The Rise of the Global Digital Content Market (The View from MIP) -- Guest Post by Eunice Shin

(This is the second guest post by Eunice Shin, who heads up the business consulting side of Manatt Digital Media and just returned from MIP.  Take particular notice of the quote at the very end of her post.)

Warm weather with a gentle breeze on the French Riviera is pretty fantastic.  Add to that a wave of excitement seeing the growth and potential of the global digital market – and there you have an incredible MIP Digital Front event.

Clearly to date, the US has been a leading force in the world of digital media.   Certain parts of the world have been slower to the take (hint: where millennials don’t make up the majority of the population), but there is no doubt that digital media buying is now a global opportunity.    

Here are some of the big trends we saw at MIP TV 2015:

·      MCNs have grown into MULTI-PLATFORM MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT companies, developing content in films, music and scripted TV.  Buzzfeed, Vice, CDS, and AwesomnessTV are in the film business as well.  Many of the leaders in this space are growing into their own skin and have a better sense of identity.  It’s exciting to see differentiation of focus starting to take place among these digital-first players – Stylehaul and Collective Digital Studios with brands; VICE with millennial-only media programming channels; and  New Form Digital with scripted, original content. 

·      Digital content, short and long form, are getting licensing deals with international streaming services and partners

o   Maker Studios will have a channel with over 2,000 videos on CanalPlus’ streaming service, CanalPlay

o   AwesomenessTV will provide over 200 hours of original content for Verizon mobile platform

o   Numerous deals initiated at MIP and still underway will soon be announced

·      Social media is a DISTRIBUTION PLATFORM.  Facebook and Snapchat were mentioned in every single presentation and meeting I attended.  Without a doubt, better effectively leveraging social platforms will be key for digital content companies in 2015.

·      Live streaming is on the rise – creating more opportunities around events, sports, music and gaming

o   Dailymotion served 150 million hours of live streaming in 2014

o   Vice and LiveNation announced at MIP a new partnership to deliver live music videos – applying the cinematic nature of music videos to a live performance and streaming it live from a variety of major music concerts

·      When it comes to digital, SCALE IS STILL CRAZY IMPRESSIVE.

o   YouTube has 300 hours of content uploaded every minute

o   At Machinima, their audience consumes 3.8 billion videos per month.  And in one month, Machinima produces more than 10 times the annual output of the largest fully-distributed cable network in the US.

o   The most social film of 2014 was AwesomenessTV’s Expelled, beyond Guardians of the Galaxy, The Maze Runner, and Fault In Our Stars.

I leave you with the best quote of the week:

“Traditional TV viewing among teens and tweens is dead.  Not dying, dead.” -Brian Robbins, Founder/CEO of AwesomenessTV