Montreal: Participation at MIPTV 2002 was down about 9% to 10,200 delegates, but the expanded Canada pavilion, sheltering 52 companies, was a hive of activity. Formats and factual programming were at the top in the genre rankings. Asian delegations returned and many in attendance sensed better market conditions are just around the corner.

But the ever-resilient and optimistic MIP troopers kept getting sideswiped by economic bombshells posing as news stories out of Germany, France and the U.K. Delegates from those countries were bowled over by business developments, and anybody doing business with them, which is mostly everybody, shared in the shock.

During the 39th MIPTV market, delegates were greeted to news of the formal and complete bankruptcy of Germany’s Kirch Group, with many bills left unpaid; the unprecedented earnings loss/write-down reported by Vivendi Universal; followed by the very public firing of the head of Canal Plus, which certainly caught the attention of the market’s large French contingent; and at market’s end (April 17), the really big one, at least from a Canadian perspective, news that the U.K. budget contained provisions for the wholesale disqualification of TV programs, including Canadian coproductions, from sale and leaseback benefits.

‘This [the U.K. budget] is the biggest thing that came out of Cannes,’ says Michael Prupas, president of Muse Entertainment Enterprises, Montreal. ‘No question a lot of people are going to suffer quite dramatically and many issues are up in the air right now.’

‘Certainly many projects will be in jeopardy,’ says Steven DeNure, partner, Decode Entertainment, Toronto. ‘Some of our projects have been put together as Canada/U.K. coproductions and we’ll have to rethink those things and [whether] we can even make them.’ (See Leaseback story, p. 1)

CBC has top doc

The U.K. budget bombshell will definitely impact on CBC, which is scheduling a growing number of coproductions. That said, business at the CBC International stand was brisk with more than 40 programs on offer, almost all documentaries, says Jennifer Stewart, director international coproductions, sales and acquisitions.

MIPDOC organizers reported this year’s most-screened doc was the CBC Witness title In the Line of Fire, an examination of journalists ‘at risk’ covering the Middle East conflict produced by Sandworks. Response to Rhapsody in Black (aka Buried Treasures), an archival compilation of legendary U.S. black performers recorded in the early days of the CBC, was ‘overwhelming, including offers for world video rights,’ says Stewart. ‘The Nature of Things also did very well. It always does.’

In view of the demand, CBC has decided to review its sales strategy for Rhapsody to determine how best to sell it – a separate deal for world or multi-territorial video rights, or reserving the ancillary package for national broadcasters.

Stewart says traffic seemed down at the market, but prices appeared to be holding, especially for programs with a topical hook.

‘We’ve all noticed it’s pretty difficult selling drama right now because everybody [national markets] is producing their own. But this is all cyclical.’

CBC, slated to mark its 50th anniversary celebrations with high-profile events at the Banff Television Festival, June 9-14, and at MIPCOM, Oct. 7-11, will begin to showcase several new ‘third-party’ productions by MIPCOM, including the Big Motion Pictures miniseries Trudeau.

Better business ahead

‘My general feeling is [MIPTV] was a much better market than expected,’ says Ken Faier, VP production and distribution at AAC Kids in Toronto.

Faier says a better balance between market supply and demand is taking shape, with a sense that a more orderly market, prompted by returning short-term demand, will surface in the next six months.

If buyer windows remain limited, Faier says there’s a huge amount of product in development, and broadcasters are closely examining the financial and partnership viability of worthy projects.

In sales, AAC sold both Henry’s World, a stop-motion, mixed-media series (coproduced with the TV Toonland division in the U.K.) as well as Connie the Cow to Discovery Latin America, with associated terrestrial deals to follow. In Australia, ABC has acquired both AAC preschool shows.

‘We think MIP was a better market than either NATPE or MIPCOM last year,’ says Decode’s DeNure.

DeNure says buyers are renewing and commissioning new shows. ‘There has been an oversupply, particularly in kids and family. A lot of the big suppliers have either gone out of business or cut back, and in a way it’s starting to become a more rationalized market. Some of the more marginal or questionable projects aren’t getting made.’

Decode put the accent on its new in-production slate: Save ‘Ums, Girlstuff/Boystuff and King, an animated series produced in association with Funbag Studios.

‘These markets are a process and a lot of the things we’re showing people have been seen two or three times until they actually see an episode. So we’ll have quite a slate to show our broadcast partners in the fall,’ says DeNure. Decode announced new presales for The Blobheads to ZDF in Germany and CBC, but Blobheads is framed as a U.K. coproduction and may require some refinancing.

Attendance from Asia, notably Japan and Korea, was up significantly over last year. Cost reduction and political chaos were the offered explanations for the no-show among some Latin and South American delegations, and Reed Midem managing director for TV, Michael Weatherseed, says fewer new-media companies attended MIPTV in 2002.

MIPTV highlights

In other news from MIPTV:

* Doc series producer Cineflix is scouting talent for a new office in Ireland and reporting a big sale of Dogs With Jobs, seasons one through four, to Nat Geo in the U.S.

* French animation house Alphanim had planned to coproduce The Delta State with Cinar for Canal+, before Cinar closed its London office. With Cinar out, and David Ferguson moving over to TV Loonland as president and COO, Toronto’s Nelvana is reported to have come on board as the new partner.

* Distraction Formats signed a deal with the Aussie creator of Popstars for worldwide distribution (except Australia) for a racy new game show format called Strip Search.

* Decode’s MIPTV offerings included Outward Bound, a teen adventure show, Being Ian, a Studio B production for YTV, and Oliver’s Adventures, produced by Collideascope Digital Production for Teletoon.

* Ocean Group in Canada is doing an animated kids series copro called Jungo with A Film (sister company of Denmark’s Egmont Imagination) and TV2 Denmark.

* Fireworks International, the London-based sales arm of Canadian film and TV group Fireworks Entertainment, announced an exclusive output deal with Germany’s TeleMunchen covering all its TV programming.

* Studio B announced a new series in development called Into the Shadows, a spook entry in the vein of Scooby Doo.

* Gullane Entertainment scored a long-term deal for Thomas and Friends with Nickelodeon in the U.K.

-www.miptv.com