Television trade group NATPE on Monday unveiled a new online marketplace, NAPTE Virtual, that will launch alongside its industry events this year.
The virtual market is pitched as a one-stop shop for television producers, sellers and platforms, online and off. NATPE Virtual will run alongside the group's upcoming trade events, NATPE Budapest International, set for Aug. 25-Aug. 27 in the Hungarian capital, and NATPE Streaming Plus, which will be held in Hollywood on Sept. 15. Both events had been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
NATPE is partnering with global licensing platform RightsTrade for the virtual screenings that will form the core of the new, virtual market. NAPTE Virtual will also feature a virtual exhibitor portal with company showrooms and networking lounges, set up in cooperation with trade show group Vision Events, and virtual content sessions, webcasts and online master classes, which NATPE will organize together with online production and webcasting platform Perigon.
NATPE president and CEO JP Bommel said NATPE Virtual was not intended to replace "the essential face-to-face meetings" that are the lifeblood of the global TV industry but said he hoped the new online platform would serve as "cost-effective alternative for creators, programmers and diverse storytellers and storytellers when the desire for content has never been greater."
The coronavirus outbreak has forced film and television markets to move online and otherwise innovate in a world where international travel and large trade events are severely restricted. COVID-19 forced international TV trade fair MIPTV to go fully online this year and last week saw the first-ever