, in a few days we accelerate on Natpe Global, which will take place January 16-18 in Miami. It will be an event for the whole world, not just for a specific region’.
Patrick Zuchowicki, Co-Pro connections manager, Natpe Budapest / Ideas for Films (USA): ‘My role has been to push a ‘Co-Production Connection Program’, which helps producers with solid projects in development, to find financial matches for distribution and production. We’ve had 11 selected projecs that had meetings with buyers to co-produce and we can say they found potential partners. This is the first time that NATPE organizes this program’.
At the «Markets by numbers with WeCan» panel, Dora Petho from media agency WeCan said: ‘In Ukraine, it is quite clear that the war had a big effect on the advertising market. But before that, it was the first in our ranking as an absolute leader in digital transformation the last 3-4 years. Online ads already took 60% of the advertising pie in 2021. However, TV is the most reliable source of information’.
At the “Streaming into the Future of Public Broadcasting” panel, Riyaad Minty, audience director, tabii TRT (Turkey) expressed: ‘As a public service media, our goal is to serve our viewers through every device. To stay relevant, not just now, but in the next 5, 10, 15, 15, 20, 50 years, we have to be on the platforms where there are audiences. There are huge demand for Turkish content globally. We expect to be in a USD 1.5 billion industry in the next few years’.
The last panel yesterday was “Outside In”, about the distribution busines in the CEE region. Pascal Dalton, ITV Studios: ‘For me, CEE is a very exciting and dynamic market. It is already quite focused on online, with many VOD developments’. Veronique Verges, Banijay Rights: ‘For formats, it’s definitely a territory-by-territory approach. But there are some growing opportunities about combining territories and scaled economy. For scripted, the territory-by-territory approach works best for premium content’.
Buyer testimonials? Nelly Stoynova, NTV (Bulgaria): ‘Everyone we work with has been here, so we organized all the meetings we needed. It was really helpful for us’. Debkumar Dasgupta, Merzigo (India): ‘I’ve been coming for seven years. It is good that it is very focused on CEE, but I’d wish there were more buyers from the Middle East, or more exhibitors from Africa and Asia’. Eugene Mirnyy, Silver Box (UK): ‘We need to buy, and here we find new things, calmer than in Cannes shows’. Lazlo Gaspar, AMC Networks Central Europe: ‘At first, I thought it would be quieter, but it turned out to a success. The June CEE stop is for sure and refreshed’.
Francisco Ferreyra, from Budapest
