Mipcom 2010 is over. The fourth day of the show was quieter as expected, but lots of meetings were held late in the afternoon. Here you have some of the main issues that the content business has left this week in Cannes:

-The global crisis is going to an end. The attendance and business activity at the Palais have confirmed that better times come. There are some regions with important recovery (Germany, France, South-East Asia, Latin America) and others (USA, Central & Eastern Europe, Spain) still expecting a break-up from the crisis. Though, as most of the buyers buy for 2011, the closing deals attitude has been positive everywhere. The former territories are mostly reaching the 2008 figures.

-The new media is changing the market forever. On one hand, there are many new content outputs being launched any region: Pay TV, DTT, IPTV, HD, mobile, VOD, SVOD services. More channels, the same money? Let's see next year… On the other hand, contents must be thought 360 grades: also games, licensing, live shows, advertisement… the booths of YouTube, Deutsche Telecom and Sketchers (a kid shoe brand that looked for content developers to post its products inside) are examples of the market to come.

-While the traditional production manners are usually taking TV players to red figures, the biggest challenge nowadays is to find new formulas of producing with lower costs, both in entertainment and fiction. Production sharing, moving production to cheaper markets, to involve advertisement partners that partly afford the projects… are options to go deeper. New business models must be planned.

-According to industry experts, in the top markets the next step on free TV prime times will be cheaper fiction production. Today the big entertainment shows are the key for broadcasters to make the difference versus the other options, but the lack of fresh ideas takes them to higher and higher costs to call the attention. There is a way-out path. Fiction, the experts say, will refresh the screens, that's why the main U.S., European broadcasters and format titans are strongly betting on fiction. But, as we said before, cheaper production formulas are needed.

-Meanwhile, broadcasters are testing genre and scheduling twists: at Mipcom, trendy examples checked were more female oriented products, both in prime time formats and any slot programming; ‘vertical series' (many series with one chapter per week, instead of programming them from Monday to Friday); more lifestyle, well-being, personal style programs; clips, gags, animal clips, feel-good options; more game-shows than docudramas on afternoon slots; to vary the origin of the providers to refresh the screens; more teen & tween live action programs.

-The governments are gaining relevance in the media evolution, especially in developing markets, from Asia to Latin America. On one hand, they support associations of small and medium producers, distributors; on the other, they set up laws that can make business easier or more difficult. In Brazil, the big companies that want to take money out of the country, can devote tax discounts on producing content with local producers. In Argentina, new local production limits make broadcasters buy fewer products abroad and handle entertainment formats easy to produce, to keep them on site.

-Globalization goes on. The Hollywood Studios and production titans buy companies, make alliances or co-production deals in Russia, Japan, China, India, Romania, Brazil; The Philippines's broadcasters buy Latin American formats, produce them at home and sell them to Africa, Middle East and Central & Eastern Europe. There are more and more co-production projects between big players: many were announced at Mipcom and more will come. Together, the companies are stronger and reach further.

Nicolás Smirnoff/Fabricio Ferrara