With 2013 just a few days away, we’ve decided to take stock of 2012, and look back at the year that’s coming to a close.
Below you’ll find a roundup of some of the biggest stories from VideoAge’s issues in 2012. (Remember that complete past issues are available for your perusal here.)
January 2012:
- “It’s a Jungle Out There: Finding Revenue in All the Right Places”: We looked at the complicated business of TV programming sales from an independent company’s standpoint, counting about 15 main ways to sell content rights.
- “U.S. Studios See NATPE As a ‘Definite Maybe’”: We discussed how we think NATPE could become more viable for the big guys — including moving the date to February (perfect for mid-season replacements) and attracting more European, Canadian and Asian-Pacific buyers.
- “Mexico’s Rich Market Worth Fighting For”: We explored how Mexico — with its rich economy and TV-dominated ad market is booming. We also delved into the way in which the country’s media barons — Carlos Slim, Emilio Azcarraga Jean and Ricardo Salinas Pliego —were vying for quadplay dominance (including TV, Internet, voice and mobile telephony). Just last week, we also posted a Watercooler about the success of Mexican companies (specifically Televisa) outside the country.
February/March 2012:
- “DV to Add Millions of Blind People to Video Consumption”: We explored Audio Description (AD) and Described Video (DV), two services meant to help blind people enjoy television. (DV was just implemented in the U.S. in July 2012). Note, this was also the time we started offering Audio Versions of our stories on our website.
- “L.A. Screenings: Comediennes, Brit-Tested Shows, Wacky Families,” our annual pre-L.A. Screenings story looked at some trends in U.S. network pilots — including female-led comedies and pilots based on British shows. Of course, we’d later learn that many of these wouldn’t see the light of day.
- “PR Biz: Between a Rock and a Hard Place”: Though publicists are not often seen or heard by the public (though their work is), we gave them their 15 minutes of fame — looking at some of the challenges of the business, notably having to cater to clients’ every need, on all digital platforms.
- “States are Banking on Tax Dowloads” – We talked about what the upcoming U.S. state tax on downloads might mean for content owners.
May 2012:
- “Development: Necessary Evil of the U.S. TV Biz”: We explored the U.S. development process — which orbits around the Upfronts in May — and some of the ups and downs. (Interestingly, the industry spends $500 million a year on development, and shows have an 80 percent failure rate).
- “Ranking Latin America’s Biggest TV Markets for the Indie LATAM companies”: We set out to find which countries represent the most money (among them Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Puerto Rico and Uruguay) and what types of programming sell best across the region (telenovelas, romantic comedies and specials).
- “U.S Drama Imports Top E.U. TV Schedules”: According to the Imported Drama Series report, CBSSI was the top distributor of imported series to Europe in 2012. The average hourly value of imported dramas reached $37,336 in 2011.
- “With Wi-Fi Onboard, Passengers May Bypass IFE”: We looked at what’s in store for content owners now that Wi-Fi is slowly becoming available on airplanes, and how in-flight entertainment can actually be a source of revenue for airline operators, content providers and their middle men.
June/July 2012:
- “NATPE to Energize Budapest’s TV Market”: VAI explored how changes at NATPE —now run by its brand new CEO Rod Perth — would affect NATPE Budapest (NATPE acquired full control of DISCOP East, turning it into NATPE Budapest in 2011).
- “Risk and Reward is a Fine Balance in Today’s Schedules”: Distributors and buyers talked about creating a balance between new/risky shows and revivals of old classics.
- “In September, Italians Keep International Film-TV Execs Captive”: We explored three big entertainment events in Italy in the fall — the Venice Film Festival, Prix Italia and the Roma Film Fest.
September/October 2012:
- “Life As a Program Buyer has Changed, But The Attention Hasn’t”: VideoAge looked into how buyers’ lives have changed (advertising dollars down, viewer alternatives up, cost of imported programs up, competition up, budgets down, ever-changing business models) and also stayed the same (lots of attention from distributors).
- “Content Piracy in LATAM: A Costly Issue All Around”: Discussion of a Miami-Florida based conference, “The Intellectual Property Summit,” which focused on piracy issues affecting the LATAM region.
- “Looking for the Next Big Thing”: When we asked what the next big thing was in the television industry, everyone said it was the Internet. But what exactly that would mean/entail, that was the interesting part…
- “The 2012-2013 Season is ‘Disaster’ in Dramas, ‘Losers’ in Comedies”: Among the trends we spotted for the new U.S. broadcast network TV season were major Hollywood actors going to the small screen, more experimental, single-camera comedies and well-established brands in the drama sphere.
November/December 2012:
- “Hispanic TV: NAB’s Ace to Deter Telco Spectrum Grab”: A frank talk with NAB CEO Gordon H. Smith about how broadcasters can avoid a dangerous move by Telcos.
- “At NATPE, Canadians Will Bring the Big Guys”: Will Canada have a large presence at NATPE? One of the issues that might help affect that answer is the sale of Alliance Films to Entertainment One. But overall, expect business as usual.“
- “Latins Take MIPCOM and TV Sales by Storm”: The October market in Cannes is now the third largest international TV trade show for LATAM (after NATPE and the L.A. Screenings) and distributors reported strong sales.
- “Local TV to Cope with Switch from Broadcast to Broadband”: An analysis from VideoAge’s Dom Serafini about the future for local U.S. TV stations, namely whether they’ll abandon airwaves for broadband, what they’ll do with extra channels and what their relationship with cable, satellite and networks will be.
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