NATPE Expects 5,000-Plus For Miami Confab

The upcoming NATPE 2012 Market and Conference at Fontainebleau Resort in Miami Beach (Jan. 23-25) is shaping up to be best attended by television station groups in at least five years, according to Rick Feldman, president-CEO of NATPE.

“We have every major station group represented either by a couple of people or more than a couple of people,” he says. “It won’t look like it did 15 years ago because with consolidation you don’t get the same amount of station people as you used to. But, relative to the way the world is now, this will be the best representation of domestic broadcasters in a long, long time.”

He also said that four or five of those station groups will have more than 10 people in attendance.

And NATPE is on track to have about 5,500 people at the upcoming conference, including nearly 300 exhibitors and more than 600 buyers.

“All the numbers are marginally better to significantly better than they were last year,” Feldman says.

He and NATPE co-chair Jordan Levin from Generate spoke with reporters this afternoon about highlights from the upcoming NATPE conference — essentially, an international marketplace to buy and sell TV shows.

“All the studios are coming and they’re coming in a bigger and better way than they have in recent memory,” according to Feldman.

He also notes that NATPE has made some logistical changes to this year’s conference. Attendees at the last show, which was also held at the Fontainebleau, waited in excruciatingly long lines to get on elevators to syndicators’ suites.

Among the changes this year: suites will be spread out better among the hotel’s buildings; the Digital Theater will be upstairs, not on the convention floor as it was last year; and there will be more lounges and meeting spaces for private meetings.

Feldman also announced that Billy Bush from NBC Universal’s Access Hollywood will host the Ninth Annual Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award — named for the late president of NBC Entertainment.

Award recipients this year are: Dennis Swanson, president of station operations at Fox Television Stations; Matthew Weiner, creator of AMC’s Mad Men; Cecile Frot-Coutaz, CEO of FremantleMedia North America; and Fernando Gaitan, vice president of production and content for RCN TV in Colombia.