CONTENT BUDAPEST 2023 today completes its three market days. There are no official numbers so far, but PRENSARIO can mention 450 registered people, including 200 registered buyers. At the market, you see around 200 people all in all, during the day by day. But specific volume it can mean good business. The event follows the ‘Content’ line where the key things are the types of attendees and the activities included, as the pitchings that generate constructive networking and yesterday at the boat party, delivered a cash price to the winner --see the pictures. The two events in two weeks, beyond all the cons, have been a push for the CEE region, which needs investors and partners more than other regions, because it is full of local SMB ventures.

There are around 50 exhibitors, 5 main ones with suites: BBC Studios (UK) Daro Film (Monaco) Lionsgate, TRT (Turkey) and ZDF Studios from Germany. The rest have tables, mostly local players: 1+1 Media, Suspilne, Film.UA, Starlight, Kapi (main players from Ukraine) Azerbaijan Animation Association, Czech TV, Digic, Elf, KEDD, Umatik (Hungary) Polska TV, Kinhouse (Poland) Zographic (Bulgaria) Kolectiv (Romania) among others. The Turkish presence is good, mainly with 2nd tier players. From Asia there are CJ E&M (Korea) and Zoland (China), Mena.TV from UAE. Sony is present as another big studio and there are also the Latins: TelevisaUnivision (Mexico/USA) Globo (Brazil) Caracol TV (Colombia) MasRos (USA). The local scent has been very touchable this week.

Trendy concepts during the conferences? Tatjana Pavlovic, head of production, United Media (UK): ‘The real danger for pay TV is if the consumers change the passive position while seeing content. If you become more interactive, streamers gain space. A lot of people with continue on the former, but we have to keep ourselves watching’. Jana Semjonova, program director, LTV (Latvia): ‘The main mission continues the same: to generate advertising, and as an advertiser, in such a small country as Latvia, the focus is on the world, with the pandemic and the war today.'

Jamie Cooke, GM of CEE/MENAT at WBD: 'Among genres, now we highlight LGBT content, followed by sports, crime and documentaries'. Isabella Wiley, VP A+E EMEA: 'In Poland, Romania and Hungary, the strongest genres are true crime and historical content. A key for us? ‘Hiding the broccoli’, which means to provide something nutritious, but people must enjoy it. David Ciaramella, K7 Media/FRAPA, said the 10 steps to protect formats and monetizing it: write it, illustrate it, sizzle it, title it and domain it, register, keep a record and log everything, shop it securely, refresh it, social it, and continue to manage it.

It was very interesting the keynote of Izzet Pinto, CEO at Global Agency, a top Turkish distributor. He started selling shoes, then his friends told him to enter format business, he learned by google and his first trailer lasted 13 minutes. ‘The most important thing is to believe in your project, to concrete aims and to convince others. Some tips happen fast and others, after a while, but only if you believe and push’.

A newest trend? We see both in Budapest and at CONECTA FICTION in Toledo, Spain, a particular focus on Poland. Just a coincidence? Many buyers say that the new wave after Turkish and Israel ones, is Poland, with good production levels and fresh ideas. The country has a lot of growth potential for sure, more now that can capture investments that before were for Russia. Let’s see after the summer.

Francisco Ferreyra, from Budapest

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