The National Association of Television Program Executives was held for the 43rd time in Las Vegas January 23-26 at the Mandalay Bay. There is no better opportunity for the producer/writer to understand the character and constituencies of the TV business than by attending NATPE. Program buyers and sellers, broadcasters, cable executives, producers, advertisers, techies, talent agents, packagers, formatters, and financiers, are all together at one summit. This is 
the event to meet and greet, make your contacts, test your programming ideas,
and find out who your competition is.

Three American television luminaries received Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Awards during a pre opening night NATPE cocktail reception.Writer Marc Cherry won his for giving the world one of last season’s biggest hits, “Desperate Housewives.” PBS president/CEO Pat Mitchell was honored for her work as a public broadcaster, and Steven Bochco for a 40-year career of hit drama, which includes 10 Emmys. Photo courtesy of NATPE.

This year’s NAPTPE emphasized the coming look of the television industry as new platforms, new formats and new forms of programming are quickly evolving. NATPE President and CEO Rick Feldman states, “This NATPE provides a glimpse of what the world will look like in ten years.” 

For decades, the major Hollywood studios and broadcast networks have showcased their product at NATPE. Their efforts have turned American pop culture into a multi-billion dollar business—and one of the few industries that will reliably credit rather than debit the U.S. trade deficit. 

Now, these same sellers of American broadcast art such as Disney, Paramount-King World, Sony, ABC, NBC-Universal, CBS, UPN and Warner Bros (now merged), are in two major new businesses. First, in the past two years all of them have positioned themselves to take formats of past successful programs and adapt the American content to local markets. 

As Marion Edwards, Executive VP of Television Distribution at 20th Century Fox stated, “we are all looking at our libraries and US production to see what might work.” Some studios are hoping to do local versions of shows still airing on US television such as Murder She Wrote, Coach, Kojak, Monk, Magnum, PI and Kate and Allie are generating a lot of interest from international broadcasters, according to Leslie Jones, VP International Sales and Format Production at NBC-Universal. 

Secondly, a number of panels at this year’s NATPE emphasized taking content that has already been shot e.g., sports, games, detective and mystery shows and yes, even porn, and digitizing their content for iPod and mobile platforms. 

It was amazing to see Google, AOL and Apple taking huge exhibit space—and their major executives appearing on panels discussing multi-formats and multi-platforms that their companies are and will be providing to content providers. 

Here is NATPE leader Rick Feldman’s view on the interface between technology and programming content. “We are fully committed to the belief that the ability to digitize content creates incredible opportunity for those who create and distribute it. There is going to be more content going across more streams, which gives more viewers a richer variety of product. It also gives advertisers an opportunity to find programming that is more specific to their brand. At the same time it gives the content creators who are going to distribute it new opportunities to generate more revenue—perhaps on a subscription basis.”

The question for the networks, studios and independent producers is whether AOL, Intel, Nokia, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo will strategically partner with the established production entities or in essence become their own providers of content, specific for the influencers and opinion makers who drive the use of their technology. 

Traditional content providers, such as studios and networks who produce series for the affiliated TV station groups, see the promise of new distribution platforms from video on demand to iPod to mobile TV to broadband as extraordinary opportunities to increase the awareness and value of a show. Larry Kramer, President of CBS Digital Group stressed on one of the panels the critical nature of navigational technology developing so called “personal media”.

How the divide between the content providers and television buyers shakes out is problematic at this time, but the first trickle of evidence suggests that content is king, convenience is in high demand and that new platforms exponentially grow audiences rather than splinter them. 

The seminars were especially insightful this year, including: Consumer Choices and Market Metrics in a Converging Media World; (How does an advertiser measure the impact of content delivery through non traditional platforms such as mobile, iPods, and computers?); Emerging Entertainment & Media Markets II: Russia (Focus on finding reliable partners, getting paid, and opportunities for independent producer/entrepreneurs); Taking Mobile to the Mainstream (Emphasized the repurposing of traditionally delivered content and digital delivery to your cell phone); Digital Strategies: Evolve and Prosper (Series of case studies by content providers on applications to capitalize on new ancillary markets of iPod, mobile, etc.)

All of these panels featured the nations top subject matter experts in the field doing the work on a daily basis and capitalizing on the business opportunities. Readers interested in learning the names of the panelists and about the agenda of NATPE 06 can visit the website NATPE.org

Tapping Into Your Hidden Chutzpah: assuming that you are a producer or writer and you have projects that provide a value added that are sufficiently differentiated from offerings that are already in the media you’ve got to able to gird your loins, have a 30-second message ready (and that message should be different whether you are speaking to an advertiser, network executive, possible financing or co-producing source). 

It’s best that you tease your message in your initial assault. Since most of these executives will be around their exhibit booths and taking meetings, try to set up a meeting for later in the conference. At least get their card and follow-up in the appropriate fashion when they are back in their office. This is not the time to be shy, nor is it the time to be rude, arrogant or pompous—essentially be the sweet soul that you know yourself to be.

Best Advice: Listen to Michael Camacho, Head of Reality Television for Creative Artist Agency. “I don’t want to hear good ideas from people who cannot execute them, who can’t sell them, who don’t have the rights to the idea, or who do not add any value . . . go out and get the rights to a book, a property or an article. To become a producer, you have to go produce. What does that mean? That means adding value to yourself.”

Regardless of the future of the industry, programming decisions, what television station groups are buying is a present tense decision. The hot new shows ripe for syndication this fall are: 

Whatever Oprah wants Oprah gets: as she pushed Dr. Phil to the forefront of TV fame and fortune, her next marketing blitz on the consciousness of the American TV viewer is Rachel Ray. She has built a mini-franchise for herself on the Food Network, now she will star on her own daily lifestyle show entitled cleverly “The Rachel Ray Show”. Her goal is to make “an accessible can-do show, no crying, and a very happy, spirited show.” 

There’s always time for sex: telenovas scripts that have worked well on Latin television networks and scripts have been pitched for years to Hispanic speaking audiences are being adapted for American consumption. The first big one is entitled, Desire, and combines the updated elements of “Dynasty” and “Dallas” with a contemporary, youthful zing associated with such shows as The O.C. and Laguna Beach. 

Tell it to the judge: distributors and producers love the court genre because it embodies elements that other genres specialize in, they are personality driven by a judge instead of a talk show host, boast the reality like voyeuristic thrill of seeing someone else chastised and encapsulate elements of a good story – conflict, drama and resolution. Best of all they deliver steady ratings and are cheap to make. 

The judge shows are moving to capture Hispanic and crossover audiences. Sony is betting its hopes on Massachusetts’ own Maria Lopez, a Cuban refugee who became the first Hispanic judge in the history of the Mass Superior court and we know Maria is always provocative, attention-getting and certainly has a unique personality. With 90% station clearance, this show promises to be a big winner this fall. 

NATPE is your opportunity to dislodge your production training wheels and see if you can ride away with the big boys and test your big idea. 

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Paul Boghosian is a long established independent producer. His company HarborSide Films produces feature film, public affairs programming for PBS, cable, and corporate documentaries. He can be reached at ptbharborside@msn.com