NATPE Met All Good and Bad Expectations.

Well, we survived another NATPE, the 38th to be exact. As usual, it broke records in overall attendance (19,834), overseas participants (4,515), New Media registrants (2,590), advertiser presence (1,070) and a number of complaints.

The loudest complaint came from U.S. domestic syndicators. According to Dick Robertson, president of Warner Bros. Domestic TV Distribution, NATPE is no longer useful. The protest even got to the point where president of Carsey-Werner Domestic TV Syndication, Robert Raleigh, hinted that his division would not return next year. However, NATPE's president, Bruce Johansen, kept cool throughout. these exchanges and assured that eventually everyone will return to NATPE.

Studio USA's president Steve Rosenberg predicted that, in the future, NATPE's exhibitors will most likely build smaller booths. As it stands, most large U.S. companies spend over $3 million each at the convention while little or no business is done because most of the clearances are completed just after the November sweeps (local ratings). Plus, the fact that most local TV markets are now part of station groups means that fewer broadcasters attend NATPE and those who do tend not to stay for the duration of the market.

Naturally, for domestic syndicators who unveil new shows at NATPE (e.g., Pearson and Buena Vista), the market continues to be a must.

The four-day event, kicked off by the Association of Local TV Stations (ALTV) conference on January 22, which dealt with a myriad of topics, including digital TV, content protection on the Internet, TV regulations, Hispanic TV, advertising, cable TV, satellite and international production. Indeed, NATPE is an all-encompassing market and the only one in the world that brings together every sector of the industry.

NATPE is also considered a great market for U.S. syndicators to meet with advertisers to sell the avails on the barter programs. On this front, it was made clear that sponsors are now looking to supplement their commercial spots with product placement in the programs. The examples given were Survivor (Reebok), Gilmore Girls (Johnson & Johnson) and various Christmas made-for-TV movies (General Motors, Nestle and Coca Cola).

TV stations received some good news and some bad. For starters, they were told that the U.S. telecommunications authority (FCC) will not grant dual carriage on cable, and the must-carry rule is to apply either to the analog or to the digital TV signal. Also on the must-carry front, ALTV president Jim Hedlund complained that "the satellite industry cannot be trusted." During the ALTV seminar "Digital TV Stuck on Pause?" broadcasters clearly manifested their frustrations with the new technology.

The good news was that the new FCC chairman Michael Powell (son of U.S. Secretary of State Colin) will work to postpone the 2002 deadline for all stations to go digital.

As far as the 126 dotcommers were concerned, Video Age Daily pointed out that they must flock to NATPE for content since program producers and distributors tend to shun Internet and, lately, cable TV markets, which are viewed as too techno-oriented.

The dotcommers used NATPE's showcase to send content providers the message that studios have to start becoming more "Internet-friendly" and that they should stop viewing interaction with the Internet as a "struggle." One of ALTV's seminars was titled "You've Been Napstered." However, dotcommers were not able to take full advantage of the content providers' presence at NATPE due to a communication barrier. This is an example of their incomprehensible language: "... will utilize iBeam's intelligent streaming media network to deliver broadcasts of the event surrounding the game." A dotcommer extolling the virtues of TV via Internet was startled by the realization that television is a boob tube, not a PC, and vowed that next time the display will be a TV monitor rather than a computer.

But, since NATPE is still predominantly a program marketplace, TV execs predicted the continued popularity of reality shows (even though there is little "reality" in such shows), as well as talk and game shows, while court shows are on the decline. A side note came from cable TV producers of low-cost nonfiction shows, now getting attention from broadcasters who will have to fill schedules with alternative programs during the dreaded actor strike in Hollywood.

Not being a U.S. network-fare market (except for off-net shows), the international crowd at NATPE took the opportunity to market to each other. There were 377 international distributors, of which 200 were from outside the U.S. It was pointed out that content providers, though solidly anchored in Hollywood, nowadays take marching orders from Tokyo (Sony for Columbia TriStar), Paris (Vivendi for Universal), Melbourne (News Corp. for Fox) and London (Pearson), and are bankrolled according to the mood in Munich (EM.TV, Kirch Gruppe), Guetersloh (Berrelsmann), Madrid (Telefonica Media), Riyadh (Al-Waleed), Amsterdam (Upc) and other cities.

The 860 exhibitors were divided into seven categories: content providers, advertisers, finance companies, marketing groups, New Media, worldwide media and platforms. During the one-day ALTV conference and the subsequent three-day NATPE event, there were ten parties, three of which featured Las Vegas' trademark Elvis impersonators. It is interesting to note that NATPE, a historically staunch supporter of high-definition TV, virtually ignored the subject this year, even though it increased the New Media seminars from eight last year to 14.

To top it all off were some 150 film and TV stars on the NATPE floor--including Cybill Shepherd, Pamela Anderson and Whoopi Goldberg -- to distract the 500 accredited journalists. Alex Trebek of Jeopardy and Pat Sajak and Vanna White of Wheel of Fortune took the opportunity to tape a few episodes in Las Vegas.