In Search of the "Buzz" at MIPCOM.

Shrinking industry trying to portray business as usual

What's the buzz?" was the recurrent leit motif that was left unanswered and seems to have characterized the recently concluded 15th annual MIPCOM in Cannes, France. In certain respects, at least judging from the number of parties, the moniker "show" was reattached to the word "business."

A few booths were occupied by various Reed Midem divisions, rather than paying clients, indicating that the market is indeed shrinking. The loss of Worldvision, Rysher, PolyGram and other companies that have now merged into larger entities, is starting to have negative consequences on the trade shows. Many companies, such as Italy's RAI and MediaTrade, rented smaller booths, while on the third floor, parts of the long corridor were not lined up with rows of booths this time.

Naturally, American studios were busy finalizing deals for the new season's added episodes and signing co-production agreements. Paramount Pictures' Gary Marenzi announced two international co-productions: Hope Island and Cliffhangers, both with Canada's Lions Gate Entertainment. The former is heading for PAX TV and the latter is slated for the Fox Family Channel (January 2000 airing) in the U.S. Similarly, NBC Enterprises' Jerry Petty and Sergio Getzel announced a new project for the NBC network. The series High Wire is being developed in association with Jay Firestone's Fireworks Entertainment.

Among the buyers' contingent, the last MIPCOM of the millennium reflected a mix of cautious and selective acquisition executives. We are setting up meetings with only the distributors we intend to close deals with," said Sandra Gayarre, acquisitions director for Spain's Antena 3. Germany's RTL Television would have liked to buy more documentaries, but there are limitations, reported Christian Angeli, head of magazine development at RTL. "Because the German documentary market does not accept foreign protagonists, we are forced to reproduce the series our way and merely buy the idea. This makes our buying decisions difficult," Angeli said.

On the other hand, the improvement of the Asian financial crisis has Jongmin Kim, acquisitions manager for South Korea's Munhwa Broadcasting, buying more programs than last year. Efi Jenkins, head of acquisitions at ERT/Hellenic Broadcasting, stated, "since we are looking for preschool animated programming, MIPCOM is a rich market for us."

Among the non program-related announcements was the creation of a new Bucharest television channel. A Yankee and a Brit announced the launch of TV Bucuresti (provisionally named) for early summer next year. Britian's Chris Lowe and Polish-American Vitold Chrzanowski have both held senior executive jobs with new national commercial stations across the former communist bloc.

Technology played a big role at this MIPCOM with Vivendi's JeanMarie Messier outlining the future of Vivendi's Canal Plus in the age of the Internet. Messier delivered his keynote speech in forced English, rather than his native French, illustrating his efforts to reach out to the foreign press. Indicatively, Messier made his market appearance just a few days after Italy's Letizia Morarti resigned as president of News Corp. Europe, the vehicle that Rupert Murdoch had set up in a nowhalted attempt to enter the television market in mainland Europe. Messier became exasperated when asked about a possible merger between Vivendi and Murdoch's BSkyB, asserting that it is not a "current priority," but that it will appear on his to-do list in the future.

Jose Antonio Rios, president of Spain's Telefonica, chose MIPCOM to announce that Telefonica Media will handle all of Telefonica's media and content activities. Telefonica's current assets include Antena 3, Via Digital, Lola Films, radio operations and TSA, an uplink provider. "Antena 3 is going to be a pioneer and a leader in Telefonica," reported Rios, who noted that Telefonica has also formed a strategic alliance with Pearson Television. Rios stated that "our goal is to be the leaders.... We want to be No. 1 among Spanish and Portuguese countries." Telefonica will go public during the first quarter of 2000, said Bios. The company is planning an initial offering on the Spanish stock market. However, other international markets, such as NASDAQ, are being considered as well.

Giuliano Berretta, of the Paris-based Eutelsat, launched a project to restore parts of Guglielmo Marconi's ship Elettra, which is now abandoned in an Italian shipyard. Elettra was the ship on which Marconi first experimented with radio transmissions. Berretta's goal is to make Elettra a monument in honor of the inventor of radio.

Of particular note was the cocktail reception Universal gave for Armando Nunez, Sr. to salute the former 20th Century Fox/ITC/PolyGram/Universal executive's 44 years in the business. Also memorable was the tribute that NATPE's Bruce Johansen paid to the international television industry's "living legends" during a cocktail reception at the Sunset Marquis' VIP Lounge.

The financial front was covered by Olivier-Rene Veillon, general manager of TV France International, who frankly admitted that the primary issue facing French television production today is a question of francs. "We have the creativity and the capacity," he said, "[but] we need to mobilize the right financial aid." Veillon called for more participation in domestic production from the French financial market. "We need to have a close link to the financial market. We have very good companies," he commented, "but they need to be better financed."

The dates for MIPCOM 2000 are now set at October 2-6, while the next MIP-TV will be held April 10-14.