The market days of LA Virtual Screenings 2022 have come to an end. From today, there are two weeks of follow up, with the platform open till July 1st. Main outcome? The VS events keep health and energy during the post pandemic, even they have gained a solid position in the content business. The attached images are a good proof: though the competition of many physical events, a lot of buyers continue doing ‘Binge Watching’ at VS, visiting most of the booths and entering many of the days.

‘Binge Watching’ means in the media language, to watch many hours of TV series in a row. Here in LAVS 2022, we see iconic examples (image 2): one buyer from TelevisaUnivision did 139 screenings, a lady from Viasat Global did 85, Mediaset Italy 84… and like this. Value, format, usage of the event must be good above all, to generate this buyer behavior.

Image 3 enriches the binge-watching description. About 56% of the buyers have visited 50% or more of the booths, assuring business for every exhibitor. And 50% of the buyers entered half or more of the market days. Compared to VS WW last September, the persistence is the same, but this fall buyers made more visits but shorter, surely because of event overlaps. In the pies, the medium ranges have more percent vs. 2021 than the extreme ones, on the scales.

About the screenings per type of content (image 4) in LAVS 22 the differences have been shorter, with the fictions sharing their traditional predominance with unscripted formats, factual and kids & family. The films are in an excellent moment, worldwide. In genres, beyond dramas leadership, buyers demand more thrillers, which travel well, and comedies, which are back.

During the dailies these two weeks, we’ve stressed that LAVS22 has added to previous VS events, important tips that make consolidation deeper: • less people do more screenings; • the event is more global, with richer presence of Asia, Mena, Africa; • good participation of new medium regional OTTs; • Intense usage of VS sections, especially VS Next, with its panels and testimonials. • And more demand fragmentation than ever: now Gold and Bronze exhibitors are fully mixed with Platinum ones in the Top 15 rankings (image 5). The new Digital Era pushes more business for more people. Virtual Screenings saga provides a fast tour of it, with most of its advantages included.

Nicolás Smirnoff and Fabricio Ferrara

If you want to receive our Daily Reports, please send an email to newsletter@prensario.info with your email and contact details