L.A. screenings start monetizing for indies.

Something unusual happened at these L.A. Screenings: A few buyers actually asked VideoAge to e-mail them the complete list of independent companies actively participating at the Screenings.

Granted, the request came only from a few buyers but, nonetheless, it's a first.

Also a first: One of the key international buyers agreed to make a presentation at VideoAge's traditional L.A. Screenings breakfast meeting.

By simply perusing the indie exhibition list, one can see a large number of distributors that are part of international broadcasting organizations: RAI, Mediaset, SevenOne (ProSiebenSat.1), RTVE, Channel 4, BBC. Plus, all the Latin networks: Televisa, TV Azteca, RCN, RCTV, Telefe, Artear, Venevision. This is because, even if most buyers don't have the time to visit indie distributors, they encourage their networks' sales divisions to participate.

A few entrepreneurs are now thinking about how to aggregate all that indie power in order to form a critical mass of product, which buyers could find time to sample.

In terms of growth, this organic market is showing great figures: From 80 companies exhibiting in 2005, there are now 90, mostly at the Park Hyatt and the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza hotels. In terms of buyers, the numbers are up: from an estimated 1,000 last year, to up-to-1,400 reported by a few studios in 2006 (figures vary from studio to studio).

There has been a transformation of the L.A. Screenings from a small event to a major event (VideoAge got involved in 1986 and renamed what were then called the May Screenings as the L.A. Screenings). In the beginning, there were a total of 300 participants moving around a somnolent city of Los Angeles during the hotel low season--when hotel rooms went for the lowest bid. Today, the month of May in L.A. has become a busy period, and these Screenings are paying off the early investments and commitments that the Park Hyatt and Century Plaza hotels made in them.

At VideoAge's annual L.A. Screenings breakfast, a Park Hyatt official denied rumors that the hotel was imminently being sold. "The owners have not sold the property and have an excellent relationship with the Hyatt," said the spokesman, who said negotiations are currently being conducted in Japan. "We hope to have this property a member of the Hyatt family for another 10 years." Since Hyatt acquired the nearby Century Plaza, the rumor was that the owner would keep only one property.

In other business, special guest Dermot Horan, director of Broadcast and Acquisitions for Radio Telefis Eireann (RTE) of Ireland, gave an insightful and informative view of the Screenings from a buyer's perspective. He agreed that many buyers would find it beneficial if the independents put together a compilation of each company's top programs for a kind of one-stop-shopping viewing tape.

In such a way, indie distributors would represent the seventh studio and in a two-hour presentation buyers could sample a large quantity of product.

According to Horan, most buyers at the L.A. Screenings focus on fiction (drama) acquisitions for primetime, and MIP-TV and MIPCOM are the better markets for other dayparts.

However, there is a problem looming ahead for indie distributors at those markets: Reed Midem, the organizer, has now reduced free accommodations for key buyers to four days, leaving no time for them to visit other exhibitors after their obligatory meetings with studios.

Back at the L.A. Screenings, some exhibitors, such as Erik Pack of the U.K.'s Power, are not interested in meeting with European buyers: "I can see them at other markets and in their offices," he said, "I'm here to see the Latins."

All seem to agree, however, that the studios have the L.A. Screenings organized to perfection, to the point of giving buyers the Saturday off for playing golf, tennis or shopping.

"With the Memorial Day holiday approaching and stores offering 30 percent discounts, added to the cheap dollar, indie distributors could meet more buyers at the shopping malls," commented a participant.

But, on Sunday, it's back to the studios' screening rooms after breakfast--while lunch is being prepared. Those buyers who are not being picked up by the studios' busses or limos tend to sneak out to visit the indies, but they're promptly called back to attend one of the studios' big bashes at night.

Valerie Milano and Kathy Tracy contributed to this feature