| CANNES:
Japan is the country of honour at this year's MipTV, but it could well be India's
day just like at Mipcom in October 2007. Indian
broadcasters, producers and distributors will turn out in droves when MipTV commences
in Cannes' famed Palais des Festivals in the south of France on Monday, 7 April.
In fact, this is the strongest presence from India in MipTV's history.
Among the first
timers who will be making their debut as exhibitors include: NDTV Imagine (Harsh
Rohatgi), Studio 18 and Indian Film Company (Tanuj Garg), Idreams (Ashish Bhatnagar,
Rohit Sharma), Bollywood Masala, and TBSL-FTPGI. Among
the oldtimers who are continuing with their presence include: Sony Entertainment,
Zee Entertainment, Sahara One Entertainment, Eros Multimedia. Veterans Venus and
Shemaroo are also exhibiting. Others
who are making their debut as participants include: Reliance Entertainment (Rajesh
Sawhney, Tarun Katial and Ashutosh), Reliance Capital (Shalini Behl, Krishnamurthy).
While Katial will be looking at acquiring formats, alliances, partnerships, Behl
and Krihsnamurthy were seen screening documentaries at Mipdoc -- which were produced
in HD. Other
oldtimers who have made their way to the French Riviera include: Iqbal Malhotra,
Viacom 18, VH1, Discovery, Endemol, DQ Entertainment, Imageventures, Infoseek,
Optimystix, Star India (Keertan Adyanthaya, Sameer Rao), INX Media (Peter Mukerjea,
Indrani Mukerjea). The
presence of India is up by around 20-25 per cent at the time of writing. Says
an observer: "The Indian television market has an insatiable desire for content
with the explosion in channels. Also there is pressure from managements to find
alternative sources of revenues and to syndicate content in other markets. Hence
Indian TV executives are being forced to go to MipTV and Mipcom as it is one of
the most focused markets in the world. And of course there is the new market called
Amazia which should prove attractive for Indian digital and traditional content
companies." MipTV
and Mipcom director Paul Johnson says that research has shown that the two markets
are responsible for almost $12 billion in programming transactions, a figure which
can only go up with the explosion in the number of media outlets such as HD television,
home video, online and mobile video. Clearly,
the Indian companies are just about beginning to understand that they can grab
a piece of the action. | 
