By Leah Hochbaum Rosner
With MIPCOM right around the corner, television executives around the globe are gearing up for a visit to Cannes that they hope will be filled with cocktails, conferences, meetings, meals and business deals. One such exec is Caterina Vacchi, senior manager and executive producer of Milan, Italy-based Atlantyca Entertainment, who will be at the market promoting her company’s flagship children’s series Geronimo Stilton. Following Atlantyca’s recent expansion — which established dedicated licensing and publishing divisions — VideoAge spoke with Vacchi about Atlantyca’s grand plans for Cannes and how the company manages to navigate the many television markets and festivals that take place in the fall.
VideoAge International: What product will you be bringing to MIPCOM?
Caterina Vacchi: For Atlantyca, our primary program is the new animated series Geronimo Stilton, and we are very excited to have just completed (with our co-production partner, MoonScoop) the first teaser for the series, offering international broadcasters a first peek at how the series is coming to fruition. For us, we see MIPCOM as an opportunity to update our clients and potential broadcast partners on the status of the production of the series. In addition, this is a significant time of growth with the recent expansion of our company — establishing dedicated licensing and publishing divisions — and we are [at MIPCOM] to not only talk about the projects and initiatives we are working on in those key areas, but we are also seeking potential business partners for all three (four if you count the foreign rights division) divisions.
VAI: Do you have anything special planned for the market?
CV: We will be announcing our first broadcast partners for Geronimo and have news from our publishing and licensing divisions, as well. MIPCOM is a market dedicated to many aspects of the entertainment industry and we seek to expand business opportunities in each of these key areas.
VAI: What territories will you be focusing on?
CV: We are co-distribution partners with Taffy Entertainment and jointly distribute the series worldwide. So all territories are important to us.
VAI: Why is MIPCOM such an important market for Atlantyca?
CV: It offers such an extensive opportunity to meet with people you might normally not be able to easily meet with, or would have to travel far to meet with. For us, we spend a lot of quality personal time with our co-production partner (rather than our usual teleconferencing). The market also permits us to have business and social time with potential new partners for all of Atlantyca’s divisions — whether it be publishing, licensing or production.
VAI: With the Toronto and Venice Film Fests, the AFM and SPORTELMonaco, as well as MIPCOM, all taking place in the fall, does it ever feel like there are simply too many markets taking place at the same time?
CV: We actually just attended Brand Licensing, and we are on our way to the Frankfurt Book Fair. It is a very busy time of the year, but these markets, like MIPCOM, are important to our business and help us to maintain strong relationships — especially from a publishing perspective. We look forward to all of them and manage to participate in many by splitting up a bit. Some of us attend one, while others attend others.
