In January 2000, Network Ireland Television participated for the fourth
consecutive year at the NATPE Market in New Orleans as an exhibitor on the
British Pavilion. Derry O'Brien reports.
Whereas previously Network Ireland Television was the
only Irish company regularly exhibiting at this important trade fair, this
year, for the first time, Enterprise Ireland had an Ireland On Screen
information stand at NATPE, with 11 Irish participating companies. It is
to be hoped that this experiment will be repeated in the future, based on
the interest shown in the Irish group on this occasion.
NATPE is the largest television programme market in the world and attracts
over 17,000 delegates on an annual basis. It has traditionally been a US
Television domestic oriented show, where the various affiliates meet with
the main networks and discuss their existing and future schedules with
them. However in recent years there has been a major attempt by NATPE to
attract a much bigger international attendance.
This year there were national stands from Germany, Holland, France,
Switzerland , Spain and Italy, as well as the 55 member strong British
Pavilion. This reflects the fact that NATPE has now become a mainstream
Market that is shopped by broadcast buyers from all over the world (almost
50% of the 750 exhibitors are non-US companies.)
The biggest advantage any European Company would have in going to NATPE is
if they are able to present a catalogue which contains long form series of
up to 50 shows as the US programme planners appear to need continuity and
'strip' programming across the week on a daily basis. With approximately
600 hours of broadcasting, across all genres, Network Ireland Television
had more material to offer overall than some of the English participants
who were either small or start-up distribution companies. This point was
not lost on the buyers we had scheduled to meet at the market. The main
benefit of NATPE, from our company's point of view, was the opportunity it
gave us to reconfirm ongoing business negotiations with several North
American, European and other overseas Broadcasters and Distributors, with a
view to furthering these negotiations prior to the MIP TV Market in April.
Of the various programmes in our catalogue, we experienced strong interest
in the new TG4 documentaries we launched at this Market, particularly Mad
Dog Coll, and the Brendan Behan, Dean Swift and J.M. Synge profiles. The
various DIY, Lifestyle and cookery series (from both Brian Waddell
Productions and UTV) and the travel series (like TG4's Wild Ireland and
Above The Clouds) attracted much buyer interest. We confirmed a sale of
TG4's Escape From Antarctica to the Discovery-owned Travel Channel during
the Market. In particular, we had a very strong reaction to a just
completed entertainment programme, Highland Fling, which attracted a lot of
interest from broadcasters, particularly PBS, and video distributors alike.
The overall reaction to our appearance at each of these Markets has been
very positive indeed. The fact that we have consistently shown at both
NATPE and the two TV markets in Cannes (MIP TV and MIP
COM) in the past four years has elevated our profile among the
broadcasters whom we have been meeting on a consistent basis. They can see
that we are regularly introducing new products to the market and have an
interesting, albeit an Irish flavoured range of programmes available for
broadcast. The strength of the catalogue overall, however, is the fact
that we are not primarily selling Irish themed programming but more that
that we are selling quality broadcast material, in English language, which
coincidentally is made predominately by Irish producers. The fact that
National Geographic, The Travel Channel (USA), American Programme Services
(which services the PBS network) and Ovation (The Arts Channel) all have
done business with us in the past 18 months, based on our consistent
participation at these markets, indicates that they are not just looking,
for programming for March or St. Patrick's week, but are aware of our
programmings mainstream potential, primarily on specialist cable and
satellite channels. However, there is now such a proliferation of such
niche channels in the US cable and satellite Markets, that it is possible
to do a steady volume of business with these operators, if you have the
right material. This would appear to be the major area of interest for
Irish production companies in the future in the US Market.
The seminar programme at NATPE is always impressive, with high level
executives from the major US and International broadcast and production
groups particularly contributing as guest speakers or seminar panelists.
This year was no exception with people like Bernie Brillstein (Just Shoot
Me, The Sopranos), Roger King (Oprah) and Jerry Springer participating.
The main focus of the numerous seminar discussions overall was the looming
technology convergence and the impact of the internet on traditional
television. Audio tapes of all of these sessions are available through the
NATPE organisation.
- Derry O'Brien
www.network-irl-tv.com
