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Cannes (AP) - They bring distraction from the crisis on the doorstep: Streaming services are among the winners of the corona pandemic.
"There has never been a greater demand than now," reports industry expert Lucy Smith in an interview with the German Press Agency.
"You can see that, for example, from the fact that the number of subscribers to the video platforms literally exploded in 2020," says the head of the world's largest trade fair MIPTV in Cannes.
According to the latest figures, experts assume there will be more than 1.2 billion user accounts worldwide.
This is how the New York market researcher LightShed Research calculated it.
This includes only the major providers based in the USA, such as Netflix, Amazon and Disney +.
Regional streaming portals, for example in Germany, come on top.
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The American producers' association Motion Picture Association from Washington had already celebrated in mid-March that the billion mark for subscriptions had been exceeded for the first time in 2020.
That means a growth of 26 percent compared to the previous year.
At the most important television fair in the world, MIPTV in Cannes, which starts on Monday, there is a champagne mood.
Business is going better than ever, even if MIPTV 2021 is only taking place virtually.
Local productions in particular, which are also offered worldwide, are booming more and more.
"The platforms started with it, but the television stations and other market participants are also getting involved," emphasizes Smith.
Above all, European series and films are in demand, including German, French, Spanish and Swedish productions: "With content that was previously not thought to be internationally successful."
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The ZDF production “The Shepherd” will be presented for the first time at MIPTV.
The four-hour miniseries starring Tobias Moretti is set in Tyrol and is about a winemaker who is caught up with his mafia past.
Munich-based Beta Film is responsible for worldwide sales as “The Winemaker”.
People there expect great interest in this type of “Event TV”.
In general, Beta, one of the largest German program distributors, has seen business develop “very well” in the last few months, says Senior Vice President Oliver Bachert.
He explains the increased demand for European productions as follows: "In the USA and Great Britain, some series were delayed due to Corona, seasons were shortened or even not continued, sports broadcasts were canceled, so the attention for European productions was even greater."
The broadcast of the tenth season of the American zombie series “The Walking Dead”, for example, simply stopped last spring and was not continued until months later.
Even if the pandemic is currently making production conditions more difficult and causing losses for the advertising-financed channels, producers are not worried.
Ufa boss Nico Hofmann assumes that broadcasters would have to think carefully about how to assert themselves against the major US platforms.
To do this, they needed attractive content for their own online offers: "We don't notice an investment backlog - we're doing better than ever."
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In times without a pandemic, around 10,000 managers from broadcasters, production companies, program distributors, internet platforms and media groups from all over the world cavort at the world's largest TV trade fair, MIPTV in Cannes in April.
This time, the marketplace will only take place digitally from April 12 to 16 and will show what will soon be flickering across the screens in millions of living rooms.
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