Oct 29, 2008
Fresh Market Wrap: Notes from the recent MIPCOM content confab in France
Who wants to buy and sell animated TV shows when the global economy is in the gutter and our retirement accounts will afford us a couple of Starbucks lattes, if we're lucky? As it turns out, a lot of people do! Judging from the impeccably dressed Euro executives running around the Croisette and the optimistic talk from the sellers and buyers, the entertainment industry may be "recession-proof" after all.
According to ReedMidem, the organizing company behind MIPCOM, the 24th edition of the mart registered over 13,545 participants, up almost 2% from last year. There were 2,739 program registered buyers at the event, which was an increase of 8% over last year's numbers. "We had record attendance and have some very important emerging markets [Russia and the Middle East]," noted ReedMidem TV director Paul Johnson. The two-day children's market MIPCOM Junior did even better. There was a 23% increase in the number of unique viewings of programs and a 20% increase in participants. Sure, the punishing U.S. dollar to euro exchange rate didn't make life any easier for the American attendees ("What? I just paid $10 for a cup of coffee? Quelle horreur!"). But at least, we didn't lose any of our bags and got to watch that awful M. Night Shyamalan movie on the plane back. Oh, and our hardworking advertising exec Sheri Shelton caught a glimpse of Adrian Grenier (Vinnie Chase on Entourage) at the Nice airport! The best part of the trip was that we were able to talk to a lot of animation TV professionals who showed us their latest projects and teased us about their globe-shattering news ("Yeah, a major TV broadcaster is VERY interested, but we can't talk about it right now But we'll ping you about it later, dude!"). Here are some of the highlights of these jam-packed show-and-tell sessions: The Famous Mom Blues With High School Musical 3 doing gangbusters in U.S. theaters this weekend, it's not surprising to see animation producers venturing into the hugely profitable Miley Cyrus/HSM/teen and music combo. Greg Payne, chairman and director at Santa Barbara, Calif-based Foothill Entertainment chatted with us about one of his hot, new upcoming projects called My Momtourage and Me. "It's a very L.A. story ... as it focuses on a tween daughter of the most famous female pop star the world has ever known," says Payne. "But the truth is that she wants to be just a normal girl with a normal mom!" This timely toon is created by famous Australian author and illustrator Kyla May, who is overseeing the series as well. We think Madonna's agent will be calling Greg real soon!