British publisher C21 says it has issued a letter of intent to the management of the National Association of Television and Programming Executives to acquire the assets of the association after it entered Chapter 11 earlier this month. Any such acquisition would require and be subject to the approval of the bankruptcy court, C21 said.
NAPTE announced several weeks ago that it planned on filing bankruptcy due to being adversely impacted by the COVID pandemic, which prevented the association from holding events that typically generated the bulk of their revenues. These cancellations forced NATPE to operate on its financial reserves and ultimately forced it to file for Chapter 11 to reorganize the NATPE business structure, it said.
The association held its first in-person gathering in two and a half years in Budapest in June this year and announced then that it would be moving its January 2023 gathering from the Bahamas to Miami and returning to Budapest for a Euro-focused event in June 2023.
Despite the bankruptcy announcement, NATPE said it planned on going ahead with the two previously announced events, which C21 has also committed to, issuing a letter of intent to hold “Content Americas” (the new name of the formerly planned NATE events) in Miami in early 2023, with focus on Latin American, U.S. and international content coproduction, sales, distribution and development. Content East, meanwhile, will take place in Budapest in June 2023, focusing on connecting the Central & Eastern European content business with the international market.
The dates and venues for each event will be announced shortly.
Content Americas and Content East will be supported by C21’s publishing products, most significantly Cveintiuno, C21’s new Spanish-language service, which covers the Hispanic content business. A significant new appointment to this brand will be announced on October 24, the company said.
C21’s editor-in-chief & managing director David Jenkinson said: “These two new events will provide a vibrant Hispanic and US programming market early in the year, and a progressive Central & Eastern European content market in June, with some haste.
“Alongside these new event initiatives, we have issued a letter of intent to the management of NATPE with a view to acquiring its assets, which will be aligned with our business should this happen. Any acquisition would require the approval of the US bankruptcy court.”
Programming for the events will be managed from London with support from key staff in the local markets.
