MIPTV 2023 has come to an end yesterday with good figures and healthy future, according to organizer RX FRANCE. Lucy Smith, head of entertainment and TV division, said at the ‘Wrap up conference’ that the market grew 22% vs. last year, confirming 5650 participants from 86 countries. From them, 5510 delegates came in person -1000 more vs 2022 – and 120 joined the market through the MIPTV online platform. A main success was the ‘FAST & Global Summit’ held on Wednesday, which empowered the exploding AVOD/FAST channels sector.

‘MIPTV is the biggest global content market after Mipcom’, Smith said. ‘With the newly reformatted exhibition layout (continuing the 2022 change) and the push of FAST fever, MIPdoc (the heart of MIPTV, ‘the unscripted week’) MIPdramas and MIPformats, we think we have found the right format and scale for the event, and it is working. At this time of alliances and collaborations, it is important to have the industry from all the regions present in one place’.

What have participants said? As we’ve been telling the whole week, the opinions have been really mixed. There many people responding that it has been a good market, with both quality and volume of meetings. For them it is important to have a market as MIPTV in spring, and being positive and realistic, even some expectations have been surpassed. The negative executives on the other hand, said that there were much less participants in the market, that many big companies stopped coming and the calendar has now many event options focused on docs, series, etc., which are more cost/effective.

What can Prensario say? Some sectors have been making bad comments about MIPTV for a decade, usually with the mistake of comparing it to Mipcom. Older REED MIDEM committed the mistake in the past of keeping the same prices for both. Perhaps a suggestion for MIPTV today would be to change the city, too expensive for the current traffic. MIPTV grew this year while many other events are down, the new launched activities had good results for sure and the event has future, but it would help a lot a background change. MIPTV 2024 is confirmed for April 15-17, next year.

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’.

Final ping–pong, spring trends 2023: Main problem of the current 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.

Nicolás Smirnoff, Francisco Ferreyra, Mariano Gutiérrez Alarcón

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