MILIA shifts from CD-ROMs to the Net.

If one imagines the energy that immigrants expend in setting up home and shop in a new land, one will understand the drive to push the Internet and on-line industry into the mass market at MILIA '97.

The fourth international interactive publishing and new media market at Cannes will be dominated by on-line services, unlike last year, when CD-ROM companies ruled the day. Commercial on-line services such as America Online (AOL) are successfully marketing themselves as mass media; Internet subscription is growing at whirlwind speeds. And, like pioneers in a new country, established media-owners and newcomers come to MILIA looking for gold in the on-line landscape.

"MILIA's mission is to be the premier [new media] trade market focusing on content; that has not changed from day one," explained Laurine Garaude, MILIA's program director." Compared with the first year, most of the [delegates] attending this year are true multimedia companies, and much more are from the on-line sector: One quarter of the 385 MILIA d'Or award participants are on-line companies (on-line works are being included in the competition for the first time).

Industry figures explain the explosion of on-line services. By 1996, more than 50 million people were connected to the Internet worldwide. Industry forecasts indicate a 15 percent monthly growth. According to figures released by New York-based Jupiter Communications, the number of homes going online worldwide by the year 2000 will reach nearly 70 million. And that's excluding the even greater number of offices that are expected to be wired. Analysts believe that companies will spend about $5 billion a year on on-line advertising by the end of the decade.

Such statistics are difficult to ignore. MILIA aims to be the forum for the world's more pro-active on-line enthusiasts and new media companies, a forum in which they can learn how to generate income from content ranging from TV programs to business information to computer games.

"Companies come here to do all kinds of deals in licensing, distribution, co-financing, publishing," Garaude continued. She pointed out that several significant alliances have been formed at MILIA, the most famous being AOL's joint venture with the German media group Bertelsmann to form Europe's fastest growing commercial on-line service, AOL/Bertelsmann Online.

The number of delegates attending MILIA grew from 6,700 in 1995 to 9,000 the following year. More than 10,000 delegates from more than 50 countries are expected to attend the 1997 market, which will be held from February 9 to 12. High-profile exhibitors include AOL/Bertelsmann, which will reveal more details of its plans for the French market, and Italian publishing giant Arnoldo Mondadori, which has invested heavily in developing Internet Web sites. Other leading media companies scheduled to attend include the Microsoft Network (U.S.), Grolier (France), Dorling Kindersley (the U.K.), U.K. public broadcaster the BBC and Japanese TV network NHK.

There is no doubt that traditional TV broadcasters have discovered a kind of affinity with on-line service providers. After all, the term "electronic media" was synonymous with TV until the Internet came along. "A growing number of people from on-line companies want to meet people from TV to produce work together," Garaude observed.

The TV networks realize that digital transmission could increase the number of consumers who see their programs. In 1996 the U.S. network NBC linked up with Microsoft, the world's biggest software company, to launch MSNBC, a cable news service that is transmitted simultaneously on the Internet. ESPNet SportsZone, the Web site owned by ESPN, the world's leading cable sports network, is one of the few leading Internet services that is making significant profits.

Flextech, the U.K. cable TV network owned by the U.S.'TeleCommunications Inc., operates some of the U.K.'s most adventurous Web sites. "When we launched the Web site for our Bravo cable network in 1995, we had to renegotiate the programming rights [for online services]. You had to go back to all the copyright owners," explained Colin Donald of Flextech New Media. "These days, they all know what we're talking about." Flextech's standard contract now includes deals for video clips to be used on the Internet.

European Business News (EBN), a Flextech joint venture with The Wall Street Journal owner Dow Jones, is another cable and satellite channel that takes advantage of the Internet to provide value-added service to its viewers (and to generate extra advertising income). The rapidly expanding service, called EBN Interactive, is also available on AOL in Europe.

Now even commercial-free public service broadcasters are going on-line in order to earn ad revenue. BBC Online, an Internet network focusing on BBC programming, is to be launched by the public broadcaster and its partner, U.K.based computer manufacturer ICL, sometime this year. The BBC hopes that the on-line service will create new audiences, and it believes that the ownership of content is likely to distinguish the winners from the losers. "The BBC's content is so huge, we'll be trying our best to maximize our library for new applications," said BBC Director Rupert Miles.