Convergence will be the buzzword when the five-day trade fair opens in this up-market Riviera resort March 29. Digital technology is increasingly changing the way viewers enjoy television and bringing the audiovisual and telecoms worlds closer together.

To boost this cross-platform trend, this spring's MiPTV fair will share floor space for the first time with the MILIA forum showcasing the latest in video games, interactive entertainment, next generation cellphones and enhanced TV.

"We want to help speed up the creation of a digital entertainment generation by bringing together broadcasters, producers, content creators and the leaders of mobile, broadband and interactive TV," explained MILIA director Laurine Garaude.

But with around 722 companies from 48 countries attending, MILIA will still be the "little brother" here, compared with an estimated 1,292 exhibiting firms coming to "big brother" MiPTV, up from 1,224 at the same date last year.

"Terrestrial TV is still the driving force the world over, but the likes of satellite, cable or pay television are now being joined by mobile telephony and broadband content delivery," underlined Paul Johnson, director of Television at Reed MIDEM, the show's organisers.

About 2,869-programme buyers from 1,246 companies are already signed up for this year's MiPTV, which will spotlight the emerging Chinese market.

A much larger contingent of Asian-Pacific programme buyers are due to fly in this year with 511 signed up to date compared with 315 at the same stage a year ago. In addition to a much stronger Chinese presence, Australia is also beefing up its presence by 87.5 percent this year with a total 30 exhibiting firms, whilst India is sending a 25 percent larger delegation with five exhibitors.

All in all, the Asia-Pacific region accounts for an estimated 16 percent of the total 2,895 companies due to participate, with and without stands, Reed MIDEM said. This compares with an estimated 58 percent of participating firms coming from Europe and 18 percent from North America.

"We're going to be welcoming a seriously heavyweight SARFT (State Administration Radio, Film and Television) approved Chinese delegation to MiPTV and we're looking forward to their presentation of the huge Chinese market," Reed MIDEM's Johnson said.

With an estimated 1.2 billion viewers and 430 million TV households, China is the world's biggest TV market and one that is becoming a major player for pay TV. Its enormous potential should ensure a sell-out audience at the special China day MiPTV forums scheduled for Wednesday.

China will send 19 exhibitors to Cannes, Japan 25 and South Korea 12, compared with 113 from the United States, 84 from Britain, 54 from France and 20 from Italy.

Some of Asia's key broadcasting and digital entertainment leaders are flying in for the event.

All five of Japan's major broadcasters will be at MiP, including Tokyo Broadcasting System, Inc., which currently leads the Japanese TV pack doing business in China. The Chinese delegation will represent all the country's major regions, and include newcomers Sichuan and Guangdong television stations as well as Beijing All Media and Culture Group (BAMC).

Many of the world's top mobile industry leaders will be in town to help build new content markets with the TV and video professionals.

Vodafone, Orange, O2, Bouygues, Nokia, Siemens, Oplayo, Packet Video are just some of the big names due. The stakes are big with mobile operators' content revenues estimated to reach 128 billion euros by 2008, according to Informa.

A large share of these revenues will go to the media industry, eagerly looking at the opportunities offered by networked home entertainment cross-platform content creation and participation television.

With this year's brighter economic backdrop, the MiP and MILIA trade shows are expected to be abuzz.

There should be a huge offering on the programming front, particularly in the ever-popular and increasingly whacky reality television formats, which along with other interactive shows are proving major money-spinners for the TV sector.

SPACE.WIRE