Swiss broadcast exec Costa Haralambis is counting on this fundamental
principle as he launches MITIL (Marche Intl. des Televisions & Radios
Independentes et Locales) June 20-23 in Vevey. He's touting MITIL
as the first international market for local and independent broadcasters.
You may think you know local broadcasters: You've seen their news
and weather reports, educational shows, cooking programs, fishing
expeditions to the nearest watering holes, entertainment and sports
guides, etc.
What you might have missed is that if someone were able to bring
all of these outlets together, they'd cumulatively represent millions
of viewers with uncommonly close links to each of these stations.
Bringing it home
And if you're fortunate enough to live in one of the prosperous,
peaceful regions of the planet, you might have also missed the bravery
and ingenuity that many of these broadcasters exhibit in delivering
the local updates when the unpleasant realities of war and disaster
strike.
Such challenges have resulted in powerful, award-winning programs
seldom seen outside their local markets.
The task of bringing together a maiden market for these thousands
of local and independent broadcasters (including Webcasters) across
Europe doesn't seem to have soured Haralambis' cheery disposition,
which is perhaps the result of another fact of nature: It's hard
to be cranky when your office has a view of Lake Geneva.
Prior to launching MITIL, Haralambis founded ICI-TV, the first
local cable broadcaster for the Swiss Riviera, so he sees himself
as "typical of the clientele we're serving at MITIL."
Tech ties
Among the highlights of the upcoming market and festival, Haralambis
notes the outfitting of the SwissMedia Center with what he describes
as a "digitized video kiosk with 20 networked stations playing 150
programs."
Sounding to my ears like something out of a sci-fi film, this innovative
delivery setup, he explains, enables buyers, journalists and local
broadcasters to "instantly scan the selections for length, subject
matter, language -- in essence all data needed -- while they're
viewing the content."
Haralambis' MITIL team has also lined up 25 sessions with dozens
of speakers.There are co-production panels, talks on sporting-event
rights, hardware rap sessions running the gamut of subjects from
archives to handhelds, and a specialized focus session on the Italian
indie broadcasting scene, which, incredibly, has 1,700 local TV
and radio outlets.
Lauding the best
In addition, the MITIL team has put together a jury of broadcasters
and artists who'll present out awards for the top programs.
In this regard, MITIL is following the lead of the Kosice Intl.
Festival of Local TV Broadcasters, now in its seventh year. That
the chief of that event, Eva Dekanovska, is head of the MITIL jury
speaks volumes and goes to the heart of Haralambis' missionary zeal.
"The main advantage of MITIL is that it's a way to cut the isolation,"
says Haralambis. "All small broadcasters are isolated because they're
local, but that's their strength. They are strongly connected to
their local audiences. Aside from the panels, the programs and the
technical talks, the main topic at MITIL is, 'How can we work together?'
"The commercial networks were created a long time ago," Haralambis
observes. "This is a young community. This is the first gathering.
We have a chance to create a real global network."