Golden Age for TV beckons

2008-10-12 14:19

Cannes - A golden age for television beckons as established TV companies go head on with the internet and other new digital media platforms to woo audiences worldwide.

And with a fast growing variety of new forms of audiovisual entertainment being rolled out for audiences of all ages, viewers are firmly in the driving seat.

"Creativity remains the key to success, particularly in a world where the public has ever more power to choose and interact," underlined Paul Johnson, director of television at Reed MIDEM, which organises MIPCOM, the world's biggest audiovisual content trade show that opens its doors on Monday.

Recent surveys reveal that traditional TV viewing is far from dead and is even on the rise in some countries, including the United States.

Radical changes

But radical changes are taking place in how people get their TV fix and the battle is on to entertain fragmenting audiences wherever they are, be it on the internet, mobile devices like mobile phones and gaming consoles or even the good old TV in the sitting room.

Against this backdrop, the 24th edition of the five-day MIPCOM looks set to be busier than ever.

"A lot of new networking events at the show will help put people together and engage them in new ways of selling their shows," Johnson told AFP.

A total of 13 385 participants are already signed up for the show, which will be a record high attendance if they all turn up.

Programme buying and selling on the market floor also looks set to be brisk with 4 502 TV buyers due to jet into this chic Riviera seaside resort, up 5.9% from the same date last year.

Interest in green-themed entertainment is expected to soar after recent research revealed that consumers around the globe want to learn more about climate change and how to change their lifestyles.

New digital age

But as a growing number of viewers switch to the internet, the biggest buzz looks likely to be around online video and broadband.

"New platforms are an obvious opportunity to find harder-to-reach audiences, who might be more familiar with hanging out on the web or YouTube than on a BBC channel. So why not go out and find them?" influential top BBC exec, Jana Bennett, told MIPCOM News.

Many leading lights of the new digital age will share their vision of the new great digital viewing and interactive experiences in store for users, which could also provide much-needed new revenue streams to the audiovisual industries.

Keynote speakers at the high-level brainstorming conferences that are one of the show's main draws, include Chad Hurley, co-founder and CEO of the massively successful online video sharing website YouTube and Joanna Shields of cutting-edge, social networking site Bebo.

Philippe Dauman, who heads up entertainment giant Viacom, which recently launched a highly successful big new multi-platform show, iCarly, is also due in town, as is former Disney CEO Michael Eisner.

Emerging audiovisual markets, which are expected to notch up double-digit entertainment growth over the next three to five years despite the global financial crisis, will also be in the spotlight.

"You've heard about the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries, but at MIPCOM we've created our own analogy, which is the 'METRIC' countries, which stands for the Middle East, Turkey, Russia, India and China," Johnson said.

"They are really the hot growth areas, which will be participating in MIPCOM this year, and that is where the money is going to be coming from," he stressed.

Asia's digital powerhouses, Japan and South Korea, will lead the Asian charge here this week with China and India also due to turn out in large numbers.

- AFP