This year’s edition of MIPCOM was characterized by a notable increase in commercial activity and a positive mood – partly a reflection of improved financial and advertising markets, and the lack of identifiable, overwhelming world crises.

Ted Riley, president, distribution at Alliance Atlantis Entertainment, based in Dublin, Ireland, says this year’s market (Oct. 10-14) ‘was the first in some time not held under a veil of crisis.’

Isme Bennie, director of programming and acquisitions for Bravo!, Space: The Imagination Station and Drive-In Classics, says, ‘I went to the market with no great expectation because I had heard there were going to be fewer people. However, when I got there, for the particular niches that I buy, [the market] was extremely productive.’

Louis Fournier, head of distribution at Cinar Corp., Montreal, says the overall output in the worldwide kids segment is dwindling, after years of what was characterized as a ‘glut,’ especially in the preschool segment.

Chris Bartleman, partner at Vancouver’s Studio B Productions, says buyers at MIPCOM weren’t all begging off broke. ‘It feels like finally things are turning around a little bit. There is a lot more interest [on the part] of buyers and a lot more positive feedback.’

Telefilm Canada reports a record 159 Canadian companies attended MIPCOM ’03, half installed under the Canada Pavilion umbrella stand.

More than 10,000 delegates from 93 countries registered for MIPCOM, and there was a 4% increase in both the number of exhibiting companies and the number of buyers.

Advertising and the development of the HDTV and DVD markets were among this year’s key conference themes.

The new issue of Zoom, Telefilm’s European newsletter, reports the agency has hired Pollara to conduct a survey on international program sales, with the goal of developing a national export database. The issue also includes news on declining acquisition prices in key European TV categories.

As a buyer, Bennie says she discovered a lot of quality performing programming for Bravo!, while programming supply for the Space category – sci-fi, esoteric and supernatural – was better than at the spring MIPTV market.

‘Everybody says [MIPCOM] was good business and business-like,’ she says.

Bennie notes there is very little big-budget, sci-fi drama programming currently on offer.

Riley, who this year is celebrating 20 years with AAC while living in artist-friendly Dublin, says it is still very difficult to finance primetime drama, in particular, long-form or episodic drama. ‘And I think it’s not just a Canadian malaise but a worldwide one.’

Riley says long-form drama continues to be displaced by lifestyle-reality entertainment, which bodes well for format distributors like Endemol, Fremantle and Montreal-based Distraction Format, headed by president Michel Rodigue.

As for episodic drama, ‘it’s either feast or famine,’ says Riley. ‘Shows like CSI, 24, The Shield, ER and Nip/Tuck are race horses’ and are sold everywhere. ‘I don’t believe there’s a middle ground anymore,’ he says.

‘We have The Eleventh Hour, Blue Murder and other Canadian series, and they continue to be really tough to sell.’

Riley says Canadian drama ‘needs to be more self-sustaining. It shouldn’t be relying as much on the international marketplace for its financing because it’s just not there anymore.’

AAC’s market perspective is shaped by the fact ‘that we have the biggest show in the world in CSI and CSI: Miami.’ CSI has sold into 180 countries, while CSI: Miami has sold to about 160 countries.

Riley says the CSI franchise pulls along other properties at AAC.

However, he says the European sales prospects are very positive for the six-hour CBC miniseries Human Cargo (Howe Sound Films/Force Four Entertainment), a refugee drama starring Kate Nelligan and Nicholas Campbell.

Illegal immigration is a major preoccupation in Europe, he says, although potential buyers will definitely want to see a completed series. ‘I think it will also do well in Australia and New Zealand.’

On a show like Cargo, Europe may represent 50% of worldwide sales, says Riley.

Cinar’s Fournier says extensions of established shows mean ‘a little less reliance on new properties. And there is less ‘new’ to go around anyway.’

He says preschool shows mostly need to be financed first in North America.

‘You need to have a good base and most of your money together in this market. It is very difficult to finance a preschool show internationally,’ says Fournier.

As such, the Cinar series Caillou is being repositioned for growth and distribution in Europe, he adds.

‘Where I see the most potential for international financing,’ he says, ‘is in the four-to-eight and six-to-10 categories, because there are a lot of people looking at that genre. And there are a lot of good ideas in Europe and a lot of good partners.’

Fournier says there are perhaps as few as four Canadian broadcasters that can trigger or leverage serious production coin for exportable kids programming, namely YTV and Teletoon, followed by Family Channel and CBC. The latter two don’t necessarily pay less, but they typically buy fewer shows, he says.

Other broadcasters tend to offer ‘top-up money,’ which falls short of Canadian public-funding triggering requirements.

Fournier says program budgets can range from $250,000 for a half-hour show with more modest production values ‘but with a great story and characters’ up to $500,000 for a show ‘that better have a great exploitation strategy.’

Cinar is ‘back in the supplier/buyer’ business and has acquired the world rights to the live-action (with a touch of animation) tween series The Strip (13 half-hours), licensed by YTV and produced by Toronto’s Shaftesbury Films.

In terms of new production, Cinar has adopted the strategy of ‘limited financial exposure’ by taking a minority position on new shows such as Alphanim’s Potatoes & Dragons (78 x 7), sold to Teletoon, and Creep School (26 x 30), coproduced with Alphanim (France) and Happy Life (Sweden). Cinar has North American rights.

Fournier says MIPCOM Junior coincides with the arrival of a bunch of new fourth quarter programming releases.

On market importance, Fournier says MIPCOM/MIPCOM Junior is the strong fall program market, and in distribution terms is followed by MIPTV and the late fall Asian Television Forum and Market.

‘NATPE is a place we go, but it seems to be losing some significance. A lot of people are focusing on the KidScreen Summit in New York (Feb. 14-16, 2004, organized by Playback publisher Brunico Communications), which attracts a nice little crowd if you’re into production and coproduction. Annecy is also a good place, but more for [program] development.’

Looking for presales

Studio B’s Bartleman says Spanish distrib LUK Internacional picked up TV rights to the YTV series Being Ian (26 x 30), currently in production.

The long-term agreement allows for broadcast of the series, animated entirely in Flash (digital), throughout Spain, Andorra and Portugal. LUK also picked up the third season of Studio B’s zany Yvon of the Yukon.

At MIPCOM, Bartleman was looking for presales and partners for the new toon series Flakes (52 x 11 for the eight-to-12 crowd), in development with Family Channel, and for the primetime entry Simon Stimple, ‘a first-time-away-from-home’ story in development with the Oscar-winning duo David Fine and Alison Snowden (Bob and Margaret) and specialty channel Teletoon.

‘We had almost 100 pre-booked meetings at MIPCOM and MIP Junior,’ says Bartleman. ‘The hard part now will be the follow-up, but we had tremendous response.’

Bartleman says the goal is to try to raise as many international presales and coproduction and distribution partners – candidates like Disney, Cartoon Network, Fox Kids Europe and Nickelodeon, as is possible – prior to applying for Canadian funding next year, and a fall 2005 airdate.

Bartleman says support by Canadian broadcasters continues to be strong and unchanged.

MIPCOM also featured the demand for extreme-reality formats, says Mary Maddever, editorial director with Brunico Communications.

A prime example is the Nat Geo USA series Worlds Apart, in which a typical American family (with the prerequisite teenage girls) travels to some faraway land and takes up the lifestyle of the locals.

Maddever, who is also documentary magazine RealScreen’s executive editor, says the success of shows like HBO’s Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is inciting other factual-based broadcasters – Nat Geo, Discovery International, History Channel – to follow suit. History, she says, has a new ‘extreme’ series hosted by rocker Roger Daltry, while another extreme-reality show, from Gideon Programmes (and commissioned by ARTE!), recreates the original Olympics.

The development reflects a programming trend towards younger audiences with an identifiable female skew, as opposed to the traditional, car-buying, older male segment.

Maddever says several broadcasters at the market, including Nat Geo, made it known they are now seeking ‘companion series’ for their most popular new reality series.

Riley says AAC’s factual series ‘did quite well, particularly the lifestyle show Debbie Travis’ Facelift (Home & Garden Television).

‘The one theme on the rise in general at the market was these entertainment-style reality shows,’ says Riley. ‘We participated in only a very tangential way, but we had another terrific show from [producer] Red Apple called Opening Soon, a fly-on-the-wall look at the opening of a new restaurant. Those kinds of shows did extremely well.’

-www.telefilm.gc.ca

-www.mipcom.com