Global trade bodies to agree MoU

TV trade bodies from 14 countries have formed a new partnership to facilitate more effective collaboration between international producers and increase coproduction opportunities.

Dawn McCarthy-Simpson

The Global Creative Alliance (GCA) will see organisations from Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, France, India, Italy, New Zealand, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, the US and UK sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Cannes this Sunday.

By signing the MoU, GCA members will commit to sharing market intelligence and reports that benefit each other and aim to organise delegations to visit each other to share best practice and allow producers to foster new creative relationships.

The trade bodies are Pact in the UK; the Canadian Media Producers Association and AQPM in Canada; NPACT in the US; Screen Producers Australia; Belgium’s VOFTP; Brazilian Content; and the Producers Guild of India. Also involved are Film France; TV France International; Italy’s ANICA; Spada in New Zealand; APIT in Portugal; AIPRO in Singapore; and the Korea Radio Promotion Association in South Korea.

Each GCA party will act as an administrator for the Production Platform, an online networking tool launched by Pact last year for international collaboration.

“Today, more than any other time in history, television has become a global industry where cross-border collaboration is a key ingredient to a project’s success,” said Susanne Vaas, the CMPA’s VP of corporate and international affairs.

“The launch of the Global Creative Alliance will act as an incubator for new international partnerships that will benefit producers in Canada and around the world.”

Dawn McCarthy-Simpson, director of international at Pact, said: “It makes sense for trade bodies to come together and learn from each other. We look forward to working with our international partners to improve relationships and encourage more coproduction projects.”

The omission of Chinese representation in GCA may raise a few eyebrows, given the nation’s growth in the global industry, which saw it overtake the UK in TV spend in 2017. Chinese companies have recently said they want to collaborate more with producers in other countries.

However, accusations of IP infringement by Chinese TV companies have seen a spike of late, with South Korean media company CJ ENM notably claiming at MipTV that Chinese VoD platform iQiyi had copied one of its formats.