MIPTV 2013 NEWS 4

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Thursday 11 April 2013 www.miptv.com 50TH ANNIVERSARY DINNER

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Six luminaries of the international television industry were honoured with the inaugural Medaille d’Honneur at the MIPTV 50th anniversary gala dinner yesterday

INNOVATION SHOW

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Yesterday’s MIPCube Innovation Show Snack And Screen event brought a frenetic MIPCube to a close and saw the winners announced of the four MIPCube competitions

THE FUTURE STARTS HERE

8 MIPTV took delegates into the future of broadcasting at yesterday’s 4K Television’s Next Revolution Super Sessions, sponsored by Sony

WOMEN IN TECH & MEDIA

8 At The Women In Tech & Media breakfast, held in the Producers’ Hub yesterday morning, it was agreed that the industry would benefit from more women in the tech sphere

BOOTH R38.09 sonarent.com

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THURSDAY 11 APRIL

OFFICIAL CONFERENCES & EVENTS

PRODUCERS’ HUB

AGORA

PRODUCERS’ HUB

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THE PRODUCERS’ WRAP UP WORKSHOP

WORKSHOP WITH THE EXPERTS

10.30-11.30 I Foyer Balcon, Grand Audi, Level 3

10.20-11.20 I Agora, Level -1

Hosts Sarah Baynes, Creative Director, The Creative Garden, UK

Sarah Baynes

Wale Gbadamosi Oyekanmi, CEO, Darewin, France Marc Hernandez, Managing Director Europe, Trendrr, France Sébastien Lefebvre, CEO, Mesagraph, France

Jason DaPonte, Managing Director & Executive Producer, THE SWARM, UK Jason DaPonte

AGORA

Wale Gbadamosi Oyekanmi

Marc Hernandez

Sébastien Lefebvre

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FINAL ROUND-UP BY GROUP LEADERS 11.30-12.00 I Agora, Level -1 SQUARE

SOCIAL TV BOOTCAMP: Live Consulting 10.00-12.00 I Agora, Level -1

Wale Gbadamosi Oyekanmi, CEO, Darewin, France Marc Hernandez, Managing Director Europe, Trendrr, France Sébastien Lefebvre, CEO, Mesagraph, France

Social TV is everywhere, but how do you ‘do’ it?!

Take 2 hours of your time with experts in small groups to really tie-down ideas and strategies and start building your social TV projects for the year to come.

Wale Gbadamosi Oyekanmi

Marc Hernandez

Sébastien Lefebvre

Moderator Louisa Heinrich, Founder, Superhuman Limited, UK Louisa Heinrich

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THE MIPTV & MIPCUBE WRAP 14.00-15.00 I Agora, Level -1 SQUARE

Moderator James Martin, Community Manager, MIP Markets, France

FRESH SOCIAL TV 10.00-10.15 I Agora, Level -1 Presenter Virginia Mouseler, CEO, The WIT, Switzerland Virginia Mouseler

Speakers Kate Bulkley, Presenter and Commentator, UK Lisa Gray, Head of Content, The Feds, Australia Louisa Heinrich, Founder, Superhuman Limited, UK Abigail Marks, Director, Strategy and Operations, OgilvyEntertainment, Ogilvy & Mather, USA

Kate Bulkley

Lisa Gray

Louisa Heinrich

Abigail Marks

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Contents IN PICTURES 4-5 MIPTV 50th Anniversary Gala Dinner Industry luminaries gathered to celebrate MIPTV’s 50th anniversary and honour six recipients of the inaugural MIPTV Medaille d’Honneur

NEWS 6 Including: UN special envoy Gordon Brown addresses a MIPTV audience on the Global Education First Initiative; Women In Tech & Media; Innovation Show Snack And Screen; and more news from the market

Lanny Albina Huang, of Hong Kong-based Promo Group TV, has won an iPad, the grand prize of our “MIPTV Stories” Facebook competition. Huang’s story tells of how she managed to get Helen Keller-focused documentary The Miracle Worker screened in mainland China after having seen its global potential here at MIPTV, 13 years ago. “From that moment, I knew what my mission was in life,” said Huang. “And now with our own company, I continued attending MIPTV and MIPCOM, exploring new programmes and innovative content like those I bought for the Chinese market.”

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CYRIL Attia keeps the hackers to time at the TV Hack Show And Tell MIPCube session, which was co-organised and co-sponsored by his company BeMyApp. He was, with Jens Fischer of EVS Broadcast Equipment and Gene Liebel of Huge, watching the tired but productive teams of hackers, pitch their disruptive video hacks to the audience, which they had developed and coded over the previous 48 hours. The brief was to re-think how we consume video. Ideas ranged from a way of rolling back Twitter so that conversations in your feed synched with the time-shifted show you were watching, to a TV companion teddy for little kids, which stopped the video when put down and, if squeezed in fright, shrunk the picture and sent a screenshot to the parent’s smartphone, whether they were at work or just in the next room.

The official MIPTV daily newspaper Thursday 11 April 2013

The MIPTV Newsroom is located in the Gare Maritime (registration area)

Director of Publications Paul Zilk Director of Communication Mike Williams EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Editor in Chief Julian Newby Sub Editors Neil Crossley, Sarah Kovanzich Deputy Editor Debbie Lincoln Contributors Ben Cooper, Andy Fry, Juliana Koranteng, Max Leonard, Rachel Murrell, Gary Smith, Joanna Stephens, Chris White Editorial Assistant Hannah Stephens Editorial Management Boutique Editions Technical Editor in Chief Herve Traisnel Deputy Technical Editor in Chief Frederic Beauseigneur Graphic Designers Muriel Betrancourt, Veronique Duthille, Carole Peres Head of Photographers Yann Coatsaliou / 360 Media Photographers Christian Alminana, Olivier Houeix, Michel Johner, Yohann Mortier.

PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT Publishing Director Martin Screpel Publishing Co-ordinators Nour Ezzedeen, Emilie Lambert, Amrane Lamiri Production Assistant, Cannes Office Eric Laurent Printer Riccobono Imprimeurs, Le Muy (France).

ADVERTISING CONTACT IN CANNES Christine Mendes: tel.: +33 (0)1 79 71 99 89

Reed MIDEM, a joint stock company (SAS), with a capital of €310.000, 662 003 557 R.C.S. NANTERRE, having offices located at 27-33 Quai Alphonse Le Gallo - 92100 BOULOGNE-BILLANCOURT (FRANCE), VAT number FR91 662 003 557. Contents © 2013, Reed MIDEM Market Publications. Publication registered 2nd quarter 2013. ISSN 19675178. Printed on 50% recycled paper

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MIPTV 50 Anniversary Gala Dinner

At a gala dinner last night, MIPTV celebrated its 50th anniversary and, in the presence of a packed room of market VIPs, past and present, honoured six luminaries of the industry with the inaugural MIPTV Medaille d’Honneur

MIPTV founder Bernard Chevry with Elke and Reiner Moritz

CCTV’s Zhang Jianxin (left), Luo Ming, Shen Jianing and Li Qingqing

MIPTV veteran Roger Deshayes and his wife Genevieve

Medaille d’Honneur winners M6’s Nicolas de Tavernost (left) and Beta Film’s Jan Mojto

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MIPTV Medaille d’Honneur winners from left are M6’s Nicolas de Tavernost, Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan’s Masao Takiyama, Armando Nunez Sr, BSkyB’s Sophie Turner Laing, CBS Global Distribution Group’s Armando Nunez and Beta Film’s Jan Mojto

CBS Global Distribution Group’s Armando Nunez (left) and Reed MIDEM’s Paul Zilk

From left are EMC’s Chistoph Fey, MPowers Communications’ Mary Powers, EMC’s John Gough, NBCUniversal’s Pauline Bohm and The Format People’s Michel Rodrigue

twofour54’s Paul Venn (left) and Wayne Borg

From left: Sierra/Engine’s Chris Philip, NBCUniversal’s Belinda Menendez, Panamax Films’ Jim McNamara and wife Lana, IPC’s Russell Kagan, Cello Media’s Susan Elkington and FremantleMedia’s David Ellender

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UN envoy Brown challenges industry to join fight for the right to learn

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HE BROADCAST industry can play a vital role in “one of the great civil rights struggles of our time”, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said at the MIPTV Global Education First session.

Speaking in his new role as UN special envoy for global education, Brown addressed the gathered audience yesterday on the dire crisis in education which has lead to more than 61 million children being deprived access to schools worldwide.

In a powerful keynote speech Brown said that millions of children around the world have “lost the opportunity to learn and grow; they have lost their school days, their childhoods and their hope”.

He said that the television industry was in a unique position to help the work of the UN’s Global Education First Initiative by raising awareness of the “lives of people born into the direst of circumstances”.

He urged broadcasters and producers to help drive change by

UN Special Envoy and former UK prime minister Gordon Brown speaking with Ziauddin Yousafzai at yesterday’s keynote session on education

promoting the issue of education and helping to raise money for the UN’s $1bn (€765m) Global Education Fund. The aim of the initiative is to see every child in the world receiving an education by the end of 2015.

GORDON Brown’s speech was followed by a VIP lunch supported by Chime For Change, Gucci’s campaign for the empowerment of women. The campaign is staging a live concert on June 1 in London headlined by Beyonce, which will be broadcast around the globe. Pictured here with Brown are Kevin Wall (left) of Control Room — which is producing the event — and concert promoter Harvey Goldsmith.

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“Ask yourselves what your company could do,” he said. “Run a campaign, think of how you could raise awareness and money for education. Ask yourselves, what will be the brilliant ideas that can do this?”

Brown was joined on stage by the father of Malala Yousafzai, who was targeted in an assassination attempt in Pakistan last October after she defied a Taliban ruling that forbade girls from attending school.

Since the near-fatal shooting of Malala, who is in the UK recovering from the attack in which she was shot in the face and neck, her father Ziauddin has become a prominent education campaigner and a UN advisor on education.

Yousafzai told the session that the situation in education was “an emergency all over the world”, and said that Malala’s experience was alarmingly common in the region. He said: “My daughter’s story has become famous globally, but in Pakistan this is happening to so many people. It is not the story of one girl, but of many, many people.

“Security is the most important

issue. Since Malala’s assassination attempt there have been four teachers killed in Pakistan,” he added.

Also speaking on the panel was John Wood, the former Microsoft executive who quit a highflying role to found the literacy and education charity Room to Read. Wood, whose organisation promotes reading and education throughout Asia and Africa, said too many children were losing the “lottery of life”. In a plea to the industry, he said the media had a vital role in spreading the message of his and other organisations. “The TV can focus on the solutions,” he said. “The media plays a very important part for us and we have always used it to get the message out.”

He drew on the example of his appearance on the Oprah show in the US, which raised $3m alone.

The publicity inspired such a huge response from the public that the eight servers Room to Read added to its back-office in anticipation of the influx all crashed within seconds of Oprah Winfrey making the appeal.

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neWs ‘Courage and coding’ needed to redress gender imbalance

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ANY French reality-TV shows trivialise women, delegates at a Women In Tech And Media session heard this week. Concern is such that French media regulator CSA is considering asking that these be aired after 22.00.

The CSA is also committed to

challenging the under-representation of women in decisionmaking roles. “It’s a matter of democracy,” said CSA commissioner Francoise Laborde.

“And we don’t have our share.

Although women represent 56% of the French television audience, they are only 35% of the people on screen. In news, it’s even less.”

CSA’s Francoise Laborde: “Women are only 35% of people on screen”

Fellow panelist Stephanie Hospital, executive vice-president of Orange’s digital audience and advertising division, said that, in the last three years, 14% of all new jobs created are in the digital space. And while women entrepreneurs are numerous, in big corporations, they do not make it to board level. “To change cor-

The Valley Girl Show’s Jesse Draper: “The press loves to tear the smart girls down”

porate culture, you need backing from the CEO. At Orange, our CEO is committed to getting 35% of women in lead roles,” she added.

Moderator Asta Wellejus, a digital developer and producer, believed diversity benefitted the bottom line. “In digital, I need mixed teams because they give better results,” she said.

Kim Moses, principal of Sander/ Moses Productions, argued that efforts have to start young. She is working on initiatives in Pittsburgh to encourage girls to train in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) areas.

And as women progress, she said, they should continue to support each other through formal and informal networking.

Jesse Draper, creator and host of The Valley Girl Show, agreed.

She said women tended to be less willing than their male peers to be interviewed in print and on screen. “The press loves to tear the smart girls down,” she said.

“Whenever Sheryl Sandberg or Marissa Mayer speak out, they get attacked.”

The conclusion, Wellejus said, is simple: “We need to teach our daughters courage — and coding.

Ultra-HD: the future starts here MIPTV took delegates into the

future of broadcasting at yesterday’s 4K Super Session: The Broadcasters, which started with the action-packed trailer for After Earth, the new Will Smith sci-fi movie that premieres in June.

Although set 1,000 years into the future, the trailer’s crystalclear quality demonstrated to the audience that 4K-resolution TV content is catching up with cinema-screen quality.

After Earth was shot using the F65 4K camera by Sony, the session’s sponsor. And while today’s familiar HDTV footage has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, the picture quality zooms several levels to 3840 x

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2160 pixels for 4K, which is also known as Ultra-HD (UHD).

Speaker Thomas Morrod, senior director of consumer electronics and media technology at research company IHS Global, predicted that more than half of the global TV shipment in 2025 will be UHD. He predicted: “We shall see mass-market appeal by 2023, which means we shall have a commercial mass market in the next 12 years.” He added that he expected cable-and-satellite TV operators to be the key drivers of UHDTV into people’s homes.

Gary Davey, executive vice-president of programming at Germany’s Sky Deutschland, said: “We have about 3.4 million subscrib-

ers and about half of them pay for HD services, including 65 HD channels, because they are prepared to pay for premium.

We believe 4K will be driven by commercial factors.”

“We are ready to carry 4K content into every home,” added Norbert Hoelzle, senior vicepresident of commercial, Europe, at Luxembourg-based global satellite operator SES. Mike Gunton, creative director of the BBC’s Natural History Unit, said his team has started using 4K to film natural-history content for the public broadcaster’s Survival documentary series. The session was part of MIPTV’s Television’s Next Revolution series.

IHS Global’s Thomas Morrod: “a commercial mass market in the next 12 years”

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Cracking the code: the link between TV and brands Viaccess-Orca’s Ofer Weintraub

MULTI-SCREEN AGE HAS NEW TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT BROADCASTERS and producers must think of new ways to engage with their consumers across multiple platforms if they are to succeed in the modern world, a leading expert has said.

Speaking at he MIPCube seminar 5 Ways To Shape The Multi-Screen User Experience, Dr Ofer Weintraub, executive vice-president of innovation at Israel-based Viaccess-Orca, said that viewers needed to connect with content on a range of levels and screens to be fully entertained. He said: “Engagement is about creating fun, emotional experiences. Don’t just bring information, tell a story. If you get it right it is the way to create a source of monetisation.” Weintraub, whose company creates content discovery platforms for a range of media, said that the way consumers access content needs to be based around providing value, holding attention, providing intriguing and informative shows and providing interesting interactive experiences.

“Viewers want to have their curiosity fulfilled,” he said.

Viaccess-Orca’s services include the second-screen application DEEP, designed to complement TV viewing by enabling intuitive browsing among thousands of automatically generated magazines about movies, TV shows, actors and themes.

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HE world of TV and brands may seem farremoved from computer coding. But the relationship between the two is increasingly important as audiences become ever more adept at moving around online, mobile and social media platforms.

On Wednesday afternoon in the Agora Suite, three experts in bridging the two camps took part in Getting Creative With Code, a session designed to explore the link between the two.

Wale Gbadamosi Oyekanmi is a former TV exec who set up his own agency, Darewin, in 2011, “to build digital experiences around TV content… extending one-hour shows into round-theclock experiences that are fun and engaging for audiences.”

He sees his agency’s role as being “a translator between TV and technology, helping producers, brands and developers understand each other’s needs and expectations.”

Syd Lawrence, Wale Gbadamosi Oyekanmi and Jason Daponte

Leading developer Syd Lawrence, co-founder of We Make Awesome Sh.it, gave the audience an insight into the mindset of developers when he said: “Things move so quickly in technology you need to take time out from jobs to learn. When you’re doing a job, things constantly change as you’re working. Often, what you get at the end is what you want, but it isn’t what you thought you wanted at the beginning.”

A big shift, said Lawrence, is that

producers have started to realise coding is a creative process: “It’s not visually creative, but coders are makers, working out how to solve puzzles.” The session was led by Jason Daponte, managing director of The Swarm. Asked how a producer can find a good developer, he said references and track record are good indicators.

He also advised: “Always look for a team fit. Some developers can be quite rigid but you need problemsolvers who are team players.”

Turning measurements into money THE SIGNIFICANCE of big data for the TV industry and content creators was explored at a MIPCube panel session yesterday.

Jeroen Doucet, managing director, ExMachina Strategies & Concepts described his company’s work on second-screen strategies for broadcasters.

“We’re increasingly seeing that data is becoming a major part of any second-screen or social TV strategy,” he said. “But big data in the second-screen world isn’t just about measuring viewers of a TV show, it’s just as much about measuring their interactions on Twitter, Facebook and other services.”

Data is now regarded as crucial in monetising what viewers are doing on the second screen, he explained. “Over time we

believe it will also be increasingly important for monetising what you’re doing on your first screen,” he said. “Broadcasters need a data strategy — defining beforehand what sort of data they want to collect, and why.”

Trendrr’s Marc Hernandez demonstrated the company’s dashboard of data from social networks on popular TV shows, which works with Twitter, FaceBig data panelists

book, GetGlue and other secondscreen apps. “We can really do the clear measurements on who is engaging with the show, and how they are doing so. And that means we can deliver exact metrics on what is happening on social media around a show, a character, or a celebrity. We can show what people are thinking minute by minute, which is the first step to transfer this data into revenue.”

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YESTERDAY’s MIPCube Innovation Show Snack And Screen event brought a frenetic MIPCube to a close in style, and saw the announcement of the winners of the competitions running throughout MIPCube — MIPCube Lab, TV Hack, Content 360 and Brand Of The Year. “Innovation is an important part of MIPCube, and these awards are designed to highlight that innovation,” said Louisa Heinrich, founder of Superhuman in the UK, who hosted the prize-giving

Stevie’s a game-changer Russian internet solution

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F THE 60 entrants to this year’s MIPCube Lab, technology start-ups bidding for the chance to develop their game-changing idea with some of the best minds in the video content industry, 10 made it to Cannes. Such was the variety, Anne-Marie Roussel of Illuminate Ventures in Silicon Valley, one of the judges, called on MIPCube next year to give both B2B and B2C prizes next year, commending Stream Hub, an innovative B2B data-streaming server, which just missed out. The winner, was Israel’s Stevie, a web and iOS service (soon to be on Android and Xbox) that turned items from users’ social media feeds into a TV channel-style experience.

Gil Rimon

“VOD is a huge success, but you don’t always want to choose what you watch. Maybe you’re at breakfast and have your hands full, or want the radio on to help you sleep — and otherwise how do you discover new things?” Stevie founder Gil Rimon said, outlining Stevie’s ‘lean-back’ viewing model.

“The next step is to take Stevie onto cable,” he added. “We want to become an actual channel — a strange one, but accessible in that way.”

New angle for video “THIS was a really special edition of TV Hack,” Cyril Attia, of TV Hack’s co-organiser and co-sponsor BeMyApp, said.

The brief for the competition this year was to re-think the way we consume video — simple! — and the hackers were given 48 hours to come up with and code an innovative hack to then demonstrate to the MIPCube audience. The winner was a two-person team: Audrey Martel of France and Romania’s Andrei Gheorghe.

Despite only having met at MIPTV, the pair collaborated to make Reactive Video Players, which allowed video viewers to choose the viewing angle of a multi-camera show, by merely changing the position of their head, or swiping in the air, tablet-style, with their hand.

A webcam mounted on the TV recognised these actions and relayed the commands to the video server, also allowing viewers to turn the volume up or down and perform other actions.

“It will be useful in a multicamera environment like a studio show or a sports event,” Gheorghe said. “We’d also like to thank all the other hackers, who were doing some really nice stuff.”

Audrey Martel (left) and Andrei Gheorghe

Anna-Maria Treneva (left) and Alex Alexander

THE LONG-running MIPCube Content 360 competition, which searches out innovative storytelling, this year was sponsored by CTC Media, Russia’s largest independent broadcaster, in partnership with MTS, a leading Russian telecommunications company. They wanted to harness the world’s creative brainpower to solve their business challenge: in a country still dependent on PC-based internet, the brief was to find ways of exponentially increasing Russia’s mobile internet use.

The winning idea, Step One, came from Four Twelve in Australia. It is an interactive transmedia drama that posits a hackers cyber attack that shuts down cabled internet networks. The story, which spans TV, web, smartphones, games and social media, rewards participants based on recruitment to the antihacker team. It will embed an actress into CTC’s news broadcasts six to eight weeks before the story starts, giving her character a ‘real’ presence: “Blurring reality and fiction was key to my concept: you need something of that scale to get people seriously reconsidering their internet use,” Four Twelve’s Alex Alexander said. Anna-Maria Treneva of CTC presented the award. “The winner will potentially be seen by 150 million people in Russia,” she said.

Fusing art and technology

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RANDED entertainment does more than it’s given credit for in terms of forming how we think about entertainment,” Louisa Heinrich of Superhuman said, as she set the scene for the Brand Of The Year award.

It was presented by Joe Berkowitz of Fast Company Co.Create to Benjamin Ruth of Vice Deutschland for the media group’s The Creators Project, a global arts partnership with Intel.

Since 2010, the Creators Project has celebrated the work of visionary artists working in a multitude of disciplines, and explores the way they combine technology and traditional techniques in their practice.

Vice, originally a magazine publisher, started VBS.tv, an internet

TV station, in 2007. Now, it comprises Virtue, a branded content and strategy agency, and Advice, an activation agency, and VBS. tv has blossomed into multiple themed TV channels, many of which work with brands.

“Traditional ads don’t work any more. Content is what we watch, what we engage with, what we’re inspired by,” Ruth said. “That’s why branded content is so important and why The Creators Project received 250 million video views in two-and-a-half years.”

Joe Berkowitz (left) and Benjamin Ruth

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CCTV and Guinness World Records renew China Nights co-pro pact Viaccess-Orca’s Compass contentdiscovery and recommendation platform

YES SAYS ‘YES’ TO COMPASS PLATFORM VIACCESS-Orca, the Paris-based international content-service provider, has sold its Compass contentdiscovery and recommendation platform to yes, the satellite-delivered Israeli pay-TV network.

Compass will enable yes’ 580,000 subscribers to personalise their viewing experience based on programmes and other content that the technology recommends to them via My TV, a new personalisation system that yes is launching later this year. Ofer Weintraub, Viaccess-Orca’s executive vice-president of innovation, said that Compass enables pay-TV operators to prevent churn and retain subscriber loyalty.

“These days, they have between 200 and 800 channels, plus 20,000 VOD titles and the web content that many operators are adding. Compass enables pay-TV customers to find their way through the maze,” he said. Compass can also personalise the service by selecting not just the most watched content, but also shows that suit each viewer’s individual tastes. In addition, its social-TV elements allow viewers to see what friends and family are also watching via My TV. As a MIPTV first-timer, Viaccess-Orca’s Weintraub said the company found it refreshing to introduce its service to content-owners and “not just to other technology service providers”.

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HINA Central TV (CCTV) and Guinness World Records (GWR) have signed a two-year extension to their eight-year co-production deal for entertainment show Guinness World Records China Nights.

The large-scale studio show is stripped across CCTV-1 in primetime during major national holidays, including Chinese New Year, National Day and New Year’s Eve. The specials, which feature record challengers from China and around the world, achieved a unique reach of 360 million viewers for the 2013 Chinese New Year series.

Speaking about the extension, CCTV vice-president Luo Ming said: “The GWR-CCTV show is one of the most popular family entertainment shows in China and

CCTV’s Luo Ming (left) and Alistair Richards: ongoing relationship

has become a traditional highlight of the holiday schedule.”

Alistair Richards, global president of GWR, added: “China is one of the fastest growing recordbreaking nations in the world and our exclusive agreement

with CCTV is the spectacular driver of that interest nationally.

This deal ensures that the best in world-record entertainment continues to bring Chinese families together at key holidays through the year.”

Mega deal for CCTV and Cisneros VENEVISION International, global distributor of entertainment content for the Cisneros Group of Companies, and China Central Television (CCTV) have signed a MIPTV deal for the broadcast rights of the Spanishlanguage edition of the documentary China’s Mega Projects.

The agreement marks a significant alliance between the two

media giants and provides access for both organisations to a potential audience of more than 1.5 billion people.

Manuel Perez, vice-president and chief financial officer of Venevision International, said: “This agreement not only reinforces the Cisneros Group’s commitment to the Chinese market as part of its comprehensive

CCTV/CITVC’s Ma Runsheng (left) and Venevision’s Manuel Perez: a cultural exchange between Latin America and China

strategy of global expansion, but it also facilitates CCTV’s growing presence in Latin American markets.”

Ma Runsheng, president of the film and TV programme-marketing organisation of CCTV and assistant to the president of China International TV Corporation (CITVC), added: “This deal is much more than a simple buying and selling of a product. We believe the co-operation between our two companies has been, and will continue to be, greatly beneficial for both of us, and our respective regions and audiences.”

China’s Mega Projects includes the construction of the largest underground train network in history, the erection of an environmentally-friendly skyscraper more than half a kilometer high, and the creation of the world’s longest and most challenging sea bridge, linking Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macao.

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neWs TV industry is coping well says MEDIA as dynamism prevails

50TH ANNIVERSARY

I consider MIP as an incubator.

You could do deals or make partnerships at lunch, or socialise at night. It’s important to have time to relax and to get to know people — talk about travel, or your kids or whatever. It’s important to have this face-to-face experience with the people you are going to do business with.

FRANK SOLOVEICIK, president, Syndicat des Entreprises de Distribution des Programmes Audiovisuels (SEDPA)

Aviva Silver, head of unit at Creative Europe/MEDIA: “The atmosphere was excellent, really very positive”

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EDIA’s Aviva Silver, head of unit at Creative Europe, sees a TV industry that is coping well with the current challenging market conditions: “When I was walking around the exhibition areas I was very impressed by the number of exciting series that are on offer currently, and that optimism and dynamism is also reflected in how the 200 companies that came here under the MEDIA umbrella, perceived the market,” she said. “The atmosphere was excellent, really very positive.”

MEDIA’s MIPTV and MIPCOM initiatives are now so popular with production start-ups and small producers that MEDIA was obliged to put two companies on each stand. “Some of them were initially not entirely happy with this arrangement, but in fact it creates more networking opportunities and synergies, and that is what MEDIA is all about,” she said.

“And the fact is that our presence at MIPTV and MIPCOM lies at the heart of our strategy of bringing new talent into the industry, alongside helping producers expand their networks.”

MIPAcademy Moscow offers unique forum MIPTV organiser Reed MIDEM has joined forces with Digital October, a key centre in Moscow for international conferences and technology entrepreneurship, to launch the first-ever MIPAcademy Moscow, which will be held on May 13, 2013.

The new event will offer Russian TV industry and digital content creators masterclass sessions and workshops on how to create programming and entertainment content with international potential, and how to successfully export that content. The conference will also cover key digital trends and serve as a platform for the exchange of opinions between local and international experts and media professionals.

An advisory committee including representatives of the Ministry of Telecommunications, NAT, RAEC, CTC Media, Viacom Russia,

RIA Novosti, RT, Ogilvy and PricewaterhouseCoopers Russia has been established to oversee topic recommendations for the event.

In addition, MIPAcademy Moscow will include presentations from the Berlin-based Entertainment Master Class and The Wit. “The Russian content industries have great potential for international expansion, and our objective is to create a unique local forum that will help contribute to the exchange of ideas and expertise needed to facilitate this development,” said Ted Baracos, director of market development at Reed MIDEM. Dmitry Repin, CEO of Digital October, added: “MIPAcademy Moscow will offer Russian TV and digital content professionals a unique learning experience and the opportunity to meet top international experts associated with MIP markets in Cannes”.

I think my first market was in 1993. I was with a company called Alliance, which is quite interesting because eOne has just announced that it has acquired Alliance. I wandered around the Palais and was overwhelmed by the product offering. It was really kind of humbling. You work in your own little world making your own little TV shows and you don’t really realise until you’re here how large this industry really is.

JOHN MORAYNISS, CEO, eOne Television

MY first MIPTV was 1994 or 1995 and I do remember it because I was so excited to be here. I was working for HBO at the time and back at the HBO home office you really knew you were on your way to something when you got to go to MIP. KEVIN MACLELLAN, president of international television, NBCUniversal

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JCC devises themed programming blocks to deliver targeted content

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AUSTRALIA’s The Project Factory has partnered with Intel, Southern Star and Network Ten to launch a transmedia project for Network Ten’s drama series Offspring.

Mobile-based application Offspring: Moving In features video content, games, diary entries and photos. The Intel brand is integrated into the storylines in the app and, as part of the gaming concept, players can win weekly prizes of an Intel-powered Ultrabook.

The Project Factory group executive director Guy Gadney, said: “Offspring: Moving In tells the story of a new arrival into the TV show, in a new and engaging way that is attractive to audiences and brand sponsors.”

The app was built on the company’s transmedia platform Appisodic, which was used most recently by RTL 4 and Endemol in the Netherlands, where it led to a 45% increase in audience share for primetime entertainment show GTST, as well as integrating commercial sponsors Samsung and South African Tourism.

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CC, the Qatar Foundation-backed media organisation that targets Arab children and young people, has been at MIPTV meeting content distributors and alerting potential business partners to its new structure, having launched four separate but interconnected audience-facing entities.

Haya bint Khalifa Al Nassr, acting executive general manager and board member of JCC, said: “JCC will now deliver its vision and mission through a suite of media brands including JeemTV, an advanced media platform for Arab children 7- to 12-years-old, Baraem TV, a pre-school channel for children 2- to 6-years-old, Taalam.tv, a VOD educational portal, and Siwar, the JCC children’s choir.”

Rashed Al-Qurese Almarri, JCC’s acting director of sales and media rights, added: “MIPTV is an ideal networking business platform to present our strategy and strengthen our position on

Haya bint Khalifa Al Nassr: delivering vision and mission

the international market as a leading pan-Arab organisation in children’s entertainment. JCC’s presence at such a high-profile event will be a building block to demonstrate the latest developments and offerings the organisation provides today.”

As well as being a major buyer of content, JCC has its own in-house production unit. Some of its titles presented at MIPTV this week include Uncle Mosleh’s Tales, Shams & Rami, Power Struggle, Science Capsule, Everything’s Rosie and Nan & Lili.

Earth Touch finds natural US partner SOUTH African wildlife and factual producer, Earth Touch, has concluded a co-production deal with US-based Smithsonian Channel for four new wildlife shows.

Black Mamba — Kiss Of Death: heading for Smithsonian Channel

The one-off 50-minute specials Game Of Prides, Great White Code Red and Black Mamba — Kiss Of Death feature respectively lion clashes in Botswana, Great White hunting techniques

off the South African coast and an exploration of deadly Black Mambas with snake expert Simon Keyes in South Africa.

Earth Touch will also produce a second series of Speed Kills.

Speed Kills 2 (3 x 50 mins) uses high-speed camera technology to capture the lightning-fast movements of wildlife in three environments: lagoon, jungle and desert.

David Royle, executive vice-president of programming and production at Smithsonian Channel said: “We are delighted to have become the US destination for some of the world’s best wildlife programming. Earth Touch’s programmes are enthused with drama and visual imagery. They tell great stories that are compelling and informative — and they get shots that are simply mind-boggling.”

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miptv

neWs FLAME ACQUIRES HISTORY FORMAT AUSTRALIA’s Flame Distribution has acquired Channel 4 UK’s primetime series Walking Through History With Tony Robinson (4 x 60 mins).

Appealing to history buffs and ramblers alike, the Wildfire TV series debuted last weekend on Channel 4.

It follows the much-loved actor on spectacular walks through Britain’s historic landscapes, from the secret Second World War frontline in Dorset to the hidden stories of Henry VIII’s court in the Weald.

Walking Through History is one of several new titles on Flame’s slate. Other priorities include The Farm Fixer (8 x 30 mins), featuring The Apprentice’s Nick Hewer; Food Network’s Recipes That Rock (6 x 30 mins), Caledonia TV’s Thomas Telford: The Man Who Built Britain (1 x 60 mins) and Teens On Trial (6 x 30 mins).

Hong Kong-Shanghai deal brings China’s Challenges to the world

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ONG Kong-ba s e d TV distributor Lightning International has signed a deal with China’s Shanghai Media Group (SMG)/WingsMedia to distribute its big new production in English — China’s Challenges (5 x 60 mins).

James Ross, Lightning International CEO, said: “It is a very exciting project and will include unprecedented access to film footage. China’s Challenges is a warts-and-all look at the problems China is facing as a result of its economic boom — rich versus poor, urban versus rural, and other social issues. It also provides a valuable insight into the efforts of the Chinese government, as well as the entire society, to solve these problems.”

The presenter and writer of the series is Robert Kuhn, author of The Man Who Changed China: The Life And Legacy Of Jiang

BEE AND VIKING BOUND FOR NORDICS STUDIO 100 Media has signed a deal at MIPTV with Swedish production and distribution company Svensk Filmindustri. The deal gives the latter company the home video rights (DVD and Blue-ray) and SVOD rights for Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland, for the remastered CGI animation series Maya The Bee (78 x 12 mins) and Vic The Viking (78 x 12 mins). The deal also includes the award-winning puppet series Big & Small (78 x 11 mins) and preschool animation series, Zigby (52 x 11 mins). Patrick Elmendorff, managing director of Studio 100 Media, said: “We’re confident that viewers in the Nordics will fall in love with these wonderful shows and enjoy many hours of entertainment.”

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Zemin and The Inside Story Of China’s 30-Year Reform.

Signing the deal were Lightning International CEO James Ross (front left) and He Xiaolan, WingsMedia general manager (front right), witnessed by Qiu

Xin, CEO of SMG (far right), Li Wei, vice-minister of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) (back row, centre) and other Chinese government officials representing SARFT.

NHK Enterprises and Audio Network celebrate a deal signed by the two companies at MIPTV on Tuesday, which will give the Japanese producer unlimited access to a huge catalogue of music content. The deal comes as Audio Network makes greater strides into Japan, and accompanies the launch of a Japanese language website. NHK Enterprises, an offshoot of Japanese public broadcaster NHK, operates in multiple territories and will now use Audio Network’s catalogue across a wide range of media.

Camelot co-production charts the Kennedys MUSE Entertainment and Euro Media Group have signed a MIPTV deal to co-produce the eight-hour historical drama After Camelot, which follows the life of the Kennedy family after the assassinations of John F Kennedy and Robert Kennedy. The epic mini-series explores the human

dynamics behind the headlines that have captivated the world during the last half century, including Jackie Kennedy’s marriage to Aristotle Onassis, Edward Kennedy’s Chappaquiddick crisis, Ethel Kennedy’s challenges raising 11 children as a single mother, John Kennedy Jr’s rise

and tragic early death.

The series is based on the New York Times bestseller After Camelot, written by J Randy Taraborrelli.

Muse Entertainment is the producer of The Kennedys mini-series, which was nominated for 10 Emmy awards.

miptv

neWs Wildlife accord makes ORF and CCTV natural partners

50TH ANNIVERSARY

CCTV’s Luo Ming (left) and ORF’s Richard Grasl Stephen Davis

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ICHARD Grasl, ORF’s chief financial officer and Luo Ming, vicepresident of CCTV, have signed a memorandum of understanding for the exchange of expertise and coproduction of new wildlife and nature films with ORF’s Universum strand.

The first joint project as international partners is 50-minute documentary Triumph Of The Tomato, about the colourful history of what they still call in Austria the paradise fruit.

“For more than a quarter of a century Universum has set international standards for the

highest quality natural history documentaries, and it is especially gratifying to see this recognised by China’s national all-documentary channel, CCTV-9,” Richard Grasl said.

“China’s documentary channel has already broadcast a number of our documentaries, and we are now delighted by the prospect of producing together.”

Luo Ming added: “I firmly believe that we will find more and more co-production documentary projects that will help the television audiences of our two countries better understand each other and become better friends.”

Talpa follows formats with fiction AFTER a run of national and international format successes including The Voice, Doctor Doctor and Divorce, Talpa International launches its drama and fiction division internationally at MIPTV. “We want to show how strong our slate is across all genres, and in terms of where the TV industry is right now, this is the ideal moment to show the international market what we have and what we can do,” Talpa International managing director, Maarten Meijs, said. “And in terms of introducing our local hits, we’re very excited about Doctor Doctor and The Divorce. Both shows have garnered excellent ratings, and they have both also generated a lot of online activity.”

Divorce’s producer and director Will Koopman, who also directed the feature film Viper’s Nest, the biggest Dutch box office success of all time, is just about to start shooting season two of the hit dramedy: “Every episode of the first season of Divorce became a trending topic on Twitter, and our audience share averaged around 33% of the 20 to 49

Producer and director Will Koopman (left) with Talpa managing director Maarten Meijs

demographic, which is an excellent result in a TV market as competitive as the Netherlands,” she said. “And I’m very happy that the show has created such a lively conversation amongst the audience, which I think is down to the fact that 50% of marriages end in divorce, so the show has tapped in to something that affects a lot of people.”

HASBRO Studios president Stephen Davis recalls his market debut, and reflects on how times have changed: “As a full-time participant, I first went to MIPTV in 1997 after joining Hamdon Entertainment, a joint venture between Carlton and Studio Hamburg (NDR), as president-CEO. I was there to sell our long-form programming and look for co-productions.

“It used to be that you could get most of your business done for the year at MIP, MIPCOM, NATPE and the AFM. Travelling to regions was important but both international buyers and sellers had the expectation that they would write a majority of their business at those markets.

MIPTV is still relevant because conversations that originate in Cannes can often lead to new deals.

But it’s becoming more the exception than the rule that deals start and are executed at the market in the volume that they once did. Certainly one thing remains a constant; MIPTV is still the best place for international buyers and sellers to connect under one roof, maintain relationships and talk deals.

“When I first started going to the MIPTV markets, it was common for my then head of sales and I to run back and forth between screening rooms in our booth taking competing bids for our product, virtually all day. Back then, buyers would line up for meetings to buy your product and bidding wars between broadcasters were the norm. That was a very exciting time.”

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neWs

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“WE ARE close to completing deals for Giant Squid: The Monster Is Real with the BBC and several other broadcasters,” said NHK Enterprises’ Fumio Narashima, executive controllergeneral, international sales, of episode one of Legends Of The Deep. “Episode two, Deepsea Sharks, is in production for release in the middle of this year.” Arts series Secrets Of The British Museum, a coproduction with KBS Korea, is stirring up huge interest in France and its Kim Jong-un documentary launched last MIPCOM has been bought this week by ORF. KIDSCO has acquired CG-animated series Matt Hatter Chronicles from Platinum Films. The series will air on the Syfy Kids-branded block rolling out across Central and Eastern Europe this year. “We were looking to complement the strong line-up of content from our shareholders with compelling, third-party acquisitions,” said KidsCo managing director Hendrik McDermott, pictured (left) with Platinum Films’ creative director Rebecca Lewis and CEO Nigel Stone. “The Matt Hatter Chronicles is a perfect fit.”

PHILIPPE Brodeur (left), director of Ireland-based online and mobile TV service Aertv, and Andrew Eborn, president and founder of cloud-based digital content management and delivery platform Octopus TV, struck up a strategic alliance within 24 hours of meeting at MIPTV. Eborn said there was “a natural synergy between the two companies”.

DANIEL Lampe and Chantal Lampe-Roeters of Dutch producer SchlagerTV donned traditional Alpine clothing at MIPTV to get noticed as they promoted travel-music documentary So Schon Ist, which features scenic footage of the Alps interwoven with music from well-known German and Austrian artists. Broadcasters can tweak the custom-made format to their own needs. SchlagerTV is also handling distribution for the show.

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GABRIELE Rothemeyer and Oliver Zeller of the BadenWurttemberg Public Film Fund are in Cannes this week talking to producers about shooting their next projects in the BadenWurttemberg region. “Recent shoots the region has hosted include Heroes, Rush, and Dangerous Method, which was shot on Lake Konstanz. We are currently streamlining the fund application process in order to speed up approvals, and will be introducing an online system at the end of this year.”

miptv

neWs French animation duo drawn

by Korean producer’s energy

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WO FRENCH animation companies have entered into a major agreement with a South Korean producer and one of the country’s biggest animation investors to deliver two new kidsshows for international syndication.

Zagtoon and Method Animation have teamed up with Seoul-based animator SAMG Animation to produce two new shows already in the early stages of production.

Method Animation producer Cedric Pilot said: “We are very excited because it’s the first time we have worked with a Korean company. Korea is such a fantastic, energetic country. There is so much energy in animation production there. We have a real desire to work together to make high quality shows.”

Along with their backer SK Broadband, one of South Korea’s largest internet providers and a major investor in TV and subscription video-on-demand animation, the producers are at MIPTV to talk to international broad-

Nelvana’s Colin Bohm

French/Korean pact: Cedric Pilot (left) of Method Animation celebrates with Zagtoon founder Jeremy Zag, SAMG Animation’s Suhoon Kim and Stella Noh of SK Broadband

casters interested in the rights for the shows.

French channel TF1 has already signed a deal to air one of them, LadyBug. Zagtoon founder Jeremy Zag told MIPTV News that talks were ongoing with similar signings expected on LadyBug and the second co-production 7Cs.

“THE BROADCASTERS we do a lot of business with are here, and animated comedy and pre-school continues to work for them,” said Nelvana’s Colin Bohm. Nelvana produces between 125 and 150 half-hour episodes a year across pre-school, boys’ action, animated comedy and live-action comedy, said Bohm. “There seems to be opportunities for pre-school girls animated content.”

“The new digital subscription video-on-demand players come every year. It’s no longer about bulk, but quality. There’s a growing sophistication in their buying. They’re particularly drawn to pre-school properties where there is market awareness and volume. “Our shows Franklin, Berenstein Bears and even Mr. Young work for them.”

Buyers keen to shell out for Turtles THE RETURN of the The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has been a significant sales success for Viacom International Media Networks’ (VIMN) senior vice-president international programme sales, Caroline Beaton.

“The show is now sold to all major markets, but perhaps the more interesting fact is that most of the buyers have taken all four seasons and 52 episodes, when only season one has been produced so far,” she said, adding: “So far we are at 40-plus territories with another eight in negotiation. It’s always a bit of a risk when you take on such an iconic brand but having the show’s originator, Kevin Eastman, on board again was a big plus for us.”

New at this market is the CGI series Robot & Monster. “I’m sure that this show is a future

Nickelodeon classic,” Beaton said. “Plus we have a new live-action show called Marvin Marvin about an alien in suburbia starring Lucas Cruikshank. He’s well known as Fred from his YouTube show, and although the character is very different, his fan base will give a great basis to build on.”

Robot & Monster (VIMN)

50TH ANNIVERSARY

In my first visit to MIPTV I was at the early stages of creating Eurodata TV. It was April 1990 and what was incredible for me and for my market research business was that we were still working on diskettes, sending them by post, and working with fax.

In the main countries there were only four or five channels — and in some countries, like Spain, no private channels, Scandinavia and so on. So a lot has changed in 20 years.

JACQUES BRAUN, CEO, Eurodata

I was blown away at my first MIP. Ben Silverman and Chris Grant were my mentors, my bosses, and Ben — I think he still calls himself the mayor of Cannes — they spoke so fondly of Cannes and the market and the Croisette. I remember as their assistant making reservations for them and knowing that I was going to be going to some of these places. It was a beautiful sunny day when I landed in Nice and I remember thinking to myself ‘This is why I am in this business’.

JOHN POLLAK, president, Electus International

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neWs Afrique TV expands expert team to cover ‘huge demand’ for news

Smokebomb’s Jay Bennett

COUNTDOWN TO SMOKEBOMB LAUNCHES

Afrique TV’s Kenya correspondent Capucine Dayen (left), press attache Karine Oriol and general manager Karim Kabache

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RANCOPHONE news agency Afrique TV is now expanding into key English-speaking African countries after successfully establishing offices in 13 territories. “Our first English-speaking correspondent is Capucine Dayen who is based in Nairobi, Kenya, and sourcing people like her forms an integral part of our strategy of creating a network of local experts

who know their country intimately,” Karim Kabache, general manager, Afrique TV, said.

“Obviously, there is a lot of competition from other news agencies, so in order to distinguish ourselves we believe that our strategy of local people who are proactively pitching stories to us, as well as covering breaking events and so on, is the way to go.”

As part of its ‘think local’ policy,

Afrique TV also trains its future employees: “The spike in online viewing that we saw when the Mali crisis was happening, shows that there is huge demand for news from Africa, so we’ll be engaging correspondents for South Africa and Nigeria imminently, and over the rest of the year we’ll be sourcing more potential journalists for other territories,” Kabache said.

Boutique approach works for Rise And Shine docs RISE And Shine’s boutique strategy to documentary distribution has paid off this MIPTV, with the company’s managing director, Stefan Kloos, announcing the sale of Danish documentary Dance For Me to Schweizer Fernsehen (SF) (Swiss Television) and an expectation of 40 deals to follow meetings this market.

Dance For Me is a coming-of-age story, directed by Katrine Philp, following Russian Egor on his quest to find the ideal dancing partner in Denmark and reach international fame.

“This MIPTV was extremely focused. Usually in documentary,

we don’t expect to sign deals on the spot, but our back-to-back meetings over the last few days all point to imminent deals,” Kloos said.

Rise And Shine brings over seven new titles to MIPTV this year, including Love Still, Gangster Of Love and How To Become A Sexual Giant, a wildlife comedy drawing comparison between the sex life of sea lions and our own manners of courtship and mating.

“We operate on a boutique-size level, bringing a maximum of 15 handpicked, award-winning creative documentaries per year directly to broadcasters,” Kloos

Rise And Shine’s Stefan Kloos

said. “They are usually debut films and very much one-off pieces of work by extremely talented directors. We care for each title and do everything to see it ‘rise and shine’.”

CANADIAN digital producer Smokebomb unleashes a slate of innovative programming over the next six months. “We’ve been getting the ducks lined up and now we’re ready to pop,” said Jay Bennett, vice-president, digital and creative director at Smokebomb. “Backpacker, filmed in Paris, Prague, Rome and on the Italian coast, has been bought by CW, and airs in July. We are also adding the finishing touches to Inhuman Condition, based in a world where mutations are the norm, aimed at 16- to 35-year-olds.” Smokebomb’s strategy is to build online with one eye on broadcast possibilities: “We produce digital series with the intention that they become TV series,” he said. “It’s all about building a fan base using key influencers as far ahead of production as possible, because you cannot go to market anymore without an online life.”

Smokebomb’s development slate also includes Astronomical, about a quirky group of brainiacs who transform their parents’ motorhome into a spaceship; Darken House (24 x 6 mins), about a man trapped in a house of endless rooms who must find his way out; and Focused (24 x 6 mins), an ensemble comedy that chronicles the misadventures of two small business owners and their intern as they try to run their upstart market research firm. Each project will be accompanied by a trans-media experience.

21

miptv

neWs 50TH ANNIVERSARY

Shine sells ferociously funny flatmates to Seven Network

S DON TAFFNER JR first came to MIPTV in the mid-Eighties. The chairman of DLT Raydar Rights told MIPTV News about the about the changes he has witnessed.

The biggest difference for me is that in the early days it was a lot smaller.

You could have a meeting with somebody where they could screen – companies were not as large back then, so the buyer would be the person to look at the show and they could almost buy the programme in the room. The world has changed because there are so many meetings to be had. It’s nice to have a central point a couple times a year to get all the buyers and sellers together. It makes life that much easier.

Back in the day, if a station liked a programme they would just buy it and find a place to put it on the schedule. But it takes a lot longer to get something sold now.

There’s so much pressure for sales right now that the second a show’s available you’re out there trying to sell it, whereas previously you would hold shows back to headline at the markets. You can’t afford to do that anymore, you have to start selling as soon as the programme is available because it takes so long to sell.

Are you making changes to keep ahead of the game?

We’re always re-strategising. One of the nice things about being a small company is that we can be very nimble.

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HINE International is at MIPTV with Vicious, a comedy for ITV in the UK starring Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi as a gay couple who have lived together in the same London flat for 50 years. Although the show is yet to launch in the UK, it has already caught the attention of buyers, selling to Seven Network Australia.

The series was produced by Brown Eyed Boy and Kudos Film and TV, both of which are part of the Shine Group. But in an unusual turn of events, it has been scripted by Gary Janetti, a US writer best known for his work on NBC’s comedy Will & Grace.

Janetti said he was initially in discussion with Brown Eyed Boy about developing a US version of the show. “But when I learned Ian and Derek were involved, I knew this was the show I wanted to work on. I couldn’t stop thinking about it.”

Fortunately for Janetti, work hadn’t yet started on a UK version because the idea’s originator, Mark Ravenhill, was committed to other projects. So the way was clear for Janetti to start work.

Janetti had no problem adapting to the UK system. Although he has created a quickfire narrative which carries echoes of a US-style sitcom, he said: “I am a big fan of British comedy and was keen it should look like a British show.” As for working alone, as op-

Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi in Vicious

posed to being part of a team, he said: “the fact there are fewer episodes on UK shows made it manageable.”

Beta Film pushes Prague protest drama BETA Film has picked up the distribution rights for HBO Europe’s three-part drama, Burning Bush, bringing the big-budget miniseries to the international market this MIPTV. Directed by world-renowned Polish director Agnieszka Holland - and based on real characters and events - Burning Bush depicts the story of Jan Palach, a young student living in a period of liberalization in Czechoslovakia. Palach died after setting himself on fire in a protest against the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1969, and Burning Bush follows the legal fight by his family to clear his name in the face of the oppressive communist propaganda machine.

Burning Bush rolled out on HBO Europe across its fifteen countries at the beginning of this year.

Beta Film CEO, Jan Mojto, said: “How do we make choices when we face mechanisms of terror in a totalitarian system? Whether in Germany under the Nazi regime or in Eastern

Europe under Communist rule, the last century is a source of fascinating stories of betrayal and adaptation but also of courage and revolution. That Agnieszka Holland precisely knows this situation is what makes Burning Bush so intriguing. I am sure this program will appeal to those who remember but it will also inspire younger audiences.”

Burning Bush (Beta Film)

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neWs Zodiak Rights’ dance show steps out in China through IPCN deal

HOW TO PROTECT A FORMAT IDEA FremantleMedia’s Bart-Jan Gorissen

So You Think You Can Dance: enduring format

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O YOU Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD) is on its way to China under a licence deal between Zodiak Rights and Chinese format distributor and content provider IPCN. The Chinese version of 19 Entertainment and Dick Clark Productions’ reality talent format will be produced by IPCN and Canxing Production as a 13 x 75 mins series. It will air on Dragon TV. Zodiak Rights, which is launching season 10 of the format at MIPTV, has also sold SYTYCD: The Next

Generation — the youth version of the franchise — to RTL5 in the Netherlands. Other recent recommissions include STB Ukraine, Channel 4 Finland, Shant TV Armenia and VTM Belgium.

Finished programme sales for SYTYCD season nine have also been announced with Network Ten, M-Net, AXN Asia, Turner International, MBC Dubai, ABC-CBN and MediaCorp TV. To date, the Simon Fuller/Nigel Lythgoe-devised dance show has been licensed in 24 territories.

Barnaby Shingleton, head of en-

tertainment at Zodiak Rights, said: The deal with IPCN is further evidence of the endurance of this hugely entertaining format, which is soon to enjoy its 10th season in the US.” Rebecca Yang, CEO of IPCN, added: “My 10-year-old nephew attends dancing classes every Sunday. To become a good dancer is aspirational. So You Think You Can Dance is a great format to bring to China, because it provides a fantastic platform for many great dancers’ dreams to come true.”

Marblemedia on a roll with Japanizi JAPANIZI: Going, Going, Gong!

— a whacky format adapted from Small World IFT’s I Survived A Japanese Game Show — is to be produced by Canada’s marblemedia, in partnership with Canadian family broadcaster YTV, Disney XD and Canadian French-language network VRAK TV. The colourful elimination format (40 x 30 mins) will premiere in Canada on YTV in the third quarter of 2013, when it will also debut in the US on Disney XD. Via a deal with marblemedia’s Distribution 360, it will roll out in 2014 on Dis-

ney Channels in Europe, EMEA and Asia Pacific, including Australia, India and South East Asia.

Matt Hornburg, co-CEO and executive producer of marblemedia, said: “The Japanese game-show genre is inherently random and frenetic, loaded with physical humour that is sure to entertain families. A comedy at heart, Japanizi: Going, Going, Gong! is a fish-out-of-water experience of kids competing in an unfamiliar world full of slapstick mayhem.”

The game play sees four teams of two contestants, who are pro-

pelled into a world of crazy costumes, physical gags and wild stunts. Viewers at home can immerse themselves in the action via an interactive website and a second-screen mobile app.

Jocelyn Hamilton, YTV’s vicepresident of original programming, kids, comedy and drama, said: “A zany show like this can be enjoyed by parents and children of all ages, at any time of the day. It fits perfectly with our co-view strategy, which is to offer fun, comedic, participatory and crazy programming.”

JUDGES tend to view TV formats as generic programme ideas rather than creative works. This means that, to protect themselves in the event of a dispute, format creators need convincing evidence — in detail and in permanent form — of how they created their IP. So said Bart-Jan Gorissen, FremantleMedia’s vice-president of commercial and business affairs, speaking at the bootcamp session, 10 Things You Should Know Before Creating Your Own Format.

In practical terms, this means establishing a detailed development directory, saving all ideas, archiving emails and taking minutes for all meetings.

Also important is to number and date format documents at every stage of development, keep records of all modifications and research predecessor formats to avoid common elements and narrative structures.

As to the ‘don’ts’, Gorissen advised delegates not to draw too many comparisons between a new format and an established show. “Don’t try to pitch a new concept as being a bit like Ready Steady Cook, only better,” he said. “That instantly makes it look like the idea is already out there.”

Gorissen recommended reading the LewisSilkin guide How To Protect Your Format by media lawyer Jonathan Coad, whose material was also used in the presentation.

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neWs RED ARROW ON TARGET FOR MIDDLE EAST RED ARROW International’s formats are making a trip to the Middle East, thanks to a MIPTV deal between the German distributor and Sync Media. Red Arrow, part of the ProSeibenSat.1 group, represents a broad slate of formats, including cooking show The Taste and comedy format What If? Karim Sarkis, CEO of Dubai-based multiplatform content creator Sync Media, said: “Demand for premium content across television and the web in the MENA region is higher than ever. By combining Red Arrow’s fantastic catalogue with Sync Media’s localisation expertise, we can create excellent programming for the region’s broadcasters.”

Jens Richter, managing director of Red Arrow International, said: “Sync Media is perfectly positioned,” he said. “They know exactly what the broadcasters are looking for.”

DQ deal with Nick India sends shows across the subcontinent

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Q E N T E RTA I N MENT International has signed a MIPTV deal with Nick India for three of DQ Entertainment’s (DQE) animated TV series: two seasons of flagship CGI series The Jungle Book; Galaktik Football, an inter-galactic soccer saga in 2D; and the third series of cricketthemed Suraj The Rising Star, which airs on Viacom 18’s Colors channel. Nick India has obtained broadcast rights for the Indian subcontinent.

In a separate deal, Germanybased ZDF Enterprises, has joined with DQE for the new HD

DQ Entertainment’s Manoj Mishra (left) and Tapaas Chakravarti (right) with ZDF’s Arne Lohmann celebrate their MIPTV deal

series The Jungle Book Safari.

Season 1 of the series (26 x 12 mins) is a combination of anima-

tion and live action, featuring the characters from The Jungle Book TV series.

DOGTV, a subscription-based television network airing programming for dogs, has made a multi-year carriage agreement with the nation’s leading satellite provider, DirecTV. Pet parents across the US will soon be able to comfort their beloved charges when they leave them at home with the first and only television network for dogs, providing content that is tailored to cater to dogs’ specific senses and behaviour, such as hearing, vision and day cycle. “This agreement is a significant step in meeting the growing demand for our product, as it opens the door for more viewers to experience our innovative programming for dogs,” Gilad Neumann, CEO of DogTV, said. “We know dog parents are constantly seeking solutions to ease the loneliness and boredom of their stay-at-home pups, and now they will be able to access DogTV through DirecTV.

MOONSCOOP AND WANDERING EYE’S LULU ON MOVE

Crime drama franchises reap dividends

CHILDREN’S TV producer Moonscoop has signed a deal at MIPTV with Wandering Eye Pictures to start work on a new animated series. The show, Southside Shaolin, is the fish-out-of-water story of a young Shaolin master, Lulu Lu, who is plucked from her home in China to live in a fictional US town as part of an education exchange programme. Moonscoop and Wandering Eye will begin co-production of the 26-part series this summer with an expected delivery date towards to end of 2014.

The partnership is selling worldwide rights to the show at MIPTV.

UK DISTRIBUTOR ITV Studi- Sanoma (Hungary) and Gcoo os Global Entertainment (ITVS Entertainment (China).

GE) has signed a slew of deals There was also strong interest in at MIPTV for its long-running the seventh series of Lewis, ancrime drama franchises Aga- other co-production with WGBH. tha Christie’s Marple, Vera and This has been pre-sold to Seven Lewis.

(Australia) and Prime (New ZeaThe sixth series of Agatha Christie’s Marple, a coproduction with WGBH in the US, has been pre-sold to 10 broadcasters including France 2 and TMC (France), ABC (Australia), Prime (New Zealand), Pramer (Latin America), Latvian Television, RTV (Slovenia), HRT (Croatia), United Media (China and Tibet) and Chungwa (Taiwan). This follows previously-announced sales to Vera: a crime franchise that is building a loyal base of buyers

26

land) following previous sales to Pramer, NPO (Netherlands) and VRT (Belgium).

Another crime franchise beginning to build a loyal base of buyers is Vera, now in its third series. According to ITVS GE, this has sold to Mystery Channel (Japan) and Chungwa (Taiwan), following previously announced pre-sales to Pramer and VRT. Commenting on the deals, Tobi de Graaff, ITVS GE’s director global television distribution said: “ITVS GE is the home of respected and long-running detective franchises. These dramas have enjoyed continued ratings success in the UK and are a staple of broadcasters’ schedules around the world.”

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