Announced at MIPTV in April 2007, convergent trade-show AMAZIA makes its debut in Hong Kong from November 17-20, 2008. Television Asia catches up with Reed MIDEM’s Director TV Division, Paul Johnson and Franz Caduc Director of New Business Development, to hear more
1 September 2007
What emerging trends have been identified from MIPTV , MILIA and MIPCOM in the past few years? A number of countries and regions are going more and more global, and Asia has been at the forefront of this trend. Since 2002, both MIPTV and MIPCOM have seen a significant inflow of new exhibitors and participants from a large number of Asian countries. MIPTV organized a China Day in 2004 and a Korea Day at MIPTV 2005, and both events signaled the growth and importance of these markets. The India Day at MIPCOM 2007 next month heralds this country as one of the biggest high-potential players on the world market. The Middle East is also becoming more strongly present: United Arab Emirates opened MIPTV in 2006 and Wadah Kanfar, Director General of Al Jazeera Network, Qatar, delivered a keynote at MIPTV 2007. Russia is also showing fast growth and great potential.
New technologies have also driven enormous changes which have been reflected at our markets in Cannes. HDTV and digital entertainment/delivery are two major examples.
In 2003, MIPCOM focused upon high-definition television (HDTV), and this market continues to expand markedly every year. MIPCOM 2004 opened its doors with focus on the mobile entertainment industry, and the explosion in mobile media has continued ever since. Mobile TV Awards were launched at MIPCOM 2005, with honours given for creative excellence for new short form audiovisual entertainment content and services for mobile and, new in 2007, awards will include Internet media.
The International Interactive Emmy Awards were launched at MIPTV-MILIA 2006, celebrating the emergence of digital platforms that encompass TV, film, internet, mobile and home entertainment (On Demand Television/ Digital Distribution/ IPTV etc). Multi-platform / cross-media programming is now a deep trend that attracts both traditional and new industry players - as shown by the success of the MILIA Content 360 international competition.
What led to the decision to launch an entirely new show, AMAZIA? AMAZIA will answer a strong need in the entertainment business across the Asia Pacific region when it launches in Hong Kong in November 2008. We have been looking closely at growth and opportunities in Asia for several years. Our decision to create Amazia was of course based upon market research, but we also received a tremendous amount of encouragement from many of our MIPTV, MILIA and MIPCOM clients.
Through many discussions and meetings with current and prospective clients, along with detailed research in many countries and sectors of the entertainment business, we saw a need for a new business event in Asia. The opportunity we saw is to address the massive current and future changes that the digital revolution and the convergence of different media create for the various entertainment content industries. There is more and more cross-over of content genres across all distribution platforms, so the need for such a new concept is clear.
The AMAZIA concept has a unique positioning: AMAZIA is the first Asian and international business-to-business exhibition and conference dedicated to the creation and distribution of various entertainment content (audiovisual, music, games) across all delivery platforms. AMAZIA will bring these parts all together in one place at one time, and this will be new and truly unique in the Asia Pacific region. The event will combine exhibition, conferences and learning, networking and special events.
How will AMAZIA address different cross-platform and cross-entertainment needs? • Key content buyers, such as mobile operators, internet portals, IPTV services or content aggregators are looking for markets where they can acquire content/rights across all different content genres in a “one-stop-shop” location. This is the way the business is heading, and a market such as AMAZIA will be very efficient for buyers and sellers alike.
• We want to create a platform facilitating interactions between the different entertainment content industries (e.g., games with music, games with TV, etc.). The entertainment business is converging more and more in genre and format as well as in the creation, financing, marketing of properties themselves, and AMAZIA will facilitate that.
• We want to give our participants key information and vision about digital distribution of multiple content. We will organize a cross-platform digital entertainment summit to give voice to the trends, innovation, cutting-edge developments and leadership from across the industry.
At the same time, we recognize the needs of specific entertainment sectors, and we will organize: industry-specific conference tracks; screenings of games or TV programs; music showcases of local talent. Also, the exhibition floor will include some industry-specific areas such as a music village and a game developer zone. Finally, there will be a discovery/innovation zone with demos of unique content, content-centric devices and technology solutions.
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