Sleepy MIPTV Shaken Up by Some Drama
Okay, I know this is belated since MIP TV concluded back on April 10th, but I have some thoughts to briefly share, for what they are worth at this late date.
I've been asked by many friends and associates who didn't attend (and yes, attendance was poor), what exactly was on offer there, what was the "main take away"?
For me, the primary thrust was about Global Drama Series. Let’s call it the “Netflix Affect” taking hold, but there is an undeniable growing interest and COURAGE taking hold with channels, broadcasters, platforms and producers in looking at scripted dramatic series (not just adapting or remaking) from all around the world. With the quality of series outside of US and Western Europe on a serious upswing, it’s clearly having an impact on the series that we are seeing output from heretofore outsider territories e.g. Korea, Turkey, Israel, India etc. Yes, the rest of the World may have long been playing catch up, but global services such as Amazon Prime, Netflix, Youtube of course and even iFlix have made it easy and regular for quality writing and production to be consumed on a daily basis all over the world. The result is natural: an evolution of television (a “Televolution”, if you will) in nearly every territory and no one is getting left out!
Turkish Series "PHI"
With the increased fearlessness and far reaching grasp of high quality border-bashing series and content, the whole ecosystem is naturally forced to revamp and evolve along with it. That includes new methods of financing, distribution, production and collaboration. Here’s a sample of stories that have all recently popped up which provide evidence:
Barclays gets it. They are adjusting their banking products to suit the new way production companies must manage their cash flows:
https://variety.com/2017/tv/global/barclays-fund-streaming-platforms-1202017725/
Atrium, a new venture or “commissioning club”, as they’ve called themselves, for global drama was announced at MIP TV by Sir Howard Stringer et. al. The company/association speaks to the growing need for a globally savvy and influential financier/producing partner:
https://variety.com/2017/tv/news/howard-stringer-drg-atrium-tv-club-1202021426/
HBO and Sky tag team in a pact to coproduce, you guessed it, global drama series:
https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2017/04/20/hbo-and-sky-in-250-million-drama-agreement/
…and how about this one, in what is can be called a “liberating” move, HBO in the US plans to air a drama series in Italian with English subtitles!
Keshet is making moves too! The powerhouse Israeli producer makes some announcements which betray their growing ambition. Wonderful to see a company from what might have been thought as the "far side of the world" continuing to grow on the global stage. Kudos to them! I hope Indian and Southeast Asian companies will soon be making similar marks! Not only the below announcement, but they have also recently opened their first office in Mumbai!
https://deadline.com/2017/04/keshet-films-mandy-tagger-brockey-adi-ezroni-skinny-dip-1202072831/
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Yes, it’s all very exciting and tres chic! Now it’s down to YOU to figure out a way to elbow your way onto the carousel. There’s never going to be a better time to find a seat at the table in a particular business as when it’s rupturing a little bit and evolving as a result. Right now, there are so many emerging and expanding areas to delve into and try to create value.
For instance, in our own attempt to take advantage of the afore mentioned trends (and rising tides) in global drama, my partners and I have launched a new production company based in India that will focus on developing and producing new series as well as providing production services for international/global drama series and films.
So, watch this space!
Of course there was much more going on, but another important trend I would be remiss not to acknowledge was VR... in fact, the Palais dedicated a large portion of the Bunker to a number of VR companies - content and provisioners. I didn't have the time to spend exploring them, but it's quite evident that the wave has started, and we all need to start figuring out just how VR must be folded into our own plans.