VideoAge checked in with Sabrina Ayala, vice president of Sales and Acquisitions, Latin America, Iberia and Italy at Cineflix and Ted Bookstaver, executive director, International Sales at Eyeworks to get their MIP-TV forecast.
VideoAge International: What product will you be highlighting at MIP?
Sabrina Ayala: New programs include: Beverly Hills Fabulous, which takes viewers inside the world of high-end hairdressing, where the only thing more outrageous than the hairdos are the stylists themselves; Animal Mega Moves, which centers on teams of movers, vets and transport engineers attempting to relocate huge animals across the globe over land, air, and sea; Sextuplets Take New York, which follows parents Victor and Digna Carpio, first-generation Ecuadorians, as they cope with the demands of raising their six little miracles and a nine-year-old while dealing with the high cost of living in a New York-sized living space; and much more.
Ted Bookstaver: We’ll be highlighting five titles. Love Triangle is a relationship show format that we produced for GSN in the U.S. Wendy Williams hosts the U.S. version of a studio show featuring three people in a love triangle. Next is a reality series Kalgoorlie about a mining town in the Western part of Australia. Scripted series as series and format Double Life, produced by Eyeworks Belgium, centers on two women who discover their husbands are leading a double life. Plus, we’re highlighting two formats, Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition (Obese) and Who Wants To Marry My Son, which are not new but have gotten a lot of buzz lately.
VAI: Will you be targeting any specific territories?
SA: Overall we take a global approach as we divide up the world among our sales team. My focuses are the Spanish, Italian and Portuguese speaking territories, and as always, there will be a large presence of buyers from these regions.
TB: Because we’re such a global company — we have 17 Eyeworks offices worldwide— we always take a global approach. We meet with everyone we can possibly meet with.
VAI: What do you make of the market being one day shorter than usual this year?
SA: I don’t think it will make much of a difference. It’s not really changing the way people plan their trips to Cannes; most buyers from Europe leave by Thursday morning. Usually, the only people to stay through Thursday are coming from far-off places in Asia or the Americas. And I’ve never had anyone looking to meet on the Friday, so if anything, it’s probably a cost saver across the board.
TB: It really doesn’t change that much for us. Yes, it does squeeze things a little bit. But we will have a full schedule and we’ll do our best to accommodate everybody, and I believe we will. One day less of this market will only encourage us to be more active on non-market days by going to territories and visiting clients before the market.
VAI: What do you make of the reduced studio presence this time around?
SA: It gives buyers more time to meet with distributors they might not have been able to see in the past. Plus, the studios have the L.A .Screenings to showcase their programs to everyone just a few weeks after MIP. It’s good for everyone, including the studios.
TB: I suppose the quick and easy answer is that it will enable us to have more time with the buyers. The fact that the buyers will not be as occupied with as many studio meetings can only be positive. In terms of the market itself, I suppose it’s a negative, but I’m not looking at it from that perspective. We’re going make the most of this opportunity regardless.
VAI: What is your next market after MIP-TV?
SA: MIPCOM. I will be traveling frequently to see my clients in their offices before then.
TB: The L.A. Screenings. But it’s not as if we’re going there to exhibit. But we’ll be participating in that. To what degree, I’m not sure yet. And based on MIP-TV we’ll evaluate whether we’ll attend DISCOP East.
