TV screens in a display
© AFP/DDP/FileCANNES, France (AFP) - "We had a fantastic market this year," Paul Johnson, television director for show organizer Reed MIDEM told a press conference here.
After a slow start, television finally looks as if it is about to undergo the same sort of digital revolution that has changed the face of the music business, industry experts said here.
This can only be good news for TV addicts eager to enjoy their favourite programmes whenever, wherever and however they want.
Interest in the five-day show, which closes its doors here Friday, was very high with 11,616 participants from 52 countries registered as of 19 October, Johnson said. This was seven percent higher than the same period last year.
The numbers of buyers hunting for fresh content also rose seven percent, to 3,482.
The plethora of new TV entertainment platforms emerging around the world -- from the Internet to the mobile phone and the iPod -- fueled a lot of deal-making, Johnson said.
New media opportunities also accounted for a big presence this year of Asian companies at the forefront of the revolution in digital entertainment technology. A total of 1,323 participants from the region were expected to attend, with Japan and South Korea leading the charge.
MIPCOM's focus this year on the mobile TV market was a huge success, Johnson said.
All the major cell phone companies came to town to snap up content for the latest generation 3G and 2.5G phones.
Industry experts have blamed the sluggish arrival of cell phone TV on the reluctance of television companies to sell entertainment content to the telecom operators, fearing it will cut into their main broadcasting revenues.
But times are changing fast. "TV on the mobile was one of the big successes of the last 12 months," said Peter Bazalgette, senior exec at reality TV powerhouse Endemol.
Reality fans clocked up 500,000 downloads on their cell phones across Australia, Italy and Britain this year to check into Endemol's latest smash hit "Big Brother" series.
It was the same story for "24:Conspiracy", the first-ever original live-action thriller produced exclusively for the cell phone by Fox Entertainment Group.
With TV content providers like Endemol starting to tailor-make TV material for the mobile, mobile business deals are starting to happen.
"We reserved rights to 3G early on due to foresight built on nervousness," Bazalgette said at a press conference here. "Now we're now starting to do deals."
The tiny cell phone was not the only new media product to be attracting interest this MIPCOM -- broadband television is also hotting up.
Broadband TV allows viewers to watch TV via an Internet connection instead of a traditional aerial, satellite dish or cable connection.
This new pipeline could lead to many TV fans getting their daily fix on their computers rather than on the box in a corner of the sitting room.
Leading UK commercial network ITV revealed Wednesday, for example, that they are linking up with Narrowstep to provide a national network of local television stations.
The announcement also followed news earlier in the week that Satellite TV heavyweight BsyB is eying up broadband Internet provider Easynet.
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