NATPE takes over Discop East as Discop founder preps two new markets

The twentieth edition of Discop in Budapest, which has just got underway, will be the last after its organisers sold it to NATPE. It will be known as NATPE/Budapest from next year.

Meanwhile, Discop founder Patrick Jucaud has told TBIvision that he plans to launch two new markets in 2012, one geared towards the licensing industry and the other focused on African sports rights.

NATPE said it will run the rebranded version of Discop East as a companion event to its Miami-based content market. It has acquired Discop East from current owner Basic Lead, which is owned and run by Discop founder Patrick Jucaud. Basic Lead will retain a minority interest and will continue to run the Discop Africa and Discop Istanbul events, in association with NATPE.

Meanwhile, Jucaud told TBIvision that Basic Lead will launch two new events next year.

“We have two major events planned for next year,” he said. “One is called Signature and it will be a sales-centric market covering brand and character licensing in specific countries.” It is understood the inaugural event will take place in January 2012 in Poland with further versions planned for Turkey and Brazil.

“The other launch will be called the African Sports Rights market and will be a market that will help African sports federations and leagues with their ability to monetize whatever content they produce,” Jucaud added. “Since we launched Discop Africa five years ago we have realised what a big driver sport is in terms of advertising revenue in the region.”

The sports rights market will launch in South Africa, next October.