Cannes, France: The atmospherics at this year’s MIPCOM were odd, occasionally emotional, more than a little freaky, with a slight hint of panic made worse by insomnia, indigestion and daily news reports from beyond the balmy resort town on the Cote d’Azur.

Beyond the absolute requirements of quality, novelty and broad appeal, there were the usual contradictory predictions for programming trends. Early reports, prompted by those with the right catalogues, hailed a return to cozy, family fare and light entertainment, only to be qualified by the obvious appeal of military docs and anything topical, namely past or potential acts of great terror, the FBI in action, any travel show related to dirt-poor Afghanistan, Islamic architecture and history…

The essential market business of pitching new programming, closing deals and developing new relationships did not change. Almost all the Canadians interviewed by Playback said they had done good business at MIPCOM 2001. Business has been subdued by world events, granted, but in reality the North American TV and ad markets have been in a major downswing for many months.

Despite the increasingly difficult task of getting shows on air, and a much tougher and more complex financing environment, Dan Di Dio, senior VP, creative affairs with Mainframe Entertainment in L.A., says this year’s MIPCOM ‘was probably one of our most productive meetings to date.’

With North American attendance down, Mainframe and many others turned what used to be 15- to 20-minute meets into ‘more substantive’ sessions that lasted up to an hour.

Pitched at MIPCOM was Dot’s Bots, a tech-smart tween girl’s comedy-action series. Di Dio says Euro clients (the top four markets) were enthused, but some were looking at even more ‘up-aging,’ skewing from a 12- to 14-year-old lead character.

The house also pitched Scary Godmother, planned as Mainframe’s first-ever Canada/Europe (France) treaty coproduction. The concept introduces ‘all the bump-in-the-night-monsters’ to the six- to eight-year-old crowd.

At MIPCOM, Vancouver-based Mainframe and Fleisher Studios in the U.S. rolled out a remodelled 3D Betty Boop series, a teen girls/family show a la Sabrina, and a ‘more boys’-skewed animation-action project with Tony Hawk, ‘the godfather’ of extreme sports. ‘With the Tony Hawk property we’re going after the boys’ eight to 14 market, which is extremely elusive at this moment and desirable. What we are trying to do is to find somebody to step up to the table and help develop this property together,’ says Di Dio. As for Ms. Boop, it’s a done deal, with production (26 half-hours) slated for February to April 2002. ‘And we actually have to go out there and pitch it in the U.S. as well,’ says Di Dio, who is returning to Europe shortly.

Real Families appeal

Sari Buksner, senior VP, The Multimedia Group of Canada in Montreal, says short funny clips have a universal appeal, and clients are looking for less expensive programming with a track record.

The best movers in the doc category for MGC tended to be longer run series like the Life Network hit Real Families (TJB Development Media), with straight-up sales to a dozen markets including Mexico, China, the U.K. and to U.S. women’s specialty channel Oxygen Media. MGC launched the new WTN ‘sex and relationship’ mag My Messy Bedroom (produced by Copie Zero), 26 half-hours, prompting the ‘curiosity’ of English-track buyers.

Buksner says the mood at MIPCOM was ‘not overly enthusiastic, but we are not discouraged either. People were a little edgy, but niche broadcasters are always looking for niche programs and there is always a market for the right program.’

‘Listening and learning’

In talks with global broadcasters, Marina Cordoni, senior VP, distribution at Toronto’s Portfolio Entertainment, says it soon became clear teen live-action (fantasy, animation or drama) was the top program category at this year’s MIPCOM. ‘If you had the next Buffy, you were definitely going to make it at the market. And I think that will follow through to NATPE.

‘A lot of foreign broadcasters were looking for things that are going on in the world right now.’

Portfolio reps its own productions, as well as shows from about a dozen Canadian producers. Top sellers at the market were the animated Jewish (alternative Christmas) folktale special Something from Nothing, which sold to Channel Five in the U.K. Earlier, Five, a major terrestrial network, had picked up the Life Network series Pet Project.

Portfolio went the extra mile, re-versioning 26 episodes of the Prime TV cultural-travel mag On Top of the World (produced by World Life Video) for a deal with BSkyB channel Sky Travel of the U.K. Family Channel in Canada and Fox Kids in Australia prebought all 210 3D no-dialogue comedy shorts Klootz, produced by Montreal’s Klik Animation, which was also present at the market looking for financing on new productions.

At the Canada stand

Thirty-six companies were registered at the new Canada stand, which also hosted 12 young producers from across the country supported by the National Screen Institute’s global marketing program.

Lise Corriveau, Telefilm Canada’s manager, festivals and markets, says she’s ‘negotiating hard’ with MIPCOM host Reed Midem to find more space availability at upcoming markets.

Brigitte Monneau, recently confirmed Telefilm coproduction manager, saw the market as relatively quiet, with participants adopting a ‘smooth’ or serene business-like approach. Monneau personally didn’t see the light of day on either Monday or Tuesday (Oct. 8 and 9) because of many general coproduction inquiries from Canadian producers, and from visitors from China and Korea, France and the U.K., many smartly coming forward with financial plans in hand.

Monneau says there’s the promise of amending legislation in Germany sometime next spring, ‘but for the moment, everything is blocked.’

Both the Ontario and Horizon Quebec stands were standalone operations at this year, but Ontario will become part of the Canada stand at the next NATPE, Jan. 21-24, 2002 in Las Vegas, and then sign on permanently for MIPCOM 2002, says Corriveau.

Canada ranked fourth among exhibitors at this year’s market with 117 companies registered, up from 87 last year. We were fifth in terms of participants with 460 delegates, down from 534 last fall. Reed Midem reported a 30% decline in U.S. participation and an overall drop of 15%, but most of the people on the floor said it felt closer to 25%.

Market highlights

* Fox Kids Europe reported it has acquired 52 episodes of Medabots and 52 episodes of the preschool series Pecola, both from Toronto’s Nelvana. * Alliance Atlantis Television Distribution president Ted Riley reported AAC Fact had sold the four-hour travel doc series Going to Extremes to National Geographic U.S. and concluded several deals with NatGeo International, including pickups for Science of Love and the two-hour factual special Criminal Evidence.

Discovery International acquired the ancient-history special Gladiatrix and Space Medicine. In the U.K., BBC picked up Toronto-based Barna-Alper’s Offspring, and History Channel signed a maiden deal for Turning Points of History, Warriors of the Night, Secret Safari and the award-winning miniseries Nuremberg.

* Regina-based Partners in Motion announced it has signed a treaty coproduction deal with the Danish Broadcasting Corporation for the one-hour doc Baby Crash, an exploration of declining birthrates in G-7 countries. It’s licensed in Canada to WTN.

* Fireworks International reported it has acquired world rights to the In-Motion AG one-hour action series Pensacola: Wings of Gold. The distrib also reported a package deal for the newly launched series Mutant X, sold to Holland Media Group.