What brought a producer (Tono Folguera – Lastor Media), a creator (Neus Ballús – El Kinògraf), a distributor- festival (Juan González – DocsBarcelona), a thinker (Jordi Balló – UPF), a Danish critic (Tue Steen Müller – founder EDN), a television programmer (Miquel Garcia – TV3) and a representative of the administration (Blanca Piulats – ICEC), together at a single table?

Why did they meet at a round table moderated by Paco Escribano (Absolute Minority) attended by more than a hundred people, including a prestigious selection of members of the audio-visual sector? Invited by the Catalan Audio-visual Cluster, as part of the DocsBarcelona Festival of 2017, in a session titled  “The documentary industry in Catalonia”, they spoke about the evolution of the sector since it began to be developed in Catalonia and the challenges that the industry faces – and will face – both in the present and the future.

The Catalan Audio-visual Cluster signed a collaboration agreement with Mobile World Capital, a foundation working on the digitalization and development of mobile technology in Catalonia. This agreement seeks to create synergies and new business opportunities between the Audio-visual sector and the digital world, as well as to work together to turn Barcelona into an international digital and creative hub.

The agreement was signed by Jordi Mendieta, chairman of the Cluster, and Aleix Valls, CEO of  Mobile World Capital.

A delegation from the Saudi Arabia General Comission for Audiovisual Media (GCAM)visited the Audio-Visual Cluster and met with a dozen member companies. The delegation, led by Muammar Al-Fahad, Director of Investment Development, outlined plans to build an international Media Hub in Riad, with the aim of promoting the audio-visual sector in the country with the help of foreign companies.

The Media Hub strategic areas are set to be video games, training, infrastructures for production and distribution, pay-TV, and animation and design.

Catalan companies in the audio-visual sector were invited to take part in the project and to suggest ideas for its development. This is the second time the GCAM visits the Cluster and both institutions have agreed to maintain permanent collaborative contacts.

At a time when audio-visual policies in Catalonia are being redefined with regards to their strategy, it seems appropriate to learn about the models in neighbouring countries which have become an example internationally. For this reason, Productors Audiovisuals de Catalunya (PAC) organised, with the collaboration of the Cluster, the session “The French Audio-Visual Model”, with the participation of Xavier Lardoux, director of the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée (CNC), in dialogue with Albert Serra, filmmaker and current president of PAC, held in the auditorium of La Pedrera.

Jordi Mendieta has been appointed Chairman of the Catalan Audio-Visual Cluster, replacing Xavier Guitart who held the position since July 2013, when Cluster activities began.

Jordi Mendieta is managing partner of the film and television production company Dream Team Concept, creada l’any 2006. founded in 2006. Previously, he worked in the advertising industry, in the field of production and account management. He is a founding member of the Catalan Audio-Visual Cluster and he was the treasurer during 2016. Noemí Cuní, CEO of Grup Broadcaster, will become the new treasurer of the Cluster, replacing the new chairman.

The appointments were approved by the board of directors unanimously and have been ratified by the members meeting.

The relationship between young people and television was the central theme in the celebration of World Television Day, held in Mataró. This was the third edition of a conference that promotes  debate on the present and future of television, organized jointly by Tecnocampus, Graustic, and the Catalan Audiovisual Cluster.

The first discussion session, coordinated by the Audiovisual Cluster in the framework of its Digital & Media Forum (#digitalmediaCAT), was a panal made up of Sonia Duque, consultant for Atrevia, the company that authored a study on the Z Generation; Cristina Muñoz,Cristina Muñoz, until recently the head of Antenna and TV Programming of TV3; Rosalba Roig, head of strategy and innovation at BTV; and Elena Neira, expert in digital communication and author of the book, The Other Screen.

Participants agreed that the youth audiences, contrary to popular belief, are still interested in television, but prefer on-demand consumption over scheduled programming, often through other devices, rather than the television.

“New mobile devices allow the youth audience to replay content, beyond broadcast television, just as the Internet channels the creative capacities of a generation that grew up with digital technologies,” was among the conclusions shared by the panel.

Participants also agreed that television still faces the challenge of finding the profitability of  new channels. And, as well, that the first challenge is to be able to accurately measure the aggregate audience of all channels through which television content is distributed.

“The audiovisual sector is not a risk. We have seen this for some time” . This was one of the key points of the Financing and Business Management session held at the headquarters of Foment del Treball. Organised by the Catalan Audiovisual Cluster, the session was part of a new line of exclusive activities designed to inform its members about the latest developments in the legal and financing fields affecting corporate governance.

The point was made by the representative of Triodos Bank, one of the few banks with specific funding opportunities for the audiovisual sector, especially in the field of production, distribution and exhibition. This bank currently serves about three hundred audiovisual projects in Catalonia alone. “The traditional idea that the audiovisual sector is unstable is still too widespread. Triodos Bank takes the opposite position. Of course, it is important to have a true understanding of the sector. We have seen projects that failed – not because they weren’t good projects, or viable ones, but because they were badly financed.”

Aside from traditional banks, recent years have marked the appearence of alternative financing tools. Such is the case of Novicap, a recent but well-established fintech company specializing in funding the working capital of companies and which functions exclusively online. “Unfortunately, Spain is one of the European countries with the longest payment periods. So we created this tool. Basically, what we do is anticipate the payment of bills in a very agile way, simply by uploading them on the Internet. Therefore, the ultimate goal is to provide a very rapid response system to the cashflow tensions arising from payments that are delayed sixty, ninety or even one hundred and twenty days. It’s something not often offered by traditional banks, which are mostly too rigid.”

The session was intitiated by Riba-Vidal, a law firm associated with the Cluster and specialized in legal assistance to entrepreneurs and managers. Its lawyers have closely followed the lastest reform of the penal code, considered an “absolute tsunami” in regard to its effect on businesses. “The new law requires companies to implement a policy of crime prevention. From now on, criminal responsibility no longer lies with the individual committing the crime, but with the company as a whole. This can be a big problem for managers and executives, especially since crimes can be committed unconsciously, out of ignorance.” Riba-Vidal detailed the principle measures that companies should implement to adapt to the new legal reform.

An audiovisual production can be seen as a financial product and, therefore, as an investment opportunity. This is an idea that is still seen as strange in the eyes of many investors, and even producers, but that is being gradually accepted both nationally and internationally, with increasingly abundant cases of success. This was the issue addressed in the session, “Audiovisual production, an investment opportunity”, organized by the Cluster with PROA, Talenta, and Ecija, in the Cercle d’Economia, and opened by Raimon Masllorens, president of PROA.

Adrian Guerra of Nostromo Pictures is a good example of a producer (in this case, from the film sector) that integrates private investment as part of the financing of his projects. During his speech he explained the way he relates to investors and at what stages of the production of the film he engages with them. “Be serious, plan the project well, provide security to the investor. Investors tend to be very loyal, and if you work well, they will surely continue to invest in your projects.”

At the same time, more and more consultants are advising their clients to invest in the audiovisual sector, such as Talenta, an investment service company. One of its partners, Roger Miralles, presented the process and the legal and financial structures normally used to secure investments in an audiovisual project. He also referred to the risks related to fiscal security, which in Spain can be a problem, given the arbitrary ways that tax inspectors can interpret the law. “In general, it is profitable to invest in the audiovisual sector, but must be done under certain conditions. First of all, the investor should be considered a producer. If it’s done well, and the projects become solid, the investor could receive returns of over 50% .”

Private investment is used to finance not only movies, but also series, documentaries and animation. Carmen Pascual, Juan Salmerón and Emilio Prieto, lawyers for Ecija, have extensive experience in advising on a wide variety of projects related to the audiovisual field. “Up until now, the field was dominated by films , but lately we also get series. In fact, with the arrival of Netflix and HBO in Spain and what is being offered by Telefónica, private investment in series is growing. Until now this was impossible because of the monopoly of TV´s with regard to rights and tax deductions.” Additionally, the lawyers highlighted that investors tend to prioritize audiovisual projects with an international character, since they guarantee safer returns.

In general, the speakers were optimistic. Tax deductions, they said, although still too low in Spain (except for better conditions offered in the Canary Islands and the Basque Country), provide favorable investment opportunities. It is expected that this will change as the situation in the country improves. In addition, the legal architecture is improving and, from the fiscal point of view, it is becoming increasingly safer to invest in the audiovisual field in Spain.

The impact of connected television, which fuses television and the Internet, is the focus of an intense debate which has been discussed in the meeting “The present and future of connected television”, organized by the Cluster in the Audiovisual Market of Catalonia (MAC), in the city of Granollers.

The session, which is part of the Digital & Media Forum program, was moderated by Quino Fernández, new media consultant, with the participation of Geni de Vilar, product manager in the area of digital media of CCMA; Samuel Fabra, project manager of Sony; Xavier Redón, product manager of Cellnex Telecom; and Oriol Solé, CEO of Tviso.com.

It is not easy to assess the impact of connected television. It is still not a single, consolidated device, although some experts predict that in a few years it will play a central role in content distribution and viewing practices. In fact, according to data presented by Quino Fernandez and Samuel Fabra, the acquisition rate of connected TV´s is rising (34% of the Spainish population have one). Even though it still does not represent a significant level of popularity (in France up to 60% of the population have one) and despite the fact that few device users connect it to the Internet (only 44% use connectivity, which results in only 17% of the population using fully connected TV), it is predicted that its use will reach broader European levels.

Data from TV3 is also revealing: According to Geni Vilar, 48% of the consumption of TV3 digital products is through mobile and tablet use (this proportion is constantly growing), while 44% is on computers, and 8% is on connected TV.

Given this situation, Quino Fernandez said that the situation of connected television is still unclear. “There is an overflow of devices that baffle the user. Just as we saw six years ago with mobiles or twenty years ago in the case of television, people do not know what to buy.” Furthermore, Geni de Vilar (CCMA) stated that, from the perspective of television stations such as TV3, a lack of standards hinders the development of applications and services. “Suppliers are not making it easy,” he said. Samuel Fabra then alluded that Sony has for some time been promising to manufacture a type of device that fully integrates HbbTV (Hybrid broadcast broadband TV), a European technological standard that allows for the sychronization of all devices and that, according to the speakers, should be the primary method of accessing online content through the TV.

In this vein, Xavier Redón (Cellnex Telecom) focussed on the evolution of HbbTV in recent years, in which it included increasingly more features and entered into more European countries. He also presented, some examples of the varied uses of HbbTV in Europe, where applications for children, TV shows, sports scores, weather data, games, etc. are featured Finally, Redón warned that one of the reasons that HbbTV is still not widely known in Spain is among other things, the absence of advertising.

From the perspective of a firm based strictly on Internet activity, Oriol Solé, CEO of a firm specialized in the cataloguing and personalized managing of audio-visual content (Tviso.com), warned that it is still too early to be sure about the user behaviour related to connected television and its interaction with other devices, especially given that the more traditional use of TV is not likely to disappear.

Accordingly, Geni de Vilar indicated that TV3´s best bet for the future is based on the full adaptation of content to the user’s needs through a multi-deviced and personalized experience. That is, it is committed to a range of content that always considers each type of device in relation to the specific situation of the user (such as being in the subway on the way of work, or at home at night, etc.) The product manager in the area of digital media CCMA also concluded that, in any case, one of the biggest challenges of this model of user experience is, and will be, to monetize the content itself.