29/01/2010

Natpe 2010 - Daily Report - Outcome
Natpe 2010: What worldwide buyers should know

Natpe is one of the most traditional shows of the content business, held in America. From the eighties, it was the main meeting place for the U.S. domestic market and, from the nineties, became a very attractive option for the international market, too. The 2010 edition has been held this week in Las Vegas. After a decade of cracks with Hollywood Studios and main independent distributors, discussions about convention center vs. hotel suites, the show is far from its golden age, but can continue being useful for worldwide buyers, as this years attendees say.

The show received this year about 5,000 participants, and now the main business is focused on Latin America, that got about 60/70% of the business. The U.S. Domestic market is changing and its attendance is not as strong as in the past; a few buyers came from Europe and Asia. Prensario checked people from France, Germany, Spain, Serbia, Croatia, Portugal, Russia, Romania, the Philippines, China, India, Indonesia, Arabic Emirates, etc., but they were less than last year and with traditionally attending players absent this time.

Many of the buyers interviewed by Prensario (Ines Nastasoiu from Acasa Romania, Sergio Ramos from LaSexta Spain, Roxanne Barcelona from GMA Philippines, Leonard Yanovsky of Intra Russia, Gordan Bobinac from KIP Croatia, among others) agreed about some important advantages of the show: the Hollywood TV seasons has three-four months running, so Natpe is the earliest step to have an idea of what is happening. High End conferences about market trends and tips are offered. They can contact medium and small American and Canadian producers that don’t go to the Mips, to get opportunities. And they can continue the relationship with a broad range of suppliers, by the middle of the six months between the two Mips.

The main problems for them are the long trip and the costs of coming to Las Vegas; also the quantity of shows around and, specially, as Natpe attends mainly the U.S. Domestic market and Latin America, they are not finding enough focus on their needs. They suggest developing special events for European and Asian buyers to do networking with different kind of providers. One big advantage for 2011 edition: Natpe will be held in Miami, so costs and time will be reduced significantly, they highlighted; and it will turn into a more international show. The Natpe organization (it manages Discop events, too) expects a increase of European and Asian buyer for the next year.

Worldwide market trends seen at Natpe? Every main or medium broadcaster is producing and trying to sell the products abroad, but this can be a boomerang if their global business is not solid enough. Non-scripted production projects are growing everywhere: both Hollywood Studios and former entertainment format titans are entering this market apart from traditional suppliers… there are opportunities about. All in all, feel-good programming continues to be at the top, though new genres (suspense series, breaking-edge plots) are gaining space. The 2010 worldwide content market will be sensibly better than last year, the recovery will be slow but steady, progressive during the year, the Natpe experts agreed.

Nicolas Smirnoff and Fabricio Ferrara