CANNES: It’s been a fruitful first day at Mipcom for IndiaCast/Viacom 18 (booth number 10.3, level 1), which met up with nearly 43 buyers from markets including France, Indonesia, Russia, Switzerland, Australia, Brazil and Jordon to name a few.

The group expects to meet at least 120 companies from across the globe over the next three days of Mipcom.

IndiaCast group COO Gaurav Gandhi says: “We have 15,000 hours of content in our library across the group and we add more than 2,000 hours of fresh programming each year.”

The biggest draw according to Gandhi is: “Scripts of our famous drama series like Uttaran and Madhubala. That apart, formats like Roadies, Splitsvilla and Crunch aired on MTV are also in demand.”

IndiaCast/Viacom18 has on offer about 40 shows including Na Ana Iss Des Lado, Ballika Vadhu and Comedy Nights with Kapil as also regional channel content and around 40 Bollywood films.

“Mipcom is a good place for connecting with potential buyers from many smaller markets that we don’t have offices in or otherwise would never be able to reach out to. The discussions & negotiations begin here. It needs to be naturally followed up for things to materialise,” says Gandhi.

The group is looking to monetise all its intellectual properties to the hilt. “For example Japan has a huge market for clips and looks for buying clips of many of our shows. East Europe wants drama series dubbed in their language. Africa wants script rights…” informs Gandhi.

And yes, Colors’ recently launched series 24 is another property the group is betting on. “As regards 24, we are in the final stages of closing the deal with Pakistan,” reveals Gandhi.

Apart from selling content, the group is also looking at acquiring content for its various channels. “We need to be sensitive towards what we choose. It should connect with our audiences. We are looking at acquiring family drama content and also non-fiction shows,” rounds off Viacom18 executive VP strategy and business development Anuj Poddar.