gears up for

MIPCOM ’94

Montreal: Canada’s growing presence at mipcom, the international fall program market for television, video, cable and satellite in Cannes, is getting another boost this year with the first-ever European presentation of Pat Ferns’ popular Market Simulation.

First staged at the Banff Television Festival in 1985, and at natpe two years ago, the European launch of the three-hour Market Simulation will take place at the Palais des festivals on Wednesday, Oct. 12 at 9:30 a.m.

Joining Ferns, president of Toronto-based Pat Ferns Productions, will be tv execs and perennial pitching panel adversaries, Patrick Dromgoole of the u.k. and Norman Horowitz of the u.s.

This year, with input from provincial funding agencies and international sources, five very different projects from Australia, Canada, France, Germany and the u.k. will be pitched to mipcom’s decidedly international audience.

The European version of the Market Simulation is being organized by imca, a Paris-based consulting operation, in association with mipcom.

This year’s market runs from Oct. 10-14 and is organized by Reed Midem Organization.

Ferns says mipcom is ‘an important intelligence-gathering’ event and a must-attend for serious Canadian producers.

Michele Bischoff, promotion officer, international markets at Telefilm Canada, says 90 or more Canadian companies will attend this year’s market, many ‘as a result of excellent sales’ recorded in April at mip-tv.

‘The international market is changing so rapidly,’ says Ferns. ‘With the growth of (home) video, cd-rom and tv-related merchandisingÉthe question becomes how one finds all the different (outlet and financing) manifestations of a material. Most of the new players at the market are in new media.’

Ferns says buyers from newly licensed international cable and satellite channels won’t necessarily be on the lookout for new material, but they do represent immediate business opportunities for companies with strong catalogues and existing libraries.

Recent production from Ferns, past chair of the Banff Television Foundation, includes the six-hour documentary series Blood and Belonging, coproduced with BBC Wales, and the four-hour miniseries Glory Enough For All, coproduced with Thames Television.

‘About sales, presales’

More than ever, producers use mip-tv and mipcom to pitch projects, says Bischoff.

‘mipcom is about sales and presales. It’s not just coproduction, but (program) financing and presales.’

About 40 Canadian companies will be represented at mip-com ’94 via umbrella stands sponsored by Telefilm, the Ontario Film Development Corporation and sogic. Many of the bigger Canadian companies have their own stands at this year’s market, among them: The Multimedia Group of Canada, Sullivan International, Catalyst Distribution, Cinar Films and Malofilm International.

MIP-ASIA

Besides the spring and fall tv markets in Cannes, and natpe, which unfolds Jan. 23-26, 1995 in Las Vegas, the next big program market on the horizon is mip-asia.

Telefilm will have a stand at the inaugural mip-asia, running Dec. 1-3 in Hong Kong.

‘Everything is developing so quickly on the transmission side,’ says Bischoff. ‘The Chinese have just launched a new satellite (APTED-1) and another is due next year.’

Bischoff says ‘interest in mip-asia is running high,’ and 30 to 50 Canadian companies plan to attend the event.

Among the 20 or so Canadian operations hosting stands/ kiosks in Hong Kong are Alliance International, Paragon International, Nelvana Enterprises and Atlantis Releasing.

A sogic umbrella stand representing up to a dozen Quebec-based companies will also be present at mip-asia.