CANNES: It's action stations at picturesque Cannes, in southern France, the US-Iraq war notwithstanding.
In its fortieth year, the Reed Midem organized MIPTV 2003 is to be flagged off on 24 March with partying and revelry. 2484 additional companies are participating covering 92 countries as against 2411 in MIPTV 2002. Even the number of exhibitors is up to 1,224 as against 1,169 in 2002. this represents 58 countries as against 55 last year. 
The strongest presence is coming from European companies which represent 61 per cent of those participating, North America is next with 18 per cent and Asia Pacific is taking up 14 per cent of the participation.
16 Indian companies, including Discovery India, Balaji Telefilms, Optimystix, UTV, AIM Television, Indian Television Dot Com and MIPTV old timers, Madhu Entertainment, the Jumani family run WEG will all be present at MIPTV.
The list of companies attending is as follows.
*AIM TELEVISION PVT LTD 
*BALAJI TELEFILMS LIMITED, INDIA 
*COLOR CHIPS INDIA LTD 
*DIGIKORE STUDIOS LTD. 
*DISCOVERY COMMUNICATIONS 
*E-CITY ENTERTAINMENT (I) PVT. LTD. 
*ESCOSOFT TECHNOLOGIES LTD. 
*FUTURE THOUGHT PRODUCTIONS PVT LTD 
*JADOO WORKS PVT LTD 
*MADHU ENTERTAINMENT & MEDIA PVT. LTD. *OPTIMYSTIX ENTERTAINMENT INDIA PVT LTD *ORIENTAL TELEDISTRIBUTORS PVT LTD INDIA
*UTV SOFTWARE COMMUNICATIONS LTD 
*VALE MUSIC (INDIA) PVT LTD
*INDIAN TELEVISION DOT COM 
*WEG