MIPTV 2011

11.4.2011

Hello and welcome to Timoteus’ and Virpi’s report on MIPTV 2011 from Cannes, France. MIPTV is the most important annual trade fair for the international television business. The event was organized last week 4 - 7 April 2011.

Digital Media Finland had an interesting combined attendance in the market: it was Virpi’s first MIPTV while Timoteus has come to Cannes twice a year since 1987.

MIPTV participants

The number of registered MIPTV attendees this year was about the same as last year; around 11,500. The registered attendees included 3,750 participating firms. The main focus of MIP is to buy and sell television content, so it is a meeting place for producers, distributors and broadcasters. In addition to the core business there are hundreds of attendees from related fields, such as telecom, advertising, consumer electronics, on line and so on. According to the organizers there were about 4,000 buyers at MIP this year.

The two days before MIPTV are dedicated to documentaries, which are screened in Hotel Carlton. This year’s new element, a forum called Connected Creativity attracted, according to the organizers, more than 500 participants.

MIPTV program highlights this year were few. Arnold Schwarzenegger was in town introducing his multiplatform animated series The Governator, also a new multimillion euro miniseries on the last voyage of Titanic was presented. Some interesting formats were on offer, with Nelonen picking up the new hit format The Voice of… musical talent show from Banijay International.

Connected creativity – new forum in MIPTV

The first Connected Creativity at MIPTV forum was organized together with GSMA (the mobile operator association). The idea of the new forum is to work as entertainment and technology hub which unites the world’s dominant market forces in technology and entertainment to address mutual opportunities.

Ericsson’s Hans Vestberg predicted the future for communications in his keynote. According to Vestberg “the network society” will have more than 50 billion internet-connected devices by 2020, there will be more than eight billion mobile subscribes by 2015 and 25 times data growth in mobile networks; 90 % of online traffic will be HD videos. Vestberg also reminded that more than 70 % of smart phone usage is already non-voice activities, including downloading, streaming and sharing content.

On the other hand author and mobile strategy consultant Tomi Ahonen warned the industry not to spend too much time thinking about smart phone apps. IPhones account for 2 % of all mobile phones. ”If you develop an iPhone app and you are a media brand, you are deliberately ignoring 98% of your available audience”, stated Ahonen.

Nick Thomas, senior analyst on consumer product strategy at Forrester Research, told that much of the content is failing to connect with consumers. According to the latest research of Forrester, 3% of European consumers have paid for digital TV shows (on demand/internet) in the last month, while 14% say they would do so in the future. Consumers’ expectations of content are changing and content alone is not enough to succeed in digital landscape. Thomas also pointed out that Facebook is an important platform for consuming content. It is now one of the top five sites for viewing videos in the US and in Europe.

There was a chance to test the new innovative technology and apps in The Experience Hub which was part of the new Connected Creativity forum. Despite this great opportunity there wasn’t that much buzz in The Experience Hub that one could have expected.

Connected TV Engages Tomorrows Audiences

”The TV audience has now became a character in its own right”, said Kevin Slavin of Starling.tv. Statistics support this argument. For example, almost half of the Britons do social networking while watching TV (Intel) and 86 % of mobile internet users engage in second screen mobile usage (Nielsen, Yahoo). The second screen is usually mobile phone or tablet which is used while watching TV. For example, Samsung will launch later this year connected TV sets, which will have social networking apps.

The winner of the Rich Media Tablet and Social TV Apps prize, South Korean Telston, gave its pitch of “Bring it Home” project. In the project it was possible to scan items from the TV show to the smart phone and illustrate how well e.g. the scanned sofa fits in the watcher’s living room. Augmented reality is becoming part of TV content in order to create interaction between audience and TV programs, commercials and so on. Among demos showcased were Metaio (augmented reality provider), PrimeSense (which made Kinect for X-Box) and Emotiv (a headband that allows you to control objects with your brainwaves) - wild visions for connected TV. The challenge for TV industry is to find ways to monetize connected entertainment and communication services.

Last but not least of this chapter it is our pleasure to mention that Futurecode from Finland won CC Ventures’ “growth stage” category with its AR system, which creates animated 3D Dibidogs  that pop out of the pages of a book.

3D Is Here

PricewaterhouseCoopers’ director Vincent Teulade said that four years ago no-one knew about 3D. One year ago there was 3D skepticism and now 3D is here. According to Sony there are over 200 theatrical movie titles accumulated in 3D (Spiderman, Harry Potter, Pirates of Caribbean etc.) and over 100 titles released by 2011 in Blue-ray 3D (DEG announcement in January 2011). Another 35 titles are already announced or released in 3D Game for PS3. One of the most recent 3D announcements from Sony is that it will be producing the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships in high definition 3D.

The top three areas of consumer interest in 3D are theatrical movies on Blu-ray,

nature programmes and sports. - And the fourth is gaming.

In TV 3D is still in investment phase. Sony’s marketing director David Bush says that 3D needs the collaboration of traditional content owners and companies like Sony, to invest and start to make it happen (MIPTV Special Edition). Sony has established training centers to improve the quality of 3D production. According to PwC’s Teulade 3D is not the key motivation why people will buy 3D TV, rather they will buy a future proof TV.

Maybe the wildest vision of the 3D future right now has Korea, which explores the future of 3DTV without glasses.

TV business still the same as before

The actual business at MIPTV this year was low key. MIPTV has never been a razzle and dazzle market, but the absence of some of the big American studios took away some of the glamour there has been earlier.

Despite of all the forums and seminars on the “new television”, the core of MIPTV remains in licensing traditional linear television programs. As the new channels take up masses of programs, archives have increased their value. This applies both to the broadcasters’ programming vaults and distributors’ libraries. Large program packages exchange owners also when companies go under, the most recent example being American 4Kids, which made its fortunes with Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh. The distributor filed for bankruptcy during MIPTV.

Formats continue to do well. MIPTV’s biggest newcomer was The Voice of, originally a Dutch format which challenges Idols, X Factor and other music talent shows. The Voice of was picked up by Solar for Nelonen and we expect to see in on air this autumn or early 2012.

Several Finnish production companies have found good international partners to peddle their fare. Kuopio-based Susamuru is a Sparks (format producers’ network) member, which has sold options for Travel guides to 10 foreign markets. Aito Media is working with Small World International, a company which has brought many Japanese formats to the international market. Aito also represents YLE formats, some of which are sold through Pan-Scandinavian Nordic World.

It seems that the distribution channels are open. Now we must hope that the formats will find international clients and, eventually become hits.