This MIP-TV marks the 40th consecutive annual participation at the Cannes TV market for VideoAge‘s editor-in-chief, Dom Serafini.
His very first MIP-TV was in 1979, when he attended as International Editor of Television/Radio Age. The market was then held in the Old Palais (the current site of the JW Marriott), and the registration area was at the adjacent La Malmaison.
Serafini continued attending the market as VideoAge International‘s editor starting in 1981, when the publication was born. He began attending when the talented — but very moody — MIP-TV founder Bernard Chevry was in power, and continued after his former second-in command Xavier Roy took over management of MIP-TV following its sale first to a British company, and subsequently to Reed MIDEM, part of an Anglo-Dutch group.
When Roy left, VideoAge found great support from the new bosses, who reasoned that the success of the market was tied to the success of the publication, and vice versa.
Of the two annual TV markets that Reed MIDEM stages in Cannes, MIP-TV is the more challenging as it takes place just before the L.A. Screenings –– a predicament that has existed since the late 1980s. Ultimately, though, MIP-TV always turns out to be a valuable market both for buyers and sellers of TV content, who have more time for deal-making, as well as to become acquainted with one another.
Although there are lots of participants who have more registration badges than Serafini, he’s most likely the oldest journalist continuing to report on the market.
The above photo shows Serafini at the 1979 edition of MIP-TV, when he served as International Editor for Television/Radio Age.
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