Cannes: A 100 plus strong delegation has been making its presence felt at Reed Midem’s MIPTV 2016 in this picturesque small town of Cannes on the French Riviera. Thankfully the weather has held up and the skies have been clear on most days, excepting for one when it drizzled steadily throughout. Touts on the streets made a killing selling umbrellas. On other days, a nip in the air forced everyone to bring out their cardigans and overcoats.
But on Day 3 of the 50 plus year old market cum festival, the sun came out in all its glory with the temperature climbing up and television executives feeling its full blaze even as the deal making and the conferences and debates hotted up.
MipTV, the festival-cum-market has attracted upwards of 10,500 participants, at a time when Europe has been grappling with warning signs about it being a no-visit zone courtesy the terrorist attacks.
For the Indians, the highlight of MipTV is the honouring of the two Goenka brothers – Punit and Amit Goenka (the scions of media entrepreneur Subhash Chandra) – with the Medialle des Honneurs on 6 April. Punit, who was supposed to come, could not make it on account of a family emergency, but Amit did. This is the first time an Indian is being honoured as such by the French company Reed Midem.
Additionally, the other high points have been an India format session moderated by Indiantelevision.com founder Anil Wanvari, and a session on 4K in which TravelXP CEO Prashant Chothani participated. Other panelists on the India session included: Ajay Nair (OML), Rahul Sangari (Grey Matter), GoQuest Media (Vivek Lath), and Yogesh Karikurve (ZeeTV).
Indian companies such as Zee TV, Star India, GoQuest, Vedic Broadcasting, DQ Entertainment, Cosmos Maya, Eros Worldwide, Indiantelevision.com, Indiacast, Green Gold Animation, Rajshri Entertainment, are among those companies which have come on as exhibitors.
Film producer Prasad Devineni who bankrolled the Indian multilingual blockbuster film Bahubali and who also churns out many a TV show in the Telugu market made it to MIPTV to explore new avenues for his company Arka Media Works.
Cosmos Maya CEO Anish Mehta was cock-a-hoop with delight about the deals his company had managed to sign on at MipTV.
MIPTV also had some grand moments like the premier for Roots and The Story of God (Morgan Freeman), Morgan Spurlock’s keynote, the launch of MipDrama Screenings, the keynotes by author and writer Harlan Coben, Vivendi Content & Havas Media CEO Domiqnique Delport, RTL co-CEO Gullaume de Posch, Mattel COO & President Richard Dickson and Wildness chief strategy officer Margaret Czeisler.
At the time of writing all eyes were turned towards the Medaille D’Honneur ceremony which was slated to be held late on the evening of 6 April. Amit is expected to receive the award for himself and his brother in front of an audience consisting of leading global TV executives.
In addition to Punit Goenka and Amit Goenka, three other distinguished TV industry leaders will receive Médaille d’Honneur in Cannes including: Germany's Studiocanal TV MD Rola Bauer, Disney Media Networks global distribution president Ben Pyne from the US and Mexico's Comarex president Marcel Vinay.
