The e.CC Case Study Competition

Fragmented audiences on multiple platforms, on-demand cinema screenings,  social networking and the general democratization of media: all this constantly reminds us that times are changing fast in these days! Revenue models that worked well for creatives and media managers in the past, have altered as well: running a media-related venture in Europe today increasingly requires new and creative approaches to run and sustain a business or project. In order to learn about key problems in today’s media business, 10 teams of students (see list of participants) from eight European countries competed against eachother in the e.CC case study competition from 27 June to 2 July in Strasbourg. Unique and dedicated case studies had been authored for the e.CC in the categories: Television, Cinema and New Media. The teams, each accompanied by a tutor from their home university, had intensively prepared themselves for this event prior to coming to Strasbourg and being locked up in a hotel room for 24 hours. This was the official timeframe provided for discussing the cases, finding a solution and drafting a compelling presentation. Before and after this major working phase, students and tutors had several occasions to enjoy the town and get to know the other nationalities and team members. Common events included a visit to the French headquarter of ARTE TV in Strasbourg, the European Audiovisual Observatory, the Council of Europe and a joint dinner in one of Strasbourg’s most traditional restaurants in the very heart of the centre town.

The Austrian team presents their scenarios for the future of Starlight TV

After exciting presentations by each of the groups on Thursday, June 30, a jury of consortium members selected the winning team for each of the categories. The following day, the three winners again had to compete, this time against eachother. The best performing team had been awarded the “Super Trophy” of the e.CC competition and the event was celebrated in the old town hall of Strasbourg. Through it all, however, the performance of all participating teams had been amazing with all results having demonstrated a superior level of subject matter understanding. For the jury members, it was indeed difficult to determine winners and some groups were just “slightly” ahead of others. Still, the experience for all these young students had been satisfying and enriching, as far as I can tell from various discussions with the teams during the week. We were proud to have had the honour to host this event and thank each and everyone for his participation and committment. We would again like to congratulate and are already looking forward to the next digital media case study competition in 2012. (JW)

e.CC Category Winners:

Winner in the category “CINEMA” (also winner of the “Super Trophy”)
Berlin University of the Arts, Institute of Communication Theory and Practice, Communication in Social and Economic Contexts Programme – Berlin, Germany

Winner in the category “NEW MEDIA”
Bournemouth University, Media School – Bournemouth, United Kingdom

Winner in the category “TELEVISION”
St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences, Digital Media Technologies Media Management Department – St. Pölten, Austria

Leadership Skills for Media Professionals

All sectors of modern life require profound leadership skills in order to set corporate goals and achieve them by mobilising a company’s workforce. This is probably even more true for the media industry in it’s current state of constant change. In order to update their knowledge and exchange their views, European media executives from a variety of broadcasters and production companies gathered in Strasbourg for our most recent EMELP workshop (19 to 24 June). The session delivered a platform to exchange and explore questions like: how does your company position itself to provide value as language barriers and borders erode? How do you build a brand that has national and international strength? How do you leverage a collaborative network of talent to innovate and deliver content the customer will pay for?

Among the participants were representatives from: Spiegel Geschichte TV, Discovery Networks, Discovery Communications Europe Ltd., Voice of Nigeria, Medialab, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF), SBS TV, Congoo NV, TV5 Finland, ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG, National Geographic TV International, Star Channel and December Films

EMELP 2011 Participants

The above group – consisting of both content providers and content distributors – spent an intense week on lectures, discussions, case studies /challenges and personal leadership style development. The course was conducted by Doug Macnamara and Pat Ferns (International Institute for Television Leadership), assisted by experts from the world of broadcasting, financing and innovation. Based on the so called leadership systems model, the approach included a detailed analysis of the current business environment; positioning of the product/service to be developed; defining the unique selling propositions as well as devising an action plan for further implementation. Beyond the pure business-related aspects the session also provided the opportunity to explore the individual thinking- and leadership styles. Exploring the group dynamics as well as analysing the personal approach to lead a team was certainly a rare occasion for executives to practice and to receive unbiased feedback.

All in all, the EMELP programme is aimed at fostering the exchange of good practices between European and international media executives in order to respond to their unique developmental needs and –demands, in the context of their personal learning plan and peer network expectations. We already look forward to welcoming the next group of TV and media executives to Strasbourg very soon!

(JW)

Will Netflix come to Europe in 2011?

Recently, a contact from our Facebook community pointed out that Netflix is obviously preparing to expand their activities to European markets while referring to related news headlines and job openings at Netflix. Interesting enough, I thought, for writing a short blogpost on the topic. For those not too familiar with Netflix: as of today, it happens to be the world’s leading Internet subscription service for TV shows and movies with about 23 million members in the U.S. and Canada (also see Netflix company profile at Crunchbase).

And indeed, there have been quite some headlines in the past regarding Netflix and it’s planned outreach to European audiences. Actually, the company already has a kind of trackrecord in communicating this “vision”, because already in early 2010 Netflix CEO Reed Hastings hinted at the company`s future when announcing:

“The big market for Hollywood content (after the U.S.) is Europe. Third is Asia. Fourth is the rest of the world. Canada is and was an option. It’s sort of international-lite” (source: Reuters).

Well, today we know the launch of the service in Canada in late 2010 was sufficiently successful and therefore it wouldn’t come as a surprise if Netflix now geared up to launch it’s European endeavor. On the company’s website, for example, you can find vacant positions for a Bi-Lingual Training Supervisor or a Senior Online Marketing Manager (International), at the time this article is being written. The linguistic skills associated with these positions are described as follows:

“We are looking for people fluent in the following languages:  Dutch, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazilian and European), and Spanish (Latin American and European)” (source: Netflix)

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Image via Wikipedia

These requirements obviously go beyond Europe and therefore raise the question of how much longer Netflix will actually wait before also entering the Asian markets. Apart from logistic challenges and potential dubbing issues for their titles in an international context, the popularity of Netflix in the established markets suggests that the subscription based business models work well enough to anticipate an adoption by consumers even beyond the current territories. Even more so, as Hastings himself proclaimed that DVD rental and delivery is great, but “streaming only” is an even greater business. The major European competititor LOVEFiLM (company profile) had recently been acquired by Amazon EU SARL (January 2010) and currently counts about 1.6 million subscribers while operating in the UK, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. As of today, LOVEFiLM also has existing partnerships with relevant film studios including MGM, Momentum and Warner Bros but it remains to be seen if and how Netflix and LOVEFiLM will compete in the European marketspace once their services will be widely available. Ultimately, the pressure to create more attractive subscription models will increase for any such company in the market and this may, then again, be to the benefit of the consumers.

(JW)

Related articles

• Netflix Is On A Hiring Spree For Big Europe Push (NFLX) (businessinsider.com)
• THE EURO CURSE: LoveFilm Wanted To Take On Netflix, VCs Forced It To Sell (NFLX) (businessinsider.com)
• Report: Netflix is the Largest Source of Internet Traffic? (socialtimes.com)

At the Heart of Digital Content Business: MIPTV in Cannes (France)

For us, April and October always means visiting the City of Cannes in southern France in order to attend the MIP markets, which happen to be among the largest digital content markets worldwide. Accordingly, we again spent a few days at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes to check what’s new and to take part in various presentations as well as panel sessions that are offered in parallel to the buying and selling activities of broadcasters, production companies, studios and other media companies. This year’s MIPTV, which took place from 4 to 7 April, essentially focused on 3D TV, branded content and the protection of IP rights in the digital multiplatform era.

Is 3D really here to stay?

I can imagine you’ve heard that question before! Already in 2010, the dawn of 3D capable connected TV’s and devices resulted in people talking about 3D all over the place. Everybody was excited back then and the message was clear and obvious: after the transition to HD, the introduction of 3D is, technically speaking, not a big issue. The devices will be there, the costs for manufacturers and distributors will be minor compared to the expected long-term revenues. Well, today and roughly one year later, the topic was again back on the agenda and various company representatives (manufacturers, content producers, distributors etc.) looked at 3D with a mixed bag of feelings. Almost everyone is certain that 3D is here to stay (one way or the other) and that a full year of development has resulted in a considerable amount of movies and other applications (eg. also the Nintendo 3DS), as highlighted in the session Update on Latest 3D Technologies. Yet, the 3D breakthrough has not yet occured. And it also becomes clear that the different kinds of 3D content out there hugely vary in terms of quality. A number of experienced producers in panel sessions and presentations mentioned that you cannot go from 2D straight to 3D production. Scenes and memorable 3D effects need to be carefully planned and it takes much more time beforehand to implement this in production planning, storyboards etc.  Also, there is a technical aspect to successful 3D production: different formats for small, mid-sized and large screens (eg. Cinema, IMAX etc.) need to be taken into account: on each of these screens 3D effects unfold differently, this became particularly clear in the presentation Spotlight 3D Production Overview. Accordingly, there is a need for high quality content before 3D really has a chance to take off. In summary, distributors and broadcasters are still seeking exactly this kind of content for their special 3D offers and new channels are indeed planned to launch. As for the future: it’s conceivable that, sooner or later, the majority of new TV sets will, by default, have a 3D capability anyway. Unless another new and groundbreaking visual technology comes along, it indeed seems likely that 3D will not go away.

Digital Content Protection

I will keep short on this topic, but just like last year, the desire of the industry for some sort of virtual digital rights locker was omnipresent. The problem to be tackled by such a “locker” is that of how to access the content you bought across multiple platforms and channels without having to pay for it over and over again. It’s essentially a cross platform DRM management system for digital content. A proposed solution for this could be a system called UltraViolet, which I also heard about already last year. Since it apparently still is a topic for various companies on this year’s MIPTV, I could imagine some kind of consolidation going on regarding a specific cross platform DRM standard.

Adam Hillyer (Barcadi Global Brands) and Cliff Fluet (Lewis Silkin LLP) present the Branded Content Roadmap

Branded entertainment becomes “branded content”

It was Miles Young, CEO of Ogilvy Worldwide, who revealed in his branded entertainment keynote: “It’s the role of brands to bridge the ‘meaning gap’ in today’s information chaos”. This suggests that brands increasingly want to be associated with certain forms of content and are ready to invest in production if the “belief system” of the brand is supported. In that case, it apparently doesn’t matter anymore whether we are talking about branded entertainment or, more generally, about branded content, eg. documentaries. In the Content 360 Supersession, Gary Carter (Chief Creative Officer at FreemantleMedia) highlighted that, in today’s multiplatform era,  “broadcasters & producers need to get audiences to interact with eachother, not ‘just’ with the content”.  Then again, this could become even more interesting for brands to engage. It’s not just about the content and extended storylines but about the conversation that you can trigger. The potential for creating traffic on different platforms involving various communities increasingly becomes an essential part of a true 360 degree approach in digital media.

Some Typical Side Effects of MIP

Well, we have to be honest at this point and mention the few other things we always do as well on each and every MIP market: for example using it as a platform for our own marketing and promotion. I mean, people just need to know we’re around and Cannes is a good place to wander about and introduce etma. Accordingly, we also used the occasion to introduce our academy (incl. our activities and the programmes on offer) via a small presentation in the Mediadesk area of the Palais. Further on, we frequently use the MIP market in order to get in touch with potential specialist lecturers, participants and, more generally speaking, to stay informed about what’s going on in the media industry. All of the aforementioned had been achieved, once again. Accordingly, it was definitely worth our while to visit MIPTV and we’re certainly looking forward to returning to Cannes in October for the upcoming MIPCOM market.

For an excellent full coverage of MIPTV 2011 incl. transcripts and videos of all sessions please also visit http://blog.mipworld.com/

(JW)

Related articles

• MIPTV Launches Brand of the Year Award (prnewswire.com)
• Rodolphe Belmer & David Frank to Kick Off MIPTV 2011 (prnewswire.com)
• Nintendo 3DS may increase demand for media with three dimensions (charlotte.news14.com)

European Students to find Solutions for Challenges in Today's Media Business

From June 27 to 2 July 2011, the media business school etma in Strasbourg, France, will become the hub for a variety of young and innovative European students who are ready to find solutions for some of the most pressing issues of today’s media industry. The event will provide an exciting opportunity for delegate university teams to explore real-world business problems in a case study competition called the ‘etma case challenge’. The teams will work on three categories of cases covering cinema, television and new media with a cash prize of EUR 4000,00 for the winning team in each of the categories. A jury of recognized academics, potential employers and industry professionals will assess the presented solutions and overall performance. The three winning teams will then, in a final step, compete again for the “super trophy”, the top prize of the event.

The etma case challenge is the first of its kind in Europe in the digital media sector, open to all European higher education institutions that offer courses in Communication, Media or Journalism. Participating Teams will consist of one faculty tutor and four students each. In case you should be interested please visit http://www.casechallenge.eu (website to go live on 18 February 2011) for further details concerning the application procedure or contact one the official responsibles whose contact details can be found at the end of this article.

Why a Digital Media Forum in Strasbourg?
There are currently no Europe-wide forums or events for students at the Masters level in Media, Marketing, Communication or Journalism. This is different from film school students who meet up regularly at international festivals such as Cannes, San Sebastian, Brussels and Berlin, and participate in student film contests or Master classes. Academic programmes in Media have rapidly developed over the past few years but they tend to be spread out over Europe. There is also a lack of recognition for these students’ achievements at the international scale. Hence the need for a European Forum for Communication and Media students: a forum which will be both an event and a place for interacting with professionals and employers from the audiovisual industry.

For more detailed description please also see:
The etma Case Competition (PDF document)

Contact:

Paul Pauwels
Director etma (Strasbourg)
Tel.: +33 (0)3 88 37 26 50
write an email

Jean-Phillipe Raffard
Associate Professor, SciencesCOM
Tel.: +33 (0)2 40 44 90 26
write an email

http://www.casechallenge.eu
(website to go live on 18 February 2011)

Supporting the European Audiovisual Sector: The MEDIA Programme of the EU

As many of you may know, the MEDIA programme is the official EU support initiative for the European audiovisual industry. The support ranges from co-financing training programmes for professionals of the media sector up to the development of production projects (feature films, television drama, documentaries, animation and new media) as well as the promotion of European audiovisual works. However, the current Media 2007 support programme is coming to an end in 2013. Many of you have been supported in the development or the distribution phase of your projects. Others among you might NOT have received any support because your line of business is not yet supported under the guidelines of the current programme. Whatever may be the case, this is your chance to promote changes that may benefit your projects in future as well.

The rules and the scope of the new programme (2014-2020) are already being discussed and those in charge value your opinion. You can tell them what you like and what you dislike about the current programme and give suggestions about what you would like to see changed in the new one.

But there’s more to this than just voicing your opinion: The battle to have a new programme is not yet won and the existence of the programme is under threat. The European parliament has to agree on its continuation and subsequently vote the new budget. In my opinion, the end of the MEDIA Programme would have considerable consequences for the European media community.

To avoid this potential worst-case scenario I would like to call upon all of you out there to respond to the public consultation conducted by the European Commission on the new MEDIA programme for support of the European audiovisual sector using the link below.

ONLINE suggestions for future support activites of the MEDIA programme of the EU

The link above leads to a pretty straight-forward online questionnaire covering 9 major areas that, for the most part, can be answered via multiple-choice. Your suggestions and opinions can be submitted directly at the bottom of the page. The overall consultation will remain open until 30 November 2010.

And here goes a final appeal: lets make it clear to the EU decision makers that we want a new and efficient MEDIA Programme. The more of us who take some time to complete the survey, the stronger our voice will be heard.

(PP/JW)

53rd International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film

Last week, our Director had been invited to the 53rd International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film (DOK Leipzig, Germany) for a keynote speech to producers and film industry representatives about the development of the international documentary film market. Accordingly, Paul Pauwels presented his take on the fundamental changes that, more or less, disrupted and reshaped the factual entertainment business over the past years. The full version of his speech is available as a PDF via our official website. Please find below a summary of the key issues that had been addressed in his speech.

The old models have died: be inventive or disappear.

“(…) Life was easy back in the early nineties when production rules where clear and simple. There were not many independent production companies around. Documentaries were very often fully financed but also the full retention of rights by the commissioning broadcaster was quite normal. Knowing the right people at the right position was the most important skill a producer needed to possess.

The proliferation of commercial broadcasting in Europe changed that situation. It’s no
coincidence that the strongest documentary tradition came from those regions where
commercial television was already present in a rather early stage. The emerging competition forced the broadcasters to improve the quality and the originality of their slots. To achieve that goal they needed independent producers. New companies were created and many of them florished. They produced wonderful and strong documentaries. New subjects were being discovered, new forms of storytelling developed and new audiences found. Factual became popular. Being independent became hot.

The new market situation also stimulated a phenomenon that, until then, had mainly been
reserved for fiction: international coproductions (…) No longer would money come from one main national source but several investors would be combined to bring together enough money to produce a documentary that in form and content would reflect its international setup.

I think it’s fair to say that in those days there was a genuine interest in what was going
on outside the own borders. This was reflected in many slots on television that were now
showing documentaries that were no longer strictly nationally produced. And it worked: the audience loved them.

At the same time, many filmfunds started showing a growing interest to support
documentary. You would be surprised how limited the possibilities were to get financial
public support to produce documentaries in the eighties. In my own country, Belgium, it
wasn’t until ’92 that documentary projects became eligible for subsidy. This improved
support for factual projects would become a major factor in the successful economic
development of many a European production company.

I’m not going to spend much time on talking about the European support that, for the first
time, was made available through the European Commission’s MEDIA plan (…) I believe that many excellent documentaries would never have been made without this support and many production companies that exist today would never have been able to survive without MEDIA’s financial input.

Just to illustrate how different the times were:   I remember that financing my first – modest – documentary took me about a month. One visit to the two national broadcasters (with a one page description of the project) would give me 60 % of the budget and with that amount guaranteed I had no trouble finding a foreign coproducer for another 20%. Nevertheless and inspite of the rather good financial starting point, I managed to loose money on the production, mainly because of a lack of knowledge about the knots and boults of international coproducing (which led to a serious conflict with the coproducer before the first cassette was put into the camera) and certainly about the follow-up process in distribution which resulted in not getting the sales income I was hoping to get to fill the 20% gap in the budget.

But such where the times that even bad management would be forgiven and I could
continue the activities; bruised but not mortally wounded. I’m not sure that would still be the case today. I was lucky enough to develop my activities exactly in the period when
European coproduction was really developing and money was available; when the
broadcasters, the film institutes and the politicians in charge of media and culture budgets
started taking documentary serious.

And then … there were the commissioning editors. In those far-away days they were really
powerful people who (…) would be the ones who took the decisions and their word would be good as gold (well, in most cases at least, sometimes promises turned out to be fools gold). They were also limited in number. If you knew thirty people, you more or less covered the entire European broadcasting world involved in international coproductions. And to complete the picture of those golden days, television was about your only client and a relatively well paying client too. Contracts were simple, two or three pages would do and a child could understand them. Broadcasting waves seemed to stop at the border and the whole rights situation was generaly simple.

Can you see the picture coming together?

A media environment that created opportunities and stimulated international coproduction; technical developments that allowed easier access to production facilities; a general intererest in well told international stories, more access to national and international public money, short decision lines at the broadcasters and a very personal contact to the people that mattered (…)

Even I could create a production company in such circumstances and turn it into a success.
Would I be able to achieve the same result today? I very much doubt it. Most of the
elements that made life easy 20 years ago recently seem to have been turned into threats,
more than into opportunities. It’s a completely different world out there and I am convinced that, if I would try to set up a company today with the same business management background that I had 25 years ago, I would fail miserably. The old model does not function anymore!

Breaking the wall of illusion: much talking, no money.

(…) Having been the biggest supporter of the traditional pitching system until a few years
ago, I now declare loudly that is doesn’t function anymore. At least not for those who are of the opinion that it’s at the pitching forums that real decisions are being taken or that the commissioning editors that you’re talking to are the final decision takers.

By now, most of you will have experienced that the decisions are being taken by marketeers or by strategic departments of the broadcasters. The very best you can hope for is that the commissioning editors to whom you pitch will pick up your idea, add it to their wish list and much later get the “go” from higher up in the hierarchy to support you financially. There are some exceptions, but they’re rare. Of course, pitching forums are still a good marketing tool. They’re a great place to meet people and test the waters for an idea but stop considering them as an important factor to instantly add money into your account (…)

As so very often every cloud has a silver lining. Today’s new situation offers new opportunities for a company that goes beyond the borders of traditional one-off
documentaries; a company that is based on a solid long term business plan, that is using
serious market research and is no longer built on enthusiasm and love for the medium
alone. This will also mean that, alongside creative documentaries, these companies will
produce other forms of audiovisual content and might even be active in whatever domain
that creates a company income.

The successul producers of tomorrow will develop new ideas and find new ways of marketing them. But they’ll need to do more than that. They will also have to convince their clients’ financial departments that, as a supplier, they are trustworthy and will deliver the goods. They will have to prove that there’s enough money in the till to finance the development and bring the production to a good end. Without being able to deliver such a warrantee your chances to success are becoming slimmer by the day. The logical result of this is that we will see a lot of mergers and acquisitions in the near future. No matter how beautiful “small” might be in our eyes… increasingly, the market tells us that size does matter.

But, in fact, this new situation is – in a way – a minor problem. The dwindling decision power of the commissioning editors within the broadcasters is one thing; the diminishing power of the broadcasters within the content distribution environment is a different and much more worrying phenomenon. For a very long time broadcasters have been the monopolists of content distribution and consequently the major contributors to  documentary financing. Increasingly, they are now under threat because of the changing media market where new players are stealing their audience.

For many years the smaller broadcasters – and those are the majority in Europe – have
supported a very unlogical system. Although working in a non-competitive environment still they would pay good money to take huge cofinancing risks while they could have gambled and waited and bought the finished programmes for a much lower price. This attitude had to do with taking up responsibility. They understood that without taking risks a lot of good documentaries would never have been made.

Nowadays, broadcasters are functioning in a much more competitive environment and the logic doesn’t function anymore while the sense of responsibiliy towards the independent sector seems to have dwindled. Digital TV and Pay-TV providers undermine the traditional broadcasters’ position. Digital video recording is becoming hugely popular – much to the despair of the advertising agencies and commercial broadcasters – and many wonder what is going to happen once connected-TV will bring OTT offerings and VOD to every single living room. It’s a cliché, but the saying that people now watch what they want, when they want, where they want and on the screen they want has become reality.

Is this good news? There are now so many more screens to reach, so many digital channels
to fill, so many more potential buyers to meet… all true. But there’s one big question that
remains unanswered: where’s the money?

One thing is certain: the newcomers on the market (Pay-TV, VOD services, Over The Top
providers, mobile TV operators) they have no intention at all to adopt the same generous
attitude that was so common in the old days. All of you who have already dealt with these
new players on the market will have found out that they don’t have deep pockets (or at least no money to spend on production) and they can’t or won’t contribute to the financing of your documentary. There might be some exceptions, but only few.

The secret of surviving in these harsh circumstances seems to lie in the quantity of
programmes you’re able to produce (many small producers fees make one bigger one) and
in the ability to reformat and to re-use the footage. But of course, that you can only do when you’re the rightsholder of your documentary, which – much to my surprise – often is still not the case. The biggest danger that I recognize in this new situation – and it really scares me – is that it’s a threat to the middle-sized production companies: they are in danger of disappearing.

I’m fully convinced that the changing media world will lead to the creation of a few powerful international super-indies who will produce both very high-level popular content and loads of factual reality-trash. Programmes that can be used on many platforms and that can easily be reformatted and re-used. These companies will have priviliged access to the broadcasters and other content distributors and together they will deal the cards.

At the other end of the production spectrum, I predict that we’ll see enthusiast filmmakers
who, with limited technical means and hardly any budget, will continue to tell strong stories
but who will not be in a position to build a sustainable business on the basis of their work.
Internet will provide them with an easy accessible distribution platform but there will hardly be any income to be expected from that.

It’s going to be rough out there (…) This situation forces you to rethink your way of
functioning and to be very critical about your company’s operations. Can you make it on
your own or can’t you? This is a question that, within a short while, will become crucial for
you.

Content 24/7 for New Platforms and Audiences

New players on the market: VOD and OTT – new sources of financing?

Nobody can invent a new business model out of the blue or by simply reshuffling the different elements that are part of the old one. New ideas are needed, new markets need to be found, new ways of conquering these markets have to be developed. Many were of the opinion that VOD – whether through cable or online – would bring in fresh money that would allow the development of new documentaries and would help to keep their company afloat. Until today, I still need to talk to the first producer who can look me in the eye and tell me that this source of income is more than a drop into a huge ocean of his financial problems. So many initiatives have been taken in this domain – there’s a wide choice of websites to turn to – many of them enhancing their reach by sometimes successful DVD sales, and even those – so I’m told – do not provide a reliable source of stable income. Things will become even more complicated when soon VOD will become a commodity for the cable operators and the incumbent telecom companies who need to occupy the biggest possible part of the market with their digital TV offerings and Pay-TV channels. On their servers, thousands of programmes will be made available and intelligent and interactive search engines will assist the audience in finding the programmes they prefer.

Even the best VOD sites that exist today might be swept away by the sheer force of
numbers and the power of money that these new players can spend on marketing and
technical innovation. But take it from me: they will invest more in quantity than in quality.
Over the past two years, I’ve listened carefully to the presentations of the CEO’s of these
companies and it is being said loud and clear: VOD is a teaser to seduce the client to
subscribe to their paid services. It is not and never will be a money maker! And I’ve never seen any commercial company invest important sums of money in a product that has no potential to bring in a nice return on investment.

The same goes for OTT offerings that are the next big thing. Hulu, blinkbox, youview… all
these initiatives make content available in a way that directly threatens traditional TV
distribution. They make your productions available for a theoretically unlimited audience, but none of them are offering decent compensation for the use of the programmes they show. All say content is king, but nobody has been able to explain to me today where the money is to be found that will allow the production of this content as far as creative documentary is concerned. Although the distribution channels are multipying, at least in the near future, they do not represent serious new sources of income.

360° commissioning: the new bubble ready to explode?

For several years now, the new buzz is the 360° commissioning. Instead of investing all time and effort into the production of one stand-alone documentary or a series for the tv screen alone, there is a growing demand for extra content to be made available on the internet and on mobile devices. Here, also efforts are being made and innovative and creative people achieve wonderful results. Recently, we’ve seen broadcasters come up with some money to support web-based productions. These amounts however are rather low and in comparison to the traditional production investment they mean nothing. The whole 360° concept is still very much in the stage of research and development and in most cases it costs more than it brings benefits.

Worrying as this sounds, you should not loose too much sleep over this. The research &
development phase is always a costly one, with a high percentage of failure. I’m absolutely convinced that there is a huge potential to be discovered here. Discovering and exploiting it, however, will go parallel with the development of a new class of audience: people who will deal with the new media in a way that we cannot imagine today. And still it’ll be your task to find out how that will work before they do. That’s the opportunity that lies waiting behind the bits and the bytes. But before you get to that stage you’ll have to kill your business and build it up again. A frightening thought but in my view a necessity (…)

Now the time has come for you to do the work. I’ll lean back in my sofa, put a blanket
over my old legs, ask my young and beautiful nurse to switch on the tv, the computer,
the psp, my mobile phone and whatever screen I have available and I will sit in
anticipation to see how you’ve dealt with the problem. How you’ve reinvented
documentary… for I’m sure that’s what you will do.

Paul Pauwels (2010)

The unedited version of this speech is available here.

MIPCOM 2010: Redefining the Entertainment Experience

Last week saw the 26th anniversary of the world’s leading market for the content and entertainment business. Like everyone working in this business and being affected by its development, I was also in Cannes to see how the media industry is “Redefining the Entertainment Experience“. The latter was the official teaser of this year’s MIPCOM. A quite catchy phrase that actually managed well to communicate the sense of ongoing consolidation in the industry, especially between major conventional players and digital platforms. In other words: optimism was in the air. This is not to say that all channels, distributors and producers are having the time of their life, but there seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel. After the crisis, the drop in ad sales and years of uncertain experiments with revenue from digital, there is now some evidence for alternative ways to cash in, even if we’re still in the infancy of that novel economy. But since there is a constant need for fresh HQ content, these cashflows are likely to positively affect the producers as well and, to some extent, already do so. The latter is at least my interpretation of the industry outlook that had been provided by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), but also my conclusion based on the overall mood I encountered during MIPCOM.

PWC Industry Outlook, with TF1 & BBC Worldwide

Key findings from the PwC presentation were: TV industry shares concerning advertising budgets are likely to increase from 36% (2010) to 37% (2014) and considerable growth is to be expected in the subscription TV sector (notably in Asian-Pacific regions). Subscription TV will be the second strongest growth segment after videogames. Further on, ad spendings in the online sector are expected to grow from 15% (2010) to 21% (2014). Mobile advertising is as well starting to play a role, even though currently only $2 billion of the estimated $450 billion global ad spendings are invested into the sector. With an increasingly advanced eco-system for apps on smartphones and tablet PCs (combined with a general obsession for these devices), there might well be some leeway for mobile advertising to grow.

Talking about device-obsession: with major manufacturers bringing new tablets on the market, one may consider what these screens have in store for the content and entertainment industry. Usability in combination with multitouch technology and accelerometers in a reasonably priced appstore environment are a strong argument. Some people keep asking themselves: “Is the iPad more than a large iPhone?”. Using this question for a small poll in the audience, Ferhan Cook (President of Any Screen Productions Ltd.) launched her session dedicated to “Rich Media Apps”. Surprisingly, about one third of the audience were not really convinced that tablets go beyond the smartphone and target yet another market. In order to prove the contrary, Cook showcased a huge array of apps for the iPad, reaching from animated, interactive books for children up to games and magazines with implemented ads, whereas the ads become content themselves engaging users by means of interactive elements. Highlighting in detail the opportunities that tablets bear for content creators and app developers, Cook and her panel also noted that the current apps, for the most part rather simplistic, are still in the days of infancy and that we are just beginning to exploit this technology for even more immersive and intuitive applications.

But coming back to the television industry, MIPCOM also featured a noteworthy live interview (via satellite) with Nonce Paolini, CEO of the French TF1 group, who presented his take on the development of the television sector. First thing said: television is still the most popular media (period). Accordingly, TF1 is doing well with 3h26 of average viewing time per day (6 min more than in 2009) and about 33 million TV viewers zapping in each day. What’s more? The French group achieves rank 7 among the nation’s most popular websites in terms of unique visitors per month (16.3 million). All these numbers result from TF1s 360 degree approach regarding content offerings. Paolini emphasized the four main pillars of this approach:

• Live Services: 10 live programmes per week
• Non-Linear Services: 100 new videos per week available on the web
• Enhanced Services: Catchup TV, 20,000 short formats (trailers, promotion, short programmes etc.)
• Shared Services: Facebook Community, Twitter, WAT.TV (video sharing)

Paolini summarized the group’s philosophy by saying “each screen has a specific functionality and audience”. It seems to me that the company is embracing (and contributing to) the development of this emerging eco-system with different platforms adding either to ad revenues or brand equity which, in turn, refinances fresh content if we were to use a simplified equation.

Beyond this rather optimistic analysis from a broadcaster’s perspective, there were also many other conferences, which focused on changes in content (eg. transmedia storytelling), technologies (eg. augmented reality) and how producers may fit into the new environment covering branded entertainment, multi-territory formats, videogames, apps and so much more. Alternative approaches to creative business had also been exemplified eg. by Beached Az (6 million views on YouTube) showing how a simple idea can go from a new, inexpensive platform to an official 11 part TV season commissioned by Australian broadcaster ABC (with a second season in planning as of today). And by the way: the Australian media industry was another focus during this year’s MIPCOM which explains the origin of the example I used. “Beached Az”, in its native digital format on YouTube, is referred to as “snack media” meaning inexpensive short form content. It nicely illustrates that, just like with successful smartphone apps, there are indeed opportunities (albeit few and of course unpredictable ones in terms of success) where one can develop ideas in rather unconventional ways starting at different points in the value chain.

Inspite of the limited space available here, which keeps me from writing even more, I believe that the above summary provides a sufficient first glance at some of the key topics discussed during MIPCOM. And yet there were so many other important issues that remain unmentioned. Most of you might know that the official MIPBlog is an excellent resource offering a compelling archive of all conference videos incl. the key takeaways of each session. Accordingly, I do recommend to use the links below in order to learn more about the presentations held in Cannes on the occasion of this year’s MIPCOM.

(JW)

Full length Videos and liveblogs on the official MipBlog:

KISS’ Gene Simmons on Family Jewels & more
Smartphone & Tablet Publishing: Case Studies
Rich Media Apps Fest: iPad Apps Showcase
The Impact of Connected TV on the Media Industry
Branded Entertainment Summit: Hear from the Thought Leaders
Superpanel: Can Rich Media Apps Generate Significant Digital Revenues?
International Co-Production Masterclass liveblog: Pillars of the Earth
Working with YouTube: Annotated Tales from the Digital Frontier
Formats Superpanel: Formulas for Success
Lowering Costs for Expensive Format Productions
Transmedia Content Show & Tell
MIPCOM Crossmedia Wrap-Up Session

Newcomer Briefing at MIPCOM

Roughly 150 newcomers were in the Esterel auditorium for the introductory session this afternoon. The audience was first of all welcomed with a few facts, that is: with all the MIP-themed markets Reed MIDEM offers the largest entertainment business gathering of the world. For MIPCOM 2010 this means: 12,000 entertainment executives and 4,000 buyer’s from 100 countries come together for business. OK, sounds convincing: this alone, I thought, may justify the not inexpensive visit and showcasing for content producers. But beyond these official numbers and details,  it’s not so much the first minutes of the briefing that seem essential in this introductory event, it’s definitely the way everybody is encouraged to get “into the mood” and prepare for business in order to have a successful week. Encouraged also through seemingly trivial reminders like: “one should not be shy”, “approach the people” or “everyone is here just for one single aim: to get deals done”.

Soon after this initial briefing, the two official MIPCOM presenters invited the crowd to a reception room, actively promoting the idea that everyone should (while having a cocktail) use this occasion to exchange business cards and make first contact, basically amongst ourselves – which made perfect sense since we, the newcomers, consisted of both buyers and sellers … even if the ratio was somewhere around 1:10. The next minutes then were indeed valuable: once on the reception the small talk began, cards were given and taken, everyone was increasingly engaging in chats, a quite lively and friendly atmosphere arose. Some 20 minutes later, small groups were assigned for a tour around the Palais des Festivals, the major exhibition and meeting area of MIPCOM. With the first contacts made, the walk through the venues was even more enjoyable and insightful as well, with essential details on key locations being provided on the way (buyer’s club, seller’s club, orientation in the marketplace etc.). After the tour and the official ending, some of the groups even remained together in order to enjoy a drink at the Boulevard de la Croisette in downtown Cannes. And frankly, that sounds like a very good start to get buyers and sellers together … may the content be sold!

So my personal conclusion is: even though some of the above may sound trivial, it’s actually good (if not even essential) to be reminded of the opportunities of this market incl. the proactivity required. And the encouraging character of this introduction with it’s social dimension serves this goal well. Long story short: I believe this session is definitely worth your while in case this is your debut at MIPCOM.

(JW)

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EMELP 2010 Participants

15 executives from major European and international broadcasters participated in this year’s EMELP Session that took place in the etma facilities in Strasbourg. During six intense training days (16-21 June), etma became a hub for ‘new thinking styles’ and ‘fresh ideas’ based on the challenges within the participants’ corporate environments. Alternating lectures with case study group work, the session allowed for a systematic and guided approach towards practical solutions.

Based on the so called leadership systems model, the approach included a detailed analysis of the current business environment; positioning of the product/service to be developed; defining the unique selling propositions as well as devising an action plan for further implementation. Beyond the pure business-related aspects the session also provided the opportunity to explore the individual thinking- and leadership styles. Exploring the group dynamics as well as analysing the personal approach to lead a team was certainly a rare occasion for executives to practice and to receive unbiased feedback.

The European Media Executive Leadership Programme is aimed at fostering the exchange of good practices between European and international media executives in order to respond to their unique developmental needs and –demands, in the context of their personal learning plan and peer network expectations.

(JW)

EMELP 2010 welcomed participants from:

Discovery Communications Deutschland GmbH, Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC), Discovery Communications Europe Ltd., Ferns Productions, ZDF, 3sat, Al Jazeera English, TV2 Lorry, STAR Investments, ABC Television, ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG, Discovery Networks Nordic, taglicht media GmbH

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