Challenged by new tech, traditional TV reaffirmed.

What was expected to be an uneventful MIPCOM became a little more eventful, when a downpour came, and buckets had to be used to contain some of the rain accumulating in the Riviera area of the Palais.

After MIPCOM, many distributors were heading for the AFM film market in Santa Monica, California, but not without their fair share of grumbling. "[MIPCOM and the AFM] are much too close together," said Classic Media's Doug Schwalbe. His sentiment was echoed unanimously and, because of the proximity, some DVD buyers skipped MIPCOM to focus on the AFM. Added Regent Entertainment's Gene George, "It's just not our preference to have [the AFM] so close to MIPCOM."

In addition: "We want MIFED back," said Screen Media Ventures' Joe Kovacs. "It was much more convenient for us to have that market after this one, and then go to AFM in February."

New revenue streams such as IPTV and mobile television may have been the talk of MIPCOM, but studios and mini-majors were focusing on TV's classic bread and butter: free-TV. "Terrestrial broadcasters are still the mainstay of our business," said Armando Nunez, Jr., president of CBS Paramount International TV. "We welcome new platforms with open arms, but look at them as a complement to the traditional distribution means."

And just after it was announced that CBS Paramount International TV will no longer distribute the Paramount library of films, and will, rather, stick to its series, Nunez noted the growing popularity of his company's scripted shows.

HIT's new chairman and former director general of the BBC, Greg Dyke, was in Cannes to give his vision of broadcasting's future: Essentially that broadcasting's future will be the same as its present--only different! Speaking at the Keynote CEO Superpanel session, Dyke was adamant that traditional television would change rather than die. He patiently listed, and then demolished, the five main arguments used to sound the death knell of traditional broadcasting. First up was the arrival of multi-channel television. This, he argued, is not a threat but an opportunity. Traditional broadcasters, with well-established brands, and huge libraries of proven hits, are moving into multi-channel themselves. He mentioned that in the U.K., ITV's and the BBC's new channels are outperforming most of their cabsat rivals in digital homes.

Dyke acknowledged that the problems of the PVR are real but, he maintained, solvable. Early research, he claimed, showed there were genres which people tended not to 'PVR', including news, soaps, and 'event' television, especially sports. This being the case, traditional broadcasters would just have to alter their schedule accordingly to avoid any serious challenges.

Pay-TV, Dyke again saw as an opportunity, not a threat; traditional broadcasters can generate revenue by licensing their existing libraries.

While Dyke admitted that nobody knows how 3G content and its consumption would turn out, he said he felt able to confidently predict, "no one would watch War and Peace on a mobile."

As for IPTV, Dyke predicted that the cost of marketing content would make a large-scale operation economically unsound.

The telenoveleros gathered to discuss the new Telenovela Screenings at the traditional VideoAge Latin American breakfast, held on Brazil Day, the second day of the market.

The general consensus was that the Screenings was a good idea, but some kinks must still be worked out. "They need to promote the Screenings some more," said Globo TV's Patricia Hockensmith. "There is talk about having it every year, which would be good, but more people need to know about it." All noveleros seemed to agree: "We need MIPCOM to help promote the Screenings," said Tepuy's Karen Barroeta.

Telefe's Alejandro Parra relished the fact that many of the buyers with whom he'd been meeting had already seen his company's programs at the Screenings, which helped move the meetings along more efficiently.

Televisa's Claudia Silva mentioned that, while the Screenings had good attendance, she didn't see many new faces there. "We need these Screenings to open new territories, not just to meet with people we see all the time." She also suggested that, since a lot of broadcasters need to learn how to program telenovelas more efficiently, the Screenings could present the perfect place to do just that. "Many broadcasters think they can just buy a telenovela and that's it, but they need to know how to program around it. That's something we help them with. It would be helpful to have conferences at the Screenings which bring together buyers and sellers to talk about how best to do that." Silva continued, "Telenovelas are changing; we are seeing all new kinds of them. People need to know about that."

When the conversation turned to NATPE, the telenoveleros all announced plans to exhibit solely in the suites, proving that in Vegas, if you want to access Latin American TV you better get ready to wait for the elevators heading upstairs.

While European companies were trying to enter the telenovela field, in Latin America the telenoveleros, having already secured their success across South America and Eastern Europe, were looking to break into new territories: namely Asia and Western Europe.

"Asia is a challenge," said Globo TV's Patricia Hockensmith. "The competition is hard in places like Korea because they have success with their own novelas," she said, sighting KBS in particular. She also explained that Asian-produced telenovelas tend to be "lighter," making it harder to adapt Latin-produced novelas.

Alejandro Parra, CEO of Argentina-based Telefe International, said that his company is also focusing more on Asia, with recent deals in Malaysia. He also mentioned Europe as a place he would like to see more growth. "We have a good presence in our [Latin] territories, but Europe (specifically Spain, Italy and France) is harder."

Parra explained that, because Argentina is a small TV territory, his company must distribute to other countries. While Telefe distributes other companies' product in Argentina, Parra and his team are focusing on making formats and co-productions so that their novelas can travel internationally. Parra used a telenovela co-production with Russia as an example. "The Russian market used to be very good for us," he said. "But it's changing and moving more to local content." He mentioned that a new as-yet-untitled novela will take advantage of Telefe's expertise in the genre, but will be shot mostly in Russia and geared entirely toward Russian audiences.

As a strategic move, MIPCOM organizers reserved their top honors for Gustavo Cisneros, head of a group of companies that includes Venevision, one of the top two TV networks in Venezuela, and a major producer of telenovelas. Cisneros was honored as Personality of the Year at a gala event.

During its second year at MIPCOM, Brazilian TV Producers (BTVP), an umbrella organization of 54 independent production companies, consolidated its presence. "Traditionally in Brazil, television production and broadcasting were mixed together, with large companies doing both," said BTVP's president, Marco Altberg. "What we offer are the resources for independent producers to market themselves and seek out co-production partners," he said.

Once again, a hot topic at this year's MIPCOM conferences was licensing. At the conference "Licensing Opportunities: TV-to-Book-to-TV" it was pointed out that, "A popular children's television show is not enough to bring the property to publishing," and, that, other factors need to be in place besides decent ratings.

At a different conference, Randall Dark, president of U.S. company HD Vision, addressed the production community attending the second of two HD Track conferences of the day, entitled "Making HD Make Business Sense: How to Avoid Financial Hiccups." "If you don't go HD, you won't have any shelf life," he commented.

The higher-ups reasoned that by using HD, they could sell the programs to more markets; thus HD can be employed for financial, rather than aesthetic, reasons.

At a breakfast conference, the European Cable Communications Association (ECCA) outlined its vision of the industry's future, and Bernard Cottin, ECCA's president, said, "that future is exciting and it is triple play."

A new report published by the ECCA, entitled "Triple Play Pays Off, Content is Back," has a title that says it all. Operators investing in triple play upgrades typically see EBITDA soar to three times that of the companies still operating under the old, "utility" model. This typically produces annual growth rates for these companies of between 9 and 16 percent.

E! Networks' senior vice president, International, Kevin MacLellan, summarized his experience at the market by saying, "at MIPCOM, sex sells." "Ivo of E!'s most popular titles--across all territories--were 101 Sexiest Celebrity Bodies and Girls of the Playboy Mansion. He mentioned that when it came to territories, the areas where he saw major growth and interest in U.S. product at MIP-COM were Korea and India.