DISCOP's future is always brighter.

Something unusual is developing within DISCOP, the market aimed at reaching the Eastern European television industry. No matter how successful the current edition is, there is always more excitement for the next one.

At the recent event, held late June in Budapest, Hungary, at the usual Sofitel Atrium hotel (formerly Hyatt Regency), the 777 participants constituted a 41 percent jump in attendance from last year. Nevertheless, the most significant aspect was the presence of NATPE's president Rick Feldman and the then president of Paramount TV International, Gary Marenzi, who were both in Budapest to announce the creation of a pavilion at NATPE for Eastern European TV companies, to be organized by the Paris-based DISCOP. Starting in 2005, NATPE will be housing the first-ever DISCOP Village, where around 20 content providers from Central and Eastern Europe will meet with an estimated 1,500 international TV acquisitions executives in Las Vegas.

Another announcement generating "buzz" is that DISCOP 2005, which will take place June 23-25, will focus on the ever-popular business of licensing. The first day of the market will see the premiere edition of Licensing East, a one-day conference and bevy of networking sessions dedicated to licensing content, brands and intellectual properties in Eastern Europe. On June 24th, the second edition of the one-day conference "TV Loves Mobile" will explore the convergence of TV and mobile technology. Jim Wadsworth, chief marketing officer of Simpay, a mobile company founded by four of Europe's largest operators (Orange, Telefonica Mobiles, T-Mobile and Vodaphone), will chair the opening session entitled "Mobiles Can Do More for Content Providers."

Among the conferences scheduled for next year's event are "The New Frontiers of Branded Entertainment," "Is Broadband the Future of Television?" and "Making Money with DVDs."

Going back to the recent event, the official figures reported that 397 content buyers from Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia were in attendance (a 26 percent increase from last year) to meet 152 distribution companies, represented at the three-day market by 380 executives.

DISCOP, now in its 12th year, had two elements: program sales to TV outlets and new media, and conferences. The market was divided between hotel suites (often shared by two or more distribution companies) located on two floors of the Sofitel hotel, and rented "desks" with a DVD-VCR player and TV receiver, some located in a conference room on the mezzanine level and others in the hotel's lower level. Many sellers, however, made good use of the bar area on the ground level, often monopolizing tables for days on end.

As a market, DISCOP suffered from a chronic no-show problem, mostly caused by the territory's relatively new business etiquette that requires buyers to honor a pre-scheduled appointment. This issue is one that market organizers are trying to tackle with several buyers' incentives. The conferences also tend to be poorly attended, despite their illuminating topics and the restraints on the part of panelists to use sessions purely as self-promoting platforms. Some companies, who ventured to general screenings and presentations at breakfast sessions, were also surprised at the low attendance. Afternoon and evening events, such as the Coral and HBO parties fared much better.

The territories served by DISCOP also suffer from low-fee offerings that are impractical for those who have single products, such as a movie or a documentary, to make worthwhile sales. On the other hand, companies such as telenovela distributors benefit from sales of a large number of episodes that, at the end of the day, pile up to "real money" even if sold at $50 or $100 each (considering the large number of TV markets in the area).

Conveniently, many markets in the DISCOP area of influence do not require dubbing or high-quality broadcast material. In addition, the markets have great growth potential once those countries get closer to a market-driven economy. As pointed out by Patrick Jucaud, funding manager of DISCOP: "10 new [Eastern European[ countries recently joined the European Union, many new commercial TV stations were launched, digital distribution is growing slowly but surely, DVD business is becoming less vulnerable to piracy, and the number of mobile users will hit 140 million in 2005, while broadband usage has doubled since last year."

Other events at DISCOP 2004 were a TV Azteca luncheon and Paramount's presentation at a cocktail party. The conference day was the thematic "TV Loves Mobile," while the last day was a "Campus Conference" day, which explored ways to market DVDs and avoid piracy. Overall, there were 18 speakers for a total of 21 sessions.