MIPTV 2017 Preview: Sam Barcroft, CEO, Barcroft Media
The below is written by Sam Barcroft, CEO, Barcroft Media, and is part of Found Remote's MIPTV 2017 preview series. Found Remote will again be at MIPTV with Applicaster (come say hi at the booth: Palais R7.J15).
Broadcasters find themselves in the middle of a double whammy - viewership is dissipating, and the shows that are rating tend to be more expensive.
So this year, MIPTV will be dominated by big-ticket drama and major entertainment formats.
Channels want to halt the decline in viewership, and are throwing big punches in order to land a knockout blow.
For smaller labels to thrive, they must develop high-end programming which can wrestle for budgets with the super indies.
The production community has consolidated greatly over the last decade, meaning the big producers are able to invest a great deal more in format development. The resulting shows attract broadcasters seeking the safety and marketability of a major brand.
These brands also benefit from global social media marketing. If a show launches in a key market and is a hit, the buzz on social is a huge opportunity to drive international sales.
And with the great distribution opportunities offered by internationally successful shows, there is more appetite for alternative financial models from companies wanting to capitalise on demand.
Non-broadcaster financing will become normal in box-set scripted, meaning channels will have to bear far less of the initial investment.
This offers opportunities for programmers with reduced spending power to get more for their money.
But with Alibaba, Netflix, Amazon and others jumping into a gold rush for wholly owned premium content, linear networks need to work quickly to avoid missing out on exciting shows this year.
UK and US broadcasters are now concentrating their commissioning efforts close to home, meaning for some countries, MIPTV is almost entirely a distribution market now.
But with many digital producers now keen to access the bigger budgets in traditional TV, the market may throw up some surprises in terms of new form content.