MIPTV: Death of a Trade Show!

The headline exaggerates! But it sure is condition red for the world’s oldest TV content market, MIPTV, that opens its doors each spring in Cannes at the French C?te d’Azur. Founded in 1962, MIPTV was organized by the deeply French Company MIDEM, better known for its international music market already launched in the 1950ties. In the mid-1990ties, the company was acquired by the world’s largest provider of trade shows, REED Exhibitions. That sure was the golden age of TV, with new distribution platforms and specialized TV channels flourishing. Already in the 1980ties, a new market was launched in fall, dedicated to the new upcoming satellite TV and thematic channel MIPCOM. In the end, TV programs are the same, regardless of the TV channels they are put on. Subsequently, this meant that members of the global TV industry ended up spending almost a full week at the C?te d’Azur twice a year. Both markets flourished side by side and were growing, at least till 9/11 and the deflating of the internet bubble that had also fueled the content markets.

Both MIPs suffered attendee losses in this crisis. When markets recovered, MIPCOM did better than MIPTV. A critical reason for this was the decision major US studios took, that two markets in Europe were too much and MIPCOM better fit their schedules. At first, it didn’t show much, since the US exhibitors kept their huge stands at MIPTV in spring to secure their stand privileges for the MIPCOM fall markets. But there were fewer activities from market to market, and without being driven by the most important players others also decided that MIPTV was no longer that important. The resulting downward spiral climaxed this spring. Significantly fewer than 10,000 registrations, according to figures given out by REED Midem at the beginning (!) of this year’s MIPTV, the big tents on the beach that had hosted the stands of Disney and Sony were gone, and the Warner appearance was a rather modest. Also, in the Palais des Festival where lots of stands used to be open for business huge meeting areas were rarely frequented.

The irony is that those who came are reporting a very active market, at least for their own businesses. Everybody had easier schedules and more time for meetings. Therefore, talks went much more in depth and things got driven forward rather than postponed to a next meeting or call after the market. I guess, that’s all that should count! However, that’s nothing that can be measured and that’s why there’s the fear that controllers in many companies will tend to pull the plug. It must be feared that the spiral’s downslope will increase, at least!

That doesn’t mean MIPTV is dead. Already several years ago, REED Midem started to develop elements to secure the market: MIP formats and other specialized new sections within the market targeting at specific industry needs attract professionals and certainly slow down the slope. The newest one, “In Development”, to help producers to develop new products, might prove to become a difficult task to realize: Developers, at least outside the big conglomerates who have sufficient resources of their own and don’t necessarily need support in Cannes, have no money to come for MIPTV. Although, the new TV series festival, Cannesseries – if ever it becomes a success – may not prove to be supportive for the REED Midem executives, since many festival consumers and fans in Cannes make it more difficult to run a market, as the example of the Cannes Film Festival illustrates.

REED Midem is still in talks with exhibitors and attendees, they say and that it will take another couple of months before they will announce elements of their new strategy. They will have to keep in mind that the nature of the business has also changed significantly. In the past, you needed big video machines and heavy TV monitors to present your product to potential clients. Today your smartphone is enough to give a good impression while sitting in a café or even walk the beach boulevard La Croisette. The global professionals’ needs today differ completely from those ten or twenty years back. With the right concept, MIPTV will not be dead! Just different – and probably smaller than in the roaring years of television!