One month ago, MIPTV 2023 was a combination of different views about the evolution of the content market. On one hand, there were the attendees saying the event was very weakened, with numbers by 50% less from 5-10 years ago. But on the other hand, there were others that stressed the event grew 20% vs. last year, that was very healthy in many segments and continues as the second event of the calendar, with —according to organizer RX France— 5650 participants from 86 countries.
MIPTV continued as the ‘Unscripted Week’, with very good development of MIPdoc and MIPdramas, with a strong push around the FAST & Global Summit, discussing one full day the FAST fever. Even MIPdramas was well, for series, driven by CannesSeries held at the same time. Most of the people Prensario interviewed, said that they had a good week, beyond their opinion about the market.
So? For Prensario, MIPTV is now a new market, that must not be compared to the past, and never to Mipcom. After the pandemic everything is different, most of the events have other volumes and layouts, so the short term is the axis to evaluate. MIPTV grew from last year… perhaps a suggestion for MIPTV today would be to change the city, too expensive, and the Palais, too big for the current times. This would help for the idea of a new market, for a background change.
Spring trends 2023? Let’s make a ping-pong: Main problem of the current content market? The budget reductions of the big OTTs. The new big thing? AVOD and FAST channels, to solve product waste and more monetization. Broadcasters? All back to production, with the return of big classic brands for prime time. Production? The ‘studios’ model: flexible, lower risk, synergies. Business formulas? More alliances, collaborations than buys and sells. Formats? Travel adventure, odd scenarios. Fictions? Thrillers, everything shorter. A good return? The secondary markets at free TV, Pay TV and digital. The new players to come? Big ad massive brands, 100% financial investment funds.
What have buyers looked for at MIPTV? Kai Sturm, RTL Germany: ‘Fresh hits in entertainment formats, as always’. Nuno Vaz, RTP Portugal: ‘Formats for the whole family’. Fabricio Battocchio, Mediaset (Italy): ‘I am pleased about very innovative realities I’ve seen: ‘Destination X’, ‘Rise & fall’, ‘Tempting fortune’… great’. Elif Tok, TRT T.U.R.K. (Turkey): ‘This is a new free channel for Turkish people spread in Europe. We look for cooperations, coproductions’.
Alejandro Vázquez Vela, MVS Mexico: ‘Movies: action and romantic comedies’. Andrea Zaras, TV2 Hungary: ‘Big shows for prime time. We are in the return of the big brands’. Matylda Szewczyk, Polsat (Poland): ‘All kinds of docs & factual, mainly for male audiences’. Stef Arteaga, Amagi USA: ‘Coproductions, synergies’. Guillermo Sierra, HITN, USA: ‘Factual and preschool, for our 2 channels’.
Nicolás Smirnoff
