Distributors' Theme Song At Mip-tv: Come Together Distributors' Theme Song At Mip-tv: Come...

Dramatic changes in the worldwide television business are positioning this year's MIP-TV as the biggest, busiest and most eclectic gathering in the market's 35-year history.

"It promises to be a dynamic market this year as the very real shifts that are taking place in the industry become obvious," said Rene Peres, director of the TV division and marketing for MIP-TV, which opens Friday in Cannes.

One major trend involves the way many European program suppliers are joining forces to cash in on the mushrooming demand for quality programming in the world market.

Most European suppliers have formed new groups to oversee program sales under single banners this year. "The growing export potential for their programs has resulted in individual distributors becoming more organized for this market," Peres said.

For example, the German television companies -- Bavaria, Studio Hamburg, NDR and WDR -- have joined their international TV and video sales forces into a new unit called German United Distributors, which makes its first MIP-TV appearance this year.

Another new initiative comes from five major Nordic companies: DR TV International in Denmark, Norway's NRK Aktivum and the Norwegian Film Institute, and Sweden's SVT Sales and Svensk Filmindustri.

Presenting themselves at MIP-TV as Nordic on Screen, the companies say the united front will coordinate marketing activities and increase sales and prices for programming, Peres said.

The French also have been aggressive in this trend, forming TV France International to sell programming in the international market.

All these groups have arisen as a result of the unprecedented growth of new channels worldwide and the growth of digital platforms. New operations seeking a wide variety of programs can now deal with just one sales entity for an entire territory rather than do the rounds with scores of individual suppliers. TVFI, for instance, represents 110 French companies at the market with more than 800 programs to sell -- all of which get exposure on the TVFI Web site.

Also affecting the market this year will be the increased appetite for local product throughout virtually all foreign markets. While this has been brought about partly by anticipated new government quotas, it also reflects an improvement in the quality of European productions.

"We will look at everything, but since our channels have developed more of an identity, we have become a lot pickier," said acquisitions manager Gabriella Ballabio of Italy's Mediaset International. "If we don't find what we are looking for, we'll just produce it ourselves."

Mediaset and pubcaster RAI, which dominate Italy's TV market, have earmarked much larger portions of their budgets for local production. RAI, in particular, has made "homemade" its mantra. Sergio Silva, head of Cinemafiction, RAI's production-acquisition unit, has increased production by 80% in 1997 and now has 300 hours of primetime domestic fare in the pipeline.

However, RAI said it remains in the market for Hollywood movies and family-oriented series.

Mediaset, on the other hand, said it will be more interested in scoping out potential partners for TV movie production.

The mission to set up international co-ventures is not a new trend for MIP-TV, but this year more business time will probably be spent actually talking about future international production marriages for all genres of programming, participants said.

Paramount International Television president Gary Marenzi, while bullish about the market as a sales arena, is also looking to MIP-TV as a venue in which to pursue production partnerships, he said. "We have multiple ideas, and we are assessing the relative merits of different potential partners," he said.

But Marenzi, like other major U.S. program suppliers, said the market will be bullish for quality programs.

"When you look at primetime in Europe, you could say local programming is more important, but with the variety of channels emerging, there is an overall increase in the demand for U.S. programming," said Michael Grindon, president of Columbia TriStar International Television.

"But when the quality is not there, neither is the demand," added Grindon, who is marketing "Party of Five" and Pamela Anderson actioner "VIP" among a big slate of other series and movies.

The growing demand for high-quality programming was also identified by MIP-TV's Peres. "Quality is key this year," he said. "With so many channels vying for viewers around the world, the competition is very strong, and these new operations cannot hope to attract and retain viewers with programs that are not of the highest quality."

Marenzi pointed to Paramount TV's syndicated hour reality program "Wild Things" -- he calls it a show about "animals with attitude" -- as an example of the kind of programming that will sell well at MIP-TV. "Wild Things" will get a major push from Paramount at the market.

This tactic is in line with yet another theme emerging at MIP-TV -- a huge demand for nonfiction programming brought about by the explosion of thematic channels worldwide.

So dramatic is the market for documentary and nonfiction programming in general that MIP-TV has organized a prologue to the market exclusively for documentary programs. MIPDOC runs Wednesday and Thursday at the Martinez Hotel.

Participants from 72 countries will be at MIPDOC, including 320 nonfiction program buyers from such organizations as the BBC, the Australian Broadcasting Corp., Discovery, USA Networks and National Geographic.

Meg Bortin in Paris and Nick Vivarelli in Rome contributed to this report.