CANNES, France — If you think TV is already peaking in North America, brace yourselves for a world of content spilling over from the rest of the world. That’s my view on my third visit to MIPCOM, the international television marketplace. Here literally thousands of TV shows are shopped to content seekers from around the
Just before I go on his early afternoon show each Wednesday, I can hear CHML’s Scott Thompson yakking about something else. Today it was the news that Playboy is dropping naked women from its pages. I begin our segment by vowing to take up the slack on TV Feeds My Family. That is not going
CANNES, France–This was the MIPCOM that never was. On Saturday–two days before I arrived in Cannes–terrible storms whipped this Mediterranean seaport, dumping 120 days worth of rain in two hours. Delegates who arrived early, some to attend children’s TV marketplace MIP Junior, were caught in dangerous floodwaters. Some waded out of restaurants in water past their
CANNES, France–They do not celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving in this French seaport of a town. At the circus that is MIPCOM, however, there are plenty of turkeys on display. Here are a few actual shows or projects in development. Let the bidding wars begin: ‘”Fly on the Wall.” Sony has this little digital reality gem available for streaming.
CANNES, France–Of course he’s here. Gene Simmons has been working MIPCOM harder than the guys out front of the Palais des Festivals selling umbrellas. The legendary KISS frontman is in his third day of press sessions here promoting Coliseum, a new music talent search show. The series has Simmons judging rock star wannabes. Yes, just
UPDATED CANNES, France–If you’ve never been to this gigantic international TV marketplace, but you grew up in Toronto, think of the Palais des Festivals as a mall-sized, multi-level Food Building at the CNE. Patrons are slightly better dressed but look just as spent. The offerings inside are about as warmed-over and suspect, but if you
CANNES, France—Still not convinced that television is becoming a one big world business? Turn on a TV in France and you see the same thing you see if you turn a set on any time of the night or day in Canada—Murdoch Mysteries. As I type, an episode from Season Seven of the shot-in-Toronto detective