NATPE Miami 2014 has just wrapped up, and here’s a straight-from-the-market-floor report on this year’s edition. We’ll have a more detailed account in our DISCOP (March) and MIP-TV (April) issues, but here are some quick takeaways.
First, the plusses: Despite the fact that much of the U.S. was under a deep freeze, the weather in Miami was perfect — in the high 70s and low 80s. (Showers only showed up on the last day.) The market was very hectic, too, with attendees boasting full schedules.
The Welcome Party that preceded the Opening Night Party, was well attended, and even Philip Levine, the new mayor of Miami Beach (a former media executive) made a presentation (check VideoAge’s Day 1 Daily for a message from Florida’s governor).
The actual number of parties was 15, three more than originally reported by VideoAge Daily.
VideoAge was inundated with an unusually high number of press releases announcing new sales to LATAM. Keep an eye out for our daily E-beat e-mail blasts to get the details, since they’re too numerous to report here.
Also, this NATPE recorded a large contingent of Canadian exhibitors, mostly on the floor and some without stands, like Breakthrough, TeleLatino, MZTV and Nelvana. Plus, NATPE sponsored a Spotlight on Canada initiative with a co-production session in which Telefilm Canada, Canada Media Fund, Canadian Media Production Association and the Alliance of Canadian Cinema Television and Radio Artists, participated.
Now, the minuses: Overall, the feeling was that the market it too short. In fact, the long lines at the Tresor’s elevator banks continued until the afternoon of the last market day, on Wednesday.
Interestingly, some exhibitors at the elevator-challenged Tresor Tower (one of the four towers that held exhibition suites at the Fontainebleau Hotel) are considering moving next NATPE to the Sorrento Tower in order to avoid the long elevator’s lines.
Interesting happenings:
- On Monday, Telemundo held a press conference to announce a deal with Reset TV (see Day 2 Daily, main story ). Sara Maldonado, the star of new show Camelia la Texana, attended to answer questions
- Viacom International Media Networks also held a press conference on Monday (see Day 2 Daily ). They gave out 15 iPad Minis to the press in attendance (so everyone who went got one), and a tech person came around at the end of the conference to install a Nickelodeon App.
- Last year, at main rotunda of the Fontainebleau Hotel reception, the crowd was concentrated mainly at the bar area. This time, with price increases (a small bottled water was $6.55), the bar area was almost empty, while the crowd seemed to linger in the main entrance instead.
- The Argentinean Consulate in Miami rented a boat for the Argentina’s NATPE participants to invite their clients onboard for lunch and dinners.
- One of the Tartikoff Award recipients, Lauren Zalaznick, originally inducted as NBCUniversal’s evp of Media Innovation, was no longer working at NBCUniversal by the time the event rolled around.
- On the domestic (U.S.) front, some participants wondered how Debmar-Mercury managed to get Craig Ferguson to host a Monday-to-Friday syndicated game show (called Celebrity Name Game) when he’s also hosting a late night daily talk show for CBS. Apparently, agents for Ferguson approached Debmar-Mercury with the idea, and not the other way around.
- VideoAge reporters did not attend any of the conferences, busy as they were covering the exhibition floor and the four towers. However, we were told that panelist David Levy, president of Turner Broadcasting System, declared the end of Netflix as soon as broadcasters finalized negotiations for their TV everywhere services.
- Next year, NATPE will start a week early, Jan. 20-22, and on a Tuesday, instead of its traditional Monday in order not to infringe on the Martin Luther King national holiday. The calendar move was made so as not to coincide with the Realscreen Summit in D.C. again. NATPE Miami 2015 will take place at the Fontainebleau once again.
