Opinion: Mip London & Screenings - The Great British Cocktail Party

Friends, we made it to London! So let’s get the lowdown!

I am learning the lesson that life is what you make it, so let’s preface all of this with that thought. I also think how you look at life determines if you see the positives or negatives in the opportunities we are presented, such as Mip London and London TV Screenings. Last week will have had very different outcomes for each of us, partially due to the fact we are not all in the same position and this event cannot be all things to all people equally.

Mip London

Where to start? So we all rolled into London with our umbrellas and our winter wardrobes, making sure to check in at the IET for at least one event (The Fresh Formats obvs) so we would not be charged for our Mip badges (yes that was the inducement for some buyers to attend)…and what happened?

The duration for this combined event ran to between five and nine days, with some strategic events bookending the week to utilise the fact we were all in London.

Mip had Sunday and Monday exclusively due to the lack of Screenings (although there was BBC Studios Showcase), then Tuesday was full force for the Screenings start. RX claimed 2,800 attendees for MIPTV but the venue got sparser as the days went along with mostly sellers hovering around the halls.

The two Savoy venues with the rabbit warren of rooms and corridors did not work. The over-officious and shouty badge scanners need to take a chill pill, although there were no bag checks slowing us down. It rained, we found cafes as alternative meetings venues… Wolfox being a favourite of many. We ran everywhere and we still ended up late constantly. There were a limited number of exhibitors trying to keep the 30 minute meeting alive but it felt out of symmetry with the event.

The format conference sessions were basic and in desperate need of new blood. That Fox can give a $5,000 cheque to a winner of the Format Pitch and take/share global IP rights and distribution is in need of review. Say what you will about the Fresh, but even David Beckham did not fill the room as much as Virginia did but yes, we did miss some launches we would have expected to see that fell between markets.

And Beckham, let’s be clear… the biggest feedback I heard was that he was smoking hot. Sorry, but I can’t sell a format from that! Can, or maybe more importantly, should it come back? If the market can draw people together who would not have otherwise been at the Screenings then yes, it should, but a huge rethink will be needed and I would not expect this market to endure as long as Mip TV.

The Screenings

How many steps did you do each day - 20k, 30k? More distributors, more problems right? The screenings are spread everywhere.

It seems buyers were well entertained with oysters and champagne in cinemas and hotels and you all felt very special and loved. I even saw a dedicated Belgian taxi of one distributor shuttling it’s clients to hotels. Amazing.

But, now in the fifth iteration of the event, my gripe with Screenings is that distributors are trying to monopolise buyers for as long as possible. Three hours, five hours, cocktails, and no screenings. One very insightful thought was equality - even with fewer launches, All3 cannot have a shorter screening than Banijay as the events are created to look equitable (but still long)!

We had late invites, presentation mishaps, waiting lists and trailers that gave nothing away. We had distributors who possibly did not think about the order in which to present their formats and therefore put the buyers in a non-buying mood by the end.

The BBC Studios experience at hosting Showcases shone through and Banijay was a success due to the variety of new launches but if these events are to keep existing, they have to help us do our job. It has to justify our time and simple things - like making us wait until summer for clips or screening a whole episode instead of clips - might not be the way forward. Also, folks, you have to remember that many buyers have English as a second language and so warming up crowds and British humour won’t translate.

London TV Screenings does not cater to the indies at all, it caters to the groups and broadcasters mostly. However, we are starting to see a split in how we categorise attendees: some buyers are 100% informed and do not need or want the long sessions, they might skip those and prefer to spend time with other broadcasters to understand strategy from other markets. Some buyers want general admission, to be entertained and they might need to see all the clips as they may not have been as informed.

It means these events may need to change to include earlier paper content - that will ensure that those who are very well informed don’t feel like they can miss the event, while providing more passive screenings will allow for other buyers who who need time to digest.

The big content conspiracy

We saw a flurry of line-up announcements pre-market. The highs and lows? For me the break-out success, regardless of the second episode ratings dip, was Extracted from Fox Entertainment Global. They have genuinely elevated an over-exposed genre and done it well. Expect other formats to capitalise on this game play very soon.

I can’t bear to see any more hunting or tracking formats, but fine, along comes The Hunt from Seven.One Studios International, a la Talpa’s Most Wanted. Ants (Fremantle) made enough noise to drown out many other titles (including House of Secrets), AI Love You (Banijay) opened a discussion, and there were some smaller titles like Date on Stage (Banijay) that gave fresh, outside-the-box ideas.

I was delighted to see the Warner slate announced pre-market and some of the Food Network formats being launched, which are small but exportable. There were a lot of cocktail parties in place of new launches though, especially from the indies, where format status updates were given. Again, this goes back to the idea of being equitable in terms of prominence during the market, but I wonder how many people at these actually buy (when something new comes along).

We do have a problem right now about honesty around ratings, hushed conversations in halls about formats that were actually ‘flops’ yet positioned as headliners. Spin the ratings all you like, but don’t call it a hit if you can’t keep the audience. Don’t charge a percent of producers’ margin on top of a format fee - just be happy for sales.

We also have a problem that a lot of content is with groups and, where it is not, the distributors and producers have a direct-to-broadcaster approach. They then have a ‘circle back to producers once they get rejections or options expire’ approach, which is BS.

People, you have to understand that (good) producers are gold. We need them and in some markets it is smarter to go with a prodco than a channel because they have output deals with channels meaning guaranteed hours to fill and/or talent attached. Sometimes you can even negotiate better commercial deals.

Conclusion

Let’s be clear from the very top, we do not and never did need any market in February, especially when we are in a risk and commissioning drought.

We had Mipcom, then Content London, Realscreen, Natpe and now Mip London and Screenings. What magician has enough content to cover all this? Next comes pre-(no) Mip European pitches in April, followed by the Paris Screenings, followed by Natpe Budapest, NEM, followed by Edinburgh, another pre-mip and then Mipcom.

The screenings and Mip London brought us together, the fear is our needs for these markets are diverging a little too much and we are segmenting - buyers meeting other buyers for insights, rather than with distributors. We have to work harder at engagement but ultimately Cannes is and was missed. The magic of Goelands remains unbeaten. But, I Could Be Wrong… that is also the the musical pairing from Kensington we can put alongside this.

So what’s next? Well Paris Screenings is coming. France in April… oh that sounds vaguely familiar. 

Siobhan Crawford has worked with unscripted formats for almost two decades and is founder at UK-based Glow Media. Before that, she was head of sales and acquisitions at Benelux format distributor Primitives and has also held roles at DRG and Zodiak.