CEETV continues its series of interviews dedicated to the NATPE Budapest 2023 market (June 19-22) featuring companies and executives that will be a part of the highly anticipated event following its change of ownership.

Today, we talk to Dawn McCarthy-Simpson, Managing Director Business & Global Strategy at Pact whose delegation will attend the NATPE market in Budapest for the first time ever.


Dawn, Pact is attending NATPE Budapest which will be taking place June 19-22 this year. What are your plans for the event?

We are very excited to be attending NATPE Budapest for the first time. We have always had strong export growth in Western European markets with Germany, the Nordics and the Netherlands all reaching near 50% growth in 2022, so now is the time to explore more Eastern opportunities.


Have you attended previous editions of NATPE and what are your expectations for the market in Budapest?

We have never had delegations at NATPE Budapest, but many of our members have attended individually in recent years. We have taken delegations to NATPE Lat-Am market.


Pact is the UK screen sector trade body representing and supporting independent production and distribution companies. How many members do you currently have? How will they be represented during the market?

We currently represent more than 800 UK companies. We are still recruiting for the market, but we hope to have a good representation from our membership.


What will Pact members be bringing this year to NATPE Budapest in terms of content?

The great thing about content is that there is a place for all genres, so I imagine that UK companies will be attending with a wide choice from their catalogues.

Scripted drama remains the key driver of international exports for UK companies, and is the source of 46% of all export revenue and I am sure that many of these titles will be represented at NATPE.


What type of partnerships will you be looking for during NATPE Budapest? Will you be also looking for potential co-productions with CEE partners?

Co-production is important to the UK, and we continue to increase these partnerships year on year. Tax incentives and funding is an important part of the success of co-productions, so there will be UK companies attending with their newly developed projects that are ripe for co-production to find local partners and take advantage of the funding incentives available across many of the Central and Eastern European territories.


NATPE was recently acquired by Brunico. What is your experience of working with the new owners of the brand and their other markets like RealScreen?

We love working with Brunico. We have attended their Realscreen Summit (United States) for more than a decade, and it is one of the most important markets for Pact and UK companies. This year we saw one of our largest delegations of more than 100 companies in attendance. Brunico are a pleasure to work and the main reason why NATPE Budapest has now appeared on our event calendar.


What have been the main challenges for the UK screen sector in the past couple of years? How can players from CEE help boost the UK industry and vice versa?

We have have been faced with a few challenges over the past few years with the Covid pandemic and BREXIT, but our sector has shown resilience and found ways to make things work. We have seen very small loss of revenues during this period, but our sector is bouncing back and is busier than ever.

Exploring new markets such as the CEE is exciting to us. We are after all a creative sector and seeking out new ideas, new partners and new opportunities is what our business is all about and NATPE Budapest is a great destination to make magic happen.