As I believe I mentioned in previous posts, this past weekend was the MIP Junior marketplace for children’s television in Cannes, France. The larger market MIPCOM, which includes adult programming as well, is ongoing through the end of this week, but I was only there for the two days of child-centric activity and would like to give some thoughts and summaries.
The event takes place entirely at the Carlton Hotel (seen here), one of the premiere luxury hotels along the Mediterranean waterfront. (I stayed at the Ibis, by the way; it’s for a much better price and is only about ten minutes from the Carlton—it’s near the train station—and the room was very nice with free Internet. In case you’re planning on going to the festival in May or anything.) It’s therefore very small, with about 900 participants, and it was great to bump into people and be up close with all the creators of children’s television throughout the globe. I was able to overhear juicy bits like one executive director of a major children’s channel (I won’t say which) say The Hive, a much buzzed about new preschool show about a family of bees, is no good at all, while others were praising other shows I hadn’t yet heard of. Those and all the great meetings I was able to set up myself were the plusses, but the negatives were the fact that I had to throw together my schedule so quickly (given the unexpected early birth of my daughter which allowed me to go) and the market-centered nature of the event. It’s definitely about the buying and selling of programs, so anyone going to network and advertise their own services as I did is one step further removed from the purpose of the conference than at a event like KidScreen here in New York in Februaries. MIP is geared to the buying and selling, which is good if you’re buying or selling, but makes it that much more difficult to maneuver if you’re not. That said, there were amazing people there, great shows on display, and plethora of opportunities to trade writing, animation, and other services. Nowhere else would I be able to meet with people from Dubai, Mumbai, Seoul, Ottowa, Quebec City, Melbourne, Brighton, Regina, Brasilia, Bangalore, Brussels, Shanghai, London, and even the exotic Cleveland. That kind of international connectivity is priceless.
At any rate, there weren’t very many conference sessions, but even so I wasn’t able to attend all of them, particularly those on licensing. But the three or four sessions I did get into offered quite a bit to think about. Allow me to skim through my notes and pull out some points from the various presentations:
• Despite the plethora of kids’ programming that’s out there, there are going to be vacuums for content in certain markets. For instance, ABC in Australia is vastly expanding its preschool hours; Disney still needs material for XD, which has just about finished its global roll out; and where is all the boys’ action programming going to come from now that Disney bought Marvel? (Answer: it will come from new independent producers who want to do superhero cartoons, etc.) Oh, and China. There’s practically more money and potential viewers in China than in all other markets combined.
• All broadcasters agree that television is still more important than Internet or interactivity. Make sure your concepts are good for television and then worry about interactive content later. (Let online extend the viewing experience, rather than vice versa.)
• Cartoon Network (Adina Pitt, actually) suggests creating a “backdoor pilot” like a short film, interstitial, or miniseries, a method which really, incidentally, seems to work for Nickelodeon; perhaps CN as well.
• Do not try to sell anime to Japan. They do not want it. (They have enough.)
• Despite what I said about television as the main medium, its revenue stream is dying so eventually “broadcasters” will have to get out of that mindset. (Okay, that point’s not exactly breaking news.)
• Michel Mol of Netherlands Public Broadcasting gave a really good presentation about online privacy and protection for tweens, including one of the only good definitions I’ve ever heard of what a “tween” is, which he did by relating it to parents and freedom vs. control/protection: Tweens are that age group that is no longer completely protected and sheltered by parents but which is not yet competent enough to be left completely out on their own. At age eight kids are still basically taken everywhere by their parents (at least in big cities like this one), told what to do and with whom, etc., but by age twelve they are riding the bus or their bikes themselves, doing activities their parents don’t know about, etc. (hopefully by this age the parents have taught the kids to do good activities). So tweens, those 9- and 10-year-olds, are those who need marginal guidance to learn how to navigate things (the neighborhood, the Internet) for themselves. “They are no longer completely supervised, but are not yet equipped to on their own.” So the bulk of Michel’s presentation was about how his company is instigating higher tech technology to track and protect kids on the Internet, especially social networking sites, so that they can’t fudge their age, get around the rules, etc. This will be very important for children’s safetly online. (Because, yes, “tweens” are really just older children.)
• Go to Cartoon Network’s site and find the game creators for Star Wars, Batman, and Ben 10. They sound fun.
• Shifting gears to the “Next Big Hit” session, don’t look forward for one major hit like SpongeBob or The Simpsons: instead look for a series of medium-sized hits. Given the democratic nature of modern media that is the way future hits will be manifested. (Which reminds me of music: there will be no more super platinum albums anymore because people are downloading only tracks they want, not whole albums.)
• Look for Zing Zillas on the CBBC soon: it’s the Beeb’s first musical children’s show (3rd & Bird is Little Airplane.)
• Disney Channel UK is looking for an animated show that will fit between Hannah Montana and The Wizards of Waverly Place. Well, at least I understood “animated,” but I bet they’d take live-action and that Disney-Burbank would be interested too.
• Another news flash: Given evolving media we’re going to see a breakdown in the traditional broadcaster/producer/distributor relationship. New hits and new series will come out of any and everywhere and just well may “broadcast” any and everywhere.
I guess that’s about it. Sorry for the dearth on marketing and licensing information, which is half of what was going on there. Thanks to everyone who met with me and introduced me to other people, and (still) anyone interested in a writer for your show shoot me an email!
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