Official start of the ENTERTAINMENT MASTER CLASS at MIPCOM

October 8, 2007 - First international Format Academy for Entertainment Television – A programme of the Erich Pommer Institut
- Official start of the ENTERTAINMENT MASTER CLASS at Medienboard’s MIPCOM reception in Cannes

Berlin/Potsdam/Cannes – This evening will see the official kick-off for the ENTERTAINMENT MASTER CLASS (EMC) in the framework of Medienboard’s reception at the TV market MIPCOM 2007. The international format academy is an initiative of the Potsdam-based Erich Pommer Institut and offers worldwide unique training for the development, production, marketing and distribution of programme formatting for entertainment television.

Petra Müller, Medienboard manager and the evening’s host, will welcome at the Cannes Hilton – together with Reed Midem’s Paul Johnson, ITV’s entertainment boss Paul Jackson and Sandra Kleinfeld from CBC Television – more than 250 international guests from the TV and entertainment sector.

Petra Müller: “Germany’s capital region is not only one of the most interesting film hubs right now, but also an important location for TV and entertainment. For that reason, and thanks to the initiative of the Erich Pommer Institut, we are especially pleased that the international format academy has its home base in Babelsberg. The Medienforum reception here in Cannes is the perfect framework for the official kick-off.”
Director of Erich Pommer Institut, Klaus Keil: ”It is groundbreaking that the idea for the ENTERTAINMENT MASTER CLASS was developed here by the Erich Pommer Institut together with international experts and Medienboard. Now the format academy for entertainment television can be implemented. The programme can begin!”

ITV entertainment boss and member of the EMC Advisory Board, Paul Jackson: “With the television format business now officially worth billions of dollars worldwide, you could say we are long overdue in having a properly accredited academy where experts in the field can pass on their knowledge and insights on how the business runs. The ENTERTAINMENT MASTER CLASS is the right idea at the right time.” Roland Willaert, EMC Creative Director: “Entertainment is the core of successful television. For years, sector representatives have complained about the lack of offerings for professional training. This shortcoming served as our impetus to develop the ENTERTAINMENT MASTER CLASS.

The aim of the ENTERTAINMENT MASTER CLASS is to train a select circle of young talented professionals in the development and production of programming formats for entertainment television and their marketing and distribution in the international marketplace. The part-time training programme consists of five modules per year, which will be held in five different countries. So-called local partners from the entertainment industry will act as ambassadors for the ENTERTAINMENT MASTER CLASS and host the programme’s modules in their countries. The first module is planned for the beginning of May 2008 in the framework of the Rose d’Or TV Festival.

The ENTERTAINMENT MASTER CLASS is supported by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.

Founding partners of EMC are BBC Worldwide, CBC, Nordisk Film, Rose d’Or, C21 and MIPCOM.

Further information about the ENTERTAINMENT MASTER CLASS is available at stand 15.17, level 01, in the Palais des Festivals or at www.entertainment-masterclass.tv. You can download this press release at www.medienboard.de and www.entertainment-masterclass.tv.

Press contact:

Cannes:
Clara Brockmann (PR Entertainment Master Class)
Tel.: +49 173 215 2659 | brockmann@entertainment-masterclass.tv

Germany:
Andrea Wickleder (PR Erich Pommer Institut)
Tel.: +49 331 721 28 87 | wickleder@epi-medieninstitut.de

Erich Pommer Institut gGmbH
Försterweg 2 | D-14482 Potsdam
Tel +49 (0) 331.721 28 80 | Fax +49 (0) 331.721 28 81
mail@epi-medieninstitut.de | www.epi-medieninstitut.de

By providing practice-oriented research, academic teaching, industry training and media consultation, the Erich Pommer Institut consistently applies the latest observations and findings from the film, TV and music industries to a wide spectrum of fields. These include issues of media law (e.g. copyright and licensing law) and media economy (e.g. film financing and the trade in TV formats) as well as for instance the legal and economic aspects involved in media convergence.

By providing two endowed professorships to the University of Potsdam and the Academy of Film & Television “Konrad Wolf” we can ensure a strong academic foundation.
The Erich Pommer Institut was founded in 1998 as an independent, non-profit GmbH (equivalent to private limited company) in Babelsberg, Potsdam. Sole associate is AGICOA Urheberrechtsschutz GmbH, an international copyright administration company for film and TV producers.

The Erich Pommer Institut was named after one of the most important film producers of the early 20th century. Many of his productions, such as The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920), Metropolis (1927) and The Blue Angel (1930), are world famous and still considered film classics to this day.

This release was published on openPR.