Record U.S. crowd due at MIP-TV market
Even if every U.S. media trade event worth its salt has "internationalized" itself, MIP-TV remains the bazaar where more of the world's buyers congregate. MIP frequently draws buyers from smaller territories who often bypass other international gatherings.
"We're happy with all the markets," said Michael J. Solomon, president of Warner Bros. TV Intl. "Our job is to maximize revenues. At MIP, we close a lot of business, and we can concentrate on a lot of smaller markets."
Some 90 stands have been earmarked for U.S.-based companies, many of which will house or service more than one supplier, while some 283 companies had signed up as "participants without stands" by the end of March. The respective figures at market's end last year: 92 stands manned by U.S. firms and 293 participating U.S. companies without stands.
Increasingly, the U.S. contingent includes not only program buyers and sellers but a clutch of co-production exex, advertising and barter specialists, entertainment lawyers, bankers, producers, packagers, hardware mavens, interactive aces, literary rights and talent agents, public relations exex and media consultants of varying stripes.
The Hollywood majors themselves no longer bring just their core sales team.
Take the Warner Bros. stand at MIP. It seemed a huge space a few years ago, when TW moved upstairs by taking over the front foyer of the Palais and the adjoining balcony. But now, it's bursting at the seams: Flanking the sales team overseen by Solomon are reps in charge of video and merchandising, business affairs, promotions and marketing, plus the Home Box Office and Time Warner Intl. contingents.
As with other major studios, top exex from the studio proper increasingly want to attend MIP, as do individual producers who need to get a handle on what the Europeans want from programming.
The major U.S. newcomer to the market is Discovery Communications, parent company of the Discovery cable channel.
Several U.S. firms are taking stands for the first time, including Gallien Global Vision, Moonstone, PPI and Vivid Video Intl.
A booth was found for Twentieth Television Intl., which under Jim Gianopulos is taking a stand for the first time in several years. (Columbia Pictures TV Intl. is the only major that doesn't regularly take a stand at MIP.)
One key U.S. exec in a new role at MIP is John Ranck, who has just ankled Carolco Pictures Intl. to take the reigns of Multimedia Entertainment's international division.
So, whatever the cries of too many markets from travel-weary sales exex, MIP shows no signs of mass mutiny.
MIP will also be a wee bit tonier than its predecessors, with stars like Charlton Heston, Peter Ustinov and Raymond Burr skedded to attend the event's 30 th edition. Film auteurs Lina Wertmuller, Ken Russell and Peter Bogdanovich are to grace the cocktail kickoff of a multipart docu "Russia in the 90s," which they directed and Worldvision is distributing.
While Americans will be relieved that their dollars go a little further on the Croisette this time around, they can expect that buyers will be using currency fluctuations -- the upward curve of the U.S. dollar -- as one more negotiating tactic to drive program prices downward.
"I expect MIP to be in a minor key this year," said Daniele Lorenzano, acquisitions topper for Silvio Berlusconi's Italian and Spanish networks and a veteran MIP-goer. "If anything, with the rising dollar, prices may diminish."
Even U.S. sellers are cautious about expected business. Key sales exex like Michael Byrd at Samuel Goldwyn and Stan Golden at Saban Entertainment use words like "soft" and "tough" to describe the sluggishness of the market for the last two years.
Bob Friedman, New Line TV prexy, said, "MIP is now less a market for screenings than it is for setting up deals of all sorts. People go there to find alternative forms of finance for their projects."
And to peer into the future.
"Everybody is poised for the next big push in satellite and cable," says Bert Cohen, senior VP at Worldvision Enterprises.
