Sunny state of business reflected on the Croisette.

With a buoyant TV business, international TV exports accounting for $8 billion annually (according to The Wall Street Journal Europe) and burgeoning technologies offering new opportunities, it's no surprise that MIP-TV's attendance was up nine percent from last year (to 13,311), and the number of stands grew by five percent (to 535). One country that enjoyed a particularly strong presence was Singapore, with its large Media Development Authority-sponsored stand. In fact, Asian companies were widely being credited for causing this growth in numbers. Add in great weather and you get an overall unbeatable mood at the five (yet, in reality, three or four)-day event.

As has become de rigueur in recent years, the majority of the 45 MIP conferences focused on all things digital--from user-generated content to cross-platform brands. But during RTL Group CEO Gerhard Zeiler's keynote address, entitled "Capturing Digital Opportunities: Traditional Media Strikes Back," Zeiler insisted that traditional broadcasters are holding their own amidst new players like YouTube and Google. Aside from the torrent of news those companies generate, he said, "a number of very different deals have made the headlines," and pointed to "mergers and acquisitions activity around traditional business." His goal was to prove that rather than turning into dinosaurs, traditional broadcasters are both active and attractive. Zeiler suggested broadcasters look beyond the traditional advertising model to diversify sources of income. He also urged broadcasters to fragment themselves and get involved in more distribution pipes.

Kids' distributor DIC Entertainment is certainly getting into the multidistribution pipe business. Just before MIP, the company announced that, in an effort to sign more cohesive deals, it had formed a Global Brand Management division encompassing Television, Home Entertainment and Consumer Products. After MIP, Dan Waite, DIC's vice president and regional manager of Latin America, described his newly expanded role as feeling "like having my own little business within DIC." While Waite met with partners at MIP, he admitted that as a Latin American Sales executive, the importance of MIP-TV is waning. "The Latins have decided that it's not in their best interest to attend. They assume that not much has changed since NATPE in January and are preparing to come to the Screenings," he said. Wake added that it's for that reason he tends to see Mexican and Brazilian clients more than clients from smaller territories. As in the rest of the world, Waite said Latin American terrestrial distributors are looking to lure kids back from cable TV rivals. "They're looking for top stuff, and spending their money more wisely." DIC hoped to attract buyers with new series Horseland, I Was a High School Dinosaur and Sushi Pack.

New to this year's event was a Focus On Italy. The country was highlighted at the MIP Opening Night Party (which had a Venetian theme), and several conferences featured Italian speakers.

In addition to the red, white and green focus, the event was also infused with a purely green hue (both in regards to dollars and the environmentally oriented programs they can generate). In response to concerns over global warming, Reed MIDEM put environmental-themed programming into the spotlight. Filmmaker and photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand (author of aerial portrait book "Earth from Above"), the "green keynote speaker," was the recipient of the first-ever Reed MIDEM Green World Award, bestowed at a gala dinner at the Carlton Hotel. Additionally, a conference entitled "Can Green TV be Primetime TV?" took place on the first day of the event, to further drive home the point.

For the second time, MIP featured the Interactive Emmy Awards, hosted by actor Roger Bart and attended by 250 executives. Canada came out on top, with "Zimmer Twins" and "ReGenesis Extended Reality Game" tying for the Interactive Program category. Canadian service Bite TV received the Interactive Channel category. The Pioneer Prize was presented to Britain's BSkyB for its innovative contributions to the field of interactive television.

Among the stars on the Croisette was Kristanna Loken, star and co-producer of Painkiller Jane, a Starz series in which she plays government agent Jane Vasco. Director Spike Lee added some wattage to the event on the second day of the market when he came to endorse Babelgum, a global Internet TV network, created by Italian media magnate Silvio Scaglia. Lee gave the network rights to his short film, Jesus Children of America. On the kookier side was cult director John Waters, who attended MIP to promote campy Fremantle series Love You to Death, which features re-enactments of stories in which husbands or wives killed their spouses. Waters hosts the series as the Groom Reaper.

Among the big news on the Croisette was the unveiling of humanitarian Bob Geldof's The Dictionary of Man, an eight-part series made by the BBC and BBC Worldwide. The series aims to record every human society on Earth (made possible by the Internet). The BBC used MIP as a forum to line up partners for what will undoubtedly be one expensive project.

Market organizer Reed MIDEM had quite a bit of news to unveil itself. Firstly, the market announced plans for a new pan-Asian, business-to-business exhibition and conference entitled Amazia. The event, devoted to the creation and distribution of international entertainment content across all delivery platforms, will take place in Hong Kong in November 2008. It will include the distribution of television, film, music and games across terrestrial, digital, cable and satellite broadcasting, mobile and wireless, broadband Internet, interactive television, IPTV and handheld devices.

In order to build a link between MIP and the Cannes Film Festival, Reed announced that the MIP team will host a conference for filmmakers about digital rights issues on the Cannes Film Festival's opening day, while the Cannes Film Fest will sponsor three categories of films during October's MIPCOM Mobile Awards. With international partnerships, increased participant numbers and big business deals being announced, it's safe to say MIP-TV is alive and well.