Schlesinger
Warner Bros. is pulling out of the upcoming Mip TV international trade show in Cannes, citing the need to meet stricter financial targets under its new management.
The high-profile exhibitor defection from the April show means the huge booth traditionally occupied by the Warner Bros. Intl. TV contingent will be converted into a VIP lounge for buyers and sellers who don't have a booth on the floor.
Spending rethink
The decision by the international TV arm of AOL Time Warner is part of a companywide re-evaluation of costs vs. benefits. Attendance at trade shows is just one of the items that have come under scrutiny.
Warner Bros. Intl. TV prexy Jeffrey Schlesinger told
Daily Variety that the decision to forego the market is "not a statement about the usefulness of Mip or the state of the international TV biz," but rather is dictated by the need to scrutinize all costs of doing business.
"We're at the beginning of a new phase of our company because of the merger (with AOL), and we have been given aggressive targets to hit," he told
Daily Variety.
Neither Schlesinger nor his chief lieutenants, Malcolm Dudley-Smith and Josh Berger, will be on hand for the Riviera rendezvous. A few Warner execs who do have specific business to conduct in Cannes will register as participants and will work out of the VIP lounge.
The company is likely to save some $3 million-$4 million by not attending the Cannes event, a rival studio exec opined.
Schlesinger said he fully expected the company to attend Mipcom, a sister trade show that takes place in October.
The five-day Mip, the oldest of the international TV trade shows, typically attracts 12,000 execs from around the world, including the distrib arms of the top Hollywood studios. Both Mip and Mipcom are owned by the Paris-based Midem Organization, a sister company of
Daily Variety.
Although Schlesinger's decision was a response to AOL TW's cost-cutting dictate, a number of Hollywood companies have begun to question the usefulness of attending so many trade shows throughout the year.
Disney's international TV arm, for example, has intermittently withdrawn from and returned to Mip over the years. Two years ago it gave up its huge stand at Mip; Midem organizers subsequently rented the space to the BBC for both Mip and Mipcom.
Timing is off
The biggest gripe among top U.S. program suppliers is that Mip's timing is off: It's right on the eve of U.S. network announcements of new shows for the fall season. Most of the world's top TV station buyers come to Hollywood in early June for the L.A. Screenings, which is where they get their first look at new product.
Mip, in other words, is at the end of the selling season for the major Hollywood players, and hence is not reckoned as essential to their dealmaking.
Many top sellers also say the function of trade shows has shifted over the years: "They're no longer adequate venues for doing complicated deals, but simply costly, if enjoyable, promotional and PR exercises," said one Hollywood studio exec.
Midem organizers confirmed Friday that all the other top Hollywood players are firmly locked in for April's Mip. Even Disney is apparently trying to work out a deal to return to the convention floor as an exhibitor with a sizable booth.
Most of the Hollywood majors no longer attend the Monte Carlo TV market in February, however; that event has morphed into a gathering of format specialists.
Schlesinger's flip on Mip is not an isolated reaction to the calls for financial belt-tightening at AOL TW.
Dick Robertson, prexy of Warner Bros. Domestic Syndication, has been re-examining his division's participation at NATPE, which took place in Las Vegas in January.
At NATPE, Robertson said he was finding it increasingly difficult to justify the $2 million-$3 million outlay for that trade show.
Contact the Variety newsroom at
news@variety.com