Sales reps came home upbeat about prospects in eastern and central Europe last month after the DISCOP market in Budapest, a three-day huddle in the Hungarian capital that, like the territory it represents, is making significant gains as a hub for the film and TV trade, attracting large numbers of regional buyers who are hungry for western-made content.

Organizers say 5,000 meetings took place among almost 800 delegates at the 12th annual DISCOP – an attendance jump of 41% from 2003. There were nine Canadian companies, again up slightly, among the 260 sellers, mingling with buyers from 31 countries including Russia, Poland, Greece and Turkey. It is the first DISCOP since Hungary and nine other eastern nations joined the European Union in May.

‘There were definitely more participants,’ says Diana Bartha, European sales director for the National Film Board and a DISCOP veteran. ‘DISCOP was really ‘niche’ in the old days, but now all the major companies made the effort to come.’

Distribs are moving in quickly, establishing relationships in anticipation of a sustained buying boom driven, in part, by the region’s current explosion of cable channels. ‘It will be a really strong economic force in a few years,’ predicts Bartha. ‘So we have to be there now, to seduce them.’

Reps say that reality, formats, game shows and other ‘escapist’ programming are in big demand, although some buyers are still short on cash, some offering licence fees as low as $80 per episode.

‘Obviously these countries are not the most economically sound. They’re still transforming themselves, but the market is highly commercial,’ says Tanya Kelen, head of distribution at Toronto’s Breakthrough Entertainment.

‘[DISCOP] can stimulate sales of product that we can’t sell in other markets,’ she adds. ‘There was a lot of interest in certain shows that really surprised me.’ Kelen says she had strong leads on sales of Paradise Falls, the kid-aimed I Love Mummy and the travel series Streets of the World.

There is still demand for eastern-made programming, telenovellas in particular, and buyers continue to shop locally, but there appears to be little direct competition between foreign and regional producers. One attendee guesses that local production takes up 20% to 50% of schedules, much of it local and entertainment news.

Sellers also agree that package deals are essential when dealing with central European nations such as Bulgaria and the Ukraine, which generally have less money than their larger neighbors such as Poland, Russia or the Czech Republic. Trading in bulk is key to a worthwhile DISCOP.

‘You have to cobble shows together into packages,’ says Kelen. ‘If you don’t have bulk packages of highly commercial programs you shouldn’t go there.’ She says broadcasters from poorer territories have also upped their spending power by banding together, such as Tonis TV, a collection of 10 conventional stations based in Kiev.

Bartha says the NFB signed a package deal with Spectrum, a travel channel in central Europe, and Tony Leadman, distribution head for Discovery Channel Canada and its parent CTV, says he saw strong interest in the adventure/factual titles from Exploration Productions, the in-house producer of Ultimate Access and The Sex Files.

Attendees also noted that the market allowed better-than-usual access to the major broadcasters from Russia and Poland, who are somewhat hard to catch during the frenzy at MIPTV in Cannes.

‘It was fabulous how organized they are,’ says Leadman. ‘We had really productive meetings with every single broadcaster we wanted to meet.’

-www.discop.com