MIPCOM is claiming its highest attendance figure of all time, driven mainly by more visitors from the so-called ‘METRIC’ countries and regions, namely the Middle East, Turkey, Russia, India and China, as well as Ukraine.
At the close of the market on October 17, MIPCOM 2008 totalled 13,588 participants, an increase of 1.6% over the 13,371 industry professionals who attended in 2007. A total of 4,519 companies from 103 countries registered, of which 1,779 were exhibitors. The number of international buyers grew by 7.2%, from 4,242 in 2007 to 4,573 this year.
The number of attendees from emerging markets showed strong progression: Russian attendance was up 39.6% (377 participants); Ukraine up 30.5% (111); the Middle East up 34.7% (419); China up 19.5% (141); and Africa up 18.5% (135). Several other territories also had a significantly stronger presence, notably in Europe with Spain up 19.6% to 651 participants and Germany up 10% to 825.
“With the growth of the METRIC countries, MIPCOM is now more than ever the market for professionals who want to negotiate business with new territories and develop content for all platforms,” said Paul Johnson, director of television at Reed MIDEM, in a statement. “That’s why this year we put several tools in place to help with that, such as our MIP Accelerators matchmaking events. We will be enlarging them at MIPTV 2009.”