In the fast moving world of international TV, it is rare to find something akin to an institution – especially in Central and Eastern Europe.
My first visit to what was for many years simply referred to as Discop (an abbreviation for ‘Discounted Programmes’) was at the beginning of the 1990s, when the event was launched in the Polish capital, Warsaw.
Bringing together Western programme sellers and local buyers from throughout Central and Eastern Europe, it was way ahead of its time – the regions’ TV industry, if one could call it that, was still dominated by state broadcasters and privately-owned stations were all but non-existent – and nearly fell at the first hurdle.
However, Patrick Jucaud, its founder, had the vision to move the event the following year to Budapest and it never really looked back. Indeed, by the late 1990s Discop had already established itself as the premier audiovisual content market for the CEE region for leading buyers and sellers alike.
Although Discop was eventually attracting up to 400+ international TV content and format sales organisations and 1,000 industry executives from the CEE region by the time of its 15th anniversary, change was in the air and in due course it became part of NAPTE and was renamed NATPE Budapest.
Today, NATPE Budapest finds itself in an exciting stage of its development, and Broadband TV News is proud to be part of that process. Given the rich history of the market and the high regard it is held in by the industry, we feel honored to be hosting a breakfast briefing there, in the nearby Café Gerbeaud, on Tuesday, June 25.
The event, like most others we hold, will take the form of a series of presentations, followed by a panel discussion, on a subject we feel is of real relevance and interest to those attending the market, namely the challenges of reversioning programming for the CEE region.
Entrance to our event is free, and to register our readers should simply go to the link below.
We look forward to seeing you at this special market in Budapest later this month.
