BTI at Media and Message conference in Finland
Finland's biggest event for media professionals, Media & Message, took place in the south-eastern Finnish town of Naantali on August 4th and 5th. Most of the participants were from Finnish TV channels and small production companies, many of which are BTI clients. The BTI logo was on prominent display at the event, providing some extra visibility.
The event included a panel discussion with representatives from Finland's three largest TV channels: MTV3, Nelonen, and YLE. In the panel's opinion, the situation of Finnish television productions is not very good, due to a lack of financial resources. However, efforts are being made to commission more Finnish programmes in the future. Television channels will also have to meet the technical requirements of HD TV, and with the possible launch of new channels, the current channels will face more competition.
Another topic under discussion was cooperation as a way of re-invigorating the audiovisual industry. Mr John McVay, Chief Executive of Pact (UK), gave a keynote speech about the audiovisual industry in the UK and how Pact, a trade body for producers, has been able to strengthen it.
BTI client SuomiTV was represented at the event by Mr Randy Dewey, the channel's Senior Advisor. He explained what makes Finland such a lucrative TV market for a foreign investor. Mr Dewey represents Ontario Inc., an investment company that is SuomiTV's largest financer. SuomiTV's five-year goal is to become the third largest commercial TV channel in Finland, with a 10 % market share. Their mission is to offer exciting, uplifting content with high ethical standards. The coming together of Ontario Inc. and SuomiTV is the result of personal contacts between a number of Finns and Canadians who wanted to offer new kinds of programmes to Finnish viewers. For the time being, 20 % of SuomiTV's programming is Finnish, but in the future the goal is 60-80 %.
Mr Lauri Kivinen, the new CEO of YLE, was also interviewed at the event. The question on everyone's lips was how YLE would be able to survive in the midst of increasing competition and with diminishing financial resources. Mr Kivinen didn't have any direct answers to this big question. However, he did say that in his opinion the key to success is openness and broadmindedness.
For those unable to participate in the event, the speeches are available at www.mediamessage.fi. Some of the speeches are in Finnish, some in English.
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