DISCOP East is set to take place June 21-23 at the Sofitel Chain Bridge Hotel in Budapest. Now in its 20th year, the conference promises, as always, to bring together buyers from Central and Eastern Europe with sellers from around the world. General Manager and DISCOP founder Patrick Jucaud weighed in on what to expect from this year’s market.

VideoAge International: How many attendees are you expecting at this year’s DISCOP East? How many buyers and sellers and how many countries will be represented?
Patrick Jucaud:
We are expecting over 1,000 attendees representing around 275 suppliers of movies, TV series, formats, live events and packaged TV channels and about 350 CEE [Central and Eastern Europe] companies looking to buy television content representing TV Stations, Pay-TV platforms, Home Video distributors, mobile networks and other alternative content distribution platforms.
VAI:
Do you find that the number of suites at DISCOP East is growing? Or are more people gravitating to the table approach?
Patrick Jucaud:
We find that the number of suites is stabilizing with many of our clients still preferring the privacy of a suite overlooking the Danube rather than being in a communal room with a viewing box or a simple meeting table. However, “newcomers” (content sellers who have never attended DISCOP in the past) prefer a low-cost option for their first trial.
VAI:
Is there anything new at the market this year?
Patrick Jucaud
: For the first time, we have an official Chinese Pavilion brought together by SAFRT (the Chinese State Administration of Film, Radio and Television) as well as a CEE Pavilion.
VAI:
Are the prices of programming going up or down in Eastern Europe at the moment?
Patrick Jucaud
: It is too early for me to provide a definite answer regarding prices before DISCOP Budapest.
VAI:
Where are the majority of the buyers coming from?
Patrick Jucaud
: The majority of the buyers come from Central and Eastern Europe, and from the CIS.

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