NATPE Smaller, But No Less Vital To TV

The just-ended decade was not good to NATPE, the annual TV programming conference. In 2000, the show attracted more than 17,000 people and nearly 1,000 exhibitors in New Orleans. This year's edition, which begins a three-day run at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas on Jan. 25, will come nowhere near those totals.

In this interview with TVNewsCheck Editor Harry A. Jessell, NATPE President Rick Feldman acknowledges that the show is in a "trough" caused by the downsizing of the traditional syndication market and the failure of some of the new digital media to launch as expected.

Yet, he says, NATPE remains the No. 1 venue for creators, sellers and buyers of TV programs and when the economy and media -- old and new -- rebound so will the conference.

Feldman also explains the decision to shift the show to Miami in 2011 and expresses irritation over NAB's habit of scheduling conflicts with NATPE.

An edited transcript:

NATPE has been constantly evolving over the years. What would you say is the mission of the organization and its conference today?

They are specifically designed to facilitate, in many different ways, the intertribal conversations that need to happen among creators and producers -- the people behind the shows -- and networks and advertisers and agents and various distribution streams.

There really isn't another place where all of those people can come together to talk about the actual buying and selling and about the partnerships that need to be created to get more things produced. We continue to believe that NATPE is the major significant United States market for the buying and selling of both content and ideas.

That sounds like a wonderful mission. So why isn't this show exploding? Why isn't it growing rather than shrinking?

Because the legacy business, the domestic syndication business, isn't growing. Consolidation, poor local economies, contracts that have gone on for 25 or 30 years, the lack of independent stations have kind of constipated the business and the time periods. And many people that were involved in that world have either retired, gone away, died or done a host of other things.

In '06 and '07 and '08, a number of digital studios were getting funding and starting up -- companies like 60Frames, Ripe TV and Worldwide Biggies. A new platform for original content seemed to be developing, but then the recession hit and many of them went out of business or were unable to get significant funding.

So, while on the one hand there was a dissipation of the analog people, the digital people have yet to find a way to make money. It's caused a trough, which is where we have been at NATPE in the last couple of years. Hopefully, when the business does pick up, when advertising picks up, when programming for television stations picks up, when stations and other producers create original product for mobile, then there'll be growth again at NATPE.

It's not going to be what it was in 1999 or even probably in 2007 any time soon, but the business as a whole has contracted and it needs time to come back. We're not there yet.

Let's talk about the legacy business. What's the outlook for the syndication business and its place at the show?

That's a better question for Kenny Warner [of Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution] and Barry Wallach [of NBCU Television Distribution], those kinds of guys. They're living this every single day. But, obviously, right now, we're in a situation where stations don't want to support the creation of content that needs their cash, and you're not going to have a vibrant first-run business without cash. That's going to remain a problem for at least the near term, certainly as long as the car business and the financial business are suffering. Both are significant engines to local television stations.

Some people have said it's good Oprah ultimately will being going away because it will create a paucity for a certain time period. But that all depends on what the ABC stations decide to do. If they decide to either do local programming or news, that takes them off the board as the launch group you need for a new first-run show. You also have to expect that if the ABC stations wanted a new first-run show, they would first want to look to Janice Marinelli [of Disney-ABC Domestic Television], their own company, to produce the show.

And as long as MyNetworkTV and the CW exists, you're not going to see any kind of new development for independent stations because there aren't any independent stations and there are no time periods in primetime.

So I have to say for the short run, it looks like there will be nice things happening once in a while, but, a flood of new first-run high profile products? It doesn't seem like that's going to happen anytime in the foreseeable future.

That said, what kind of syndication presence do you expect at the show this year?

I know for a fact that the people that represent the major station groups and the people that represent the major sellers are all going to be at NATPE and talking to each other. How much actual business gets done, I don't know. There will be renewals, there will be library deals.

A guy like John Nogowski [of CBS Television Distribution], who has got tons of product, should be busy. There are VOD channels, there are new cable channels, there are channels all over the world that will be looking into CBS products. We have all these people from Latin America that are looking for new product.

I'm not looking for the most robust market that we have ever seen before, but I think maybe even in bad times people need to get in every single opportunity where they can get in front of people.

So each of the major syndicators will have suites in the hotel this year?

Yes, most of them will. I don't want to go into detail. Everybody is doing it a different way. The bottom line is that we will create an environment where people are going to come. How they're going to come and how they're going to meet, that's up to them.

None of the big boys are going to be on the floor, right?

Right. None of the big boys are going to be on the floor. You know, we're moving to Miami next year. There, everybody's going to be in an ocean-front suite.

What about the CES and the NAB? Seeing the same sort of future marketplace as you, they have been trying to cut into your turf by soliciting programmers to come to their shows. What effect has that had on NATPE?

It honestly hasn't. NAB exists in its own universe and we exist in ours. Ours is in January; theirs comes in April. While there is definitely duplication, the group heads who feel that they need to look at the technological aspects of what NAB has, they go to NAB. Those people that are involved in talking to advertisers and to advertising agencies and agents, they go to NATPE.

What about CES?

Sony has always been a big player there. NBC is still involved. CNBC or MSNBC does a live show there, but in terms of the minions that they were bringing over the last couple of years, I know from my friends at NBC that's not happening anymore. I think that everybody's gone back to their knitting. These guys do their tech thing and we do our programming thing.

Is it an accident that once again the NAB board meeting conflicts with NATPE?

You would have to ask them and they will tell you that it's an accident. Since it's the second time in three years, my guess is that I'm not so sure it is an accident and it is not particularly appreciated on this end.

Why the switch to Miami in 2011?

The most vibrant part of our marketplace is the Latin market and, to some degree, the Canadian market. First of all, changing venues after seven or eight years in the same place was a good thing and so is going to a place where we can control the entire hotel and Eden Roc next door. Everybody that you meet over a three-day period will be in the television business and people will not have to wander a half an hour from the suite to the floors.

With regard to creating an environment that's going to allow people to do business in a much more constructive, efficient way, Miami is going to offer that. Not to mention that I'm always somewhat jealous when I go to Banff or Cannes and I go, god, this is so beautiful. Why can't we have something that's beautiful?

But isn't moving so far east going to further strain the Hollywood connection?

Yes. It probably does to some extent. There are risks to doing everything. Part of the risk of staying in Las Vegas is that I don't get as many Europeans as I would like. Going from Berlin to Miami Beach in January sounds like a pretty exciting prospect to some people.        

If you can change the venue, why can't you change the time so it syncs up better with the needs of the syndicators? They generally bring out their new product in the fall.

We've talked to people about that. The fall is really not a good time to do it. January is the time to do it. The reason it's January is because new shows go on the air in September and you need the November book. You need three or four months to evaluate what you're going to need and what you're not going to need. So frankly, doing it in the fall is really not the right time.

You come from the ranks of TV broadcasters who have had a couple of rough years. What do you think they need to get back on track?

If you had a shoe store and you had the same shoes in the window for three or four or 25 years, would that necessarily be the best way to market your shoe store?

You don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water, but there's been too much product in the exact same time periods on too many stations. There have been too many stations over the years that found it a lot easier to extend to the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh hour of news rather than put on fresh programming. They have not freshened up their inventory.

I have also felt for a long time that if broadcasters don't figure out ways to get some sort of retransmission money that ultimately they were fighting a losing battle because ESPN, with its $4 and $5 in subscription fees, was going to be able to get everything.

Well, it sounds like they're getting those fees now.

Yes. They are. The way the cable business is structured right now is essentially a false economy with cable networks that are doing relatively minimal ratings but still getting maybe pennies and nickels and dimes [per subscriber per month from cable operators]. It's just about enough to keep them alive.