Videoage International August-September 2021

13 Four Decades of Int’ l TV Biz August/Sept. 2021 V I D E O A G E The year 1997 was characterized by the power of Rupert Murdoch, upon whose media empire the sun never sets, and by the retirement of Bruce Gordon from Paramount (but not from the industry, since he took over Australian TV network WIN). Of the top 100 international TV distributors, the U.S. topped the list with 32 content sales companies, followed by Canada (12), France and Germany (10 each), the U.K. (8), Spain (6), and Argentina and Japan (5 each). TV via Internet (what we now call “streaming”) made its first appearance in 1998. Even before female TV executives became a strong presence in Cannes for MIP- TV and MIPCOM, the large female contingent burst onto the scene at the L.A. Screenings as early as 1999. The decade closed with NATPE organizers still hoping for the revival of a dying U.S. syndication market, and a look at Venezuela’s Cisneros Group, with an interview of Carlos E. Cisneros (who’d die by suicide four years later at age 38). 1997 1999 1998 2000