MIPCOM is not just about buying and selling (if that were the case, everyone would go home happy), but it is a time and a place where participants see the industry evolving before their very eyes, and where rumors become news.
This is the case of MediaFor Europe (MFE), the pan-European project of Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi, started by the Mediaset patriarch, first with La Cinq in France in 1986, then Tele 5 in Germany in 1988 (both ended in 1992), and continued in 2005 by his son Pier Silvio by combining Mediaset’s Canale 5, Mediaset España’s Telecinco, Germany’s ProSiebenSat1 (also covering Austria and Switzerland). He’s currently negotiating to buy into Portugal’s SIC, as well.
MFE is a big topic here in Cannes, even though not too many details are emerging from any of the companies involved.
Other big MIPCOM topics are: The role of YouTube for terrestrial broadcast TV stations (as a big Netflix presence is still a chimera for MIPCOM), and sports on television (especially since the Sportel Monaco TV market will take place on October 20, just a few kilometers east of Cannes).
Another topic du jour is the large number of small new companies, all of which are in Cannes to get some visibility, while some established companies that have exhibited with their own stands in the past now share desks at various pavilions.
There are also a good number of first-time buyers attending MIPCOM, including the Canadian David Van Poppel of Knowledge Network and Jani Mikkonen of Finnish Broadcasting, who both managed to get 40 meetings each. But the biggest MIPCOM splash this year is from Radial Entertainment, here for the first time as the new brand of recently combined companies FilmRise and Shout!
Finally, it is troublesome that some would-be MIPCOM participants who reside in the U.S. with a visa were reluctant to leave the country for fear of having problems at re-entry since the U.S. is currently reviewing the records of more than 55 million U.S. visa holders to assess if they have broken conditions for entry or stay in the U.S.
Pictured above, from top l. to r.: MIPCOM’s director Lucy Smith during MipJunior’s opening day; The WAWA team meeting at Cafe Roma; Lunch with buyers at the suite of Poorhouse’s Reiner Moritz; Tea with the Radial team (Johnny Holden, Garson Foos) at Le 72 Croisette; Visit to CosmoBlue’s suite; Rainbow’s 30th anniversary dinner at the Carlton Hotel.
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