India, a difficult market: TVFI

By Amitabh Parashar
NEW DELHI:‘Le Rendezvous’ or ‘French Screening’, organised by TV France International for the third consecutive year in the picturesque Saint-Tropez in France, is gaining popularity among media professionals from all over the world.
The market is relatively new but its focussed nature, its friendly setting and excellent management by the organisers have made it popular in a very short span of time.
This year, from September 4-8, the sixth edition of Rendezvous took place in Saint-Tropez and representatives from television companies from most part of the world, including France, participated. The increasing popularity of TV France International event is obvious from the fact that its membership has quadrupled from 40 to 160 this year, since its creation in 1994.

India is a great market for TVFI but at the same time a difficult one. Representatives of TVFI (TV France International) with some French TV executives came to India last year to know the Indian market and held a showcase of French programmes. They held discussions with their Indian counterpart but the results were not so encouraging, mainly because "to know each other better, we need several meetings and discussions".

As the new young and energetic Director General of TVFI, Mathieu Bejot observes, "If you look in terms of sales, our first visit to India was not successful but we did not come to India just for our sales. Our visit was to know the Indian buyer and tell them about ourselves, which we did quite successfully."

This year TVFI is not coming to India. They have some prior commitments and they are going to Mexico this year. But Mathieu promises to come to India in 2001 and plans to meet more and more Indian media professionals.

Jean Claude Moyret, who is head of Audio-Visual wing in the Ministry of External Affairs of France, holds the same viewpoint. Says he, "French TV professionals think that India is a very difficult market for them but that does not mean we should not try. According to my opinion, TVFI must go to meet Indian professionals every year."

"If yearly visit is not possible, they must visit India every two years at least," he adds further.
Mathieu agrees with Moyret. "We are going to India in 2001. This year we have some prior commitments. We are confident that our relationship with our Indian counterpart will be fruitful and beneficial for both of us," says Mathieu.

From India, Discovery India’s Director, Programming, Pankaj Saxena was the only participant. This year, Pankaj shortlisted about 100 French programmes for his channel, most of which are documentaries on wildlife, nature, science and society. According to Pankaj Saxena, TVFI’s Rendezvous is a great market for Indian media companies (buyers) mainly because here one can have access to the great diversity of French programmes.

Says Pankaj, "This is a very focussed market. Here you get a wide range of French programmes. Keeping in mind, the taste of Indian audience, I have got so many programmes here. In addition to this, the setting of Saint Tropez is great, no doubt about it."

Some India related documentaries and films like Beasts of Burden (on rickshaw pullers of Calcutta), Cities of the World (on Taj Mahal), Labourers of Taj Mahal, Hanuman were available and some French companies like Ampersand and VM Productions have been doing documentaries in India. But TVFI wants a joint effort so that Indian broadcasters and programming heads take a great interest in French programmes specially documentaries and animation. TVFI had invited Doordarshan also to this year’s Rendezvous but since Doordarshan’s senior officials were busy preparing for the telecast of Sydney Olympics and restructuring of Doordarshan’s sports channel, they could not spare time for TVFI’s invitation.

There is a proposal pending in Doordarshan for a MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) between Doordarshan and TVFI which is to be signed by both parties but because of the lack of proper interest from both sides, the matter is still pending.
As Jean Claude Movret says, "Best solution is meeting of professionals from India and France regularly. This is a responsibility of French professionals also and not only the responsibility of civil servants of both countries." Doordarshan, it is believed is interested in acquiring French documentaries and animation programmes from France but no decision is taken in this area because of Doordarshan’s other priorities.

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