Television has always been traded. It would be fair to say, however, that for a good part of the history of television there was what Nordenstreng and Varis called 'a one-way street' in television exports - from the United States and to a lesser extent Great Britain, to the rest of the world. This is changing as the pressures of globalisation, the spread of postfordist models of production, and the emerging dynamism of many alternative centres of production make the idea of "world television" less fanciful, and the metaphor more like Michael Tracey's (1988) notion of a "patchwork quilt". This image implies interconnectedness in a world system. One cause for this newer pattern of world television is the very practical need for co-financing arrangements caused by the impossibility of financing high-end product domestically. A second factor in the newer arrangements is the continuing dependency of most services on some degree of imported television.

Today, then, there is thus a world market for television. The main players in this market are producers, distributors and broadcasters. The subsidiary players are government agencies, financiers, packagers and sales agents. The stage on which the players appear are the markets held several times a year in the United States, Europe and more recently Asia. The most important of these markets are MIP-TV (held in April in Cannes), MIPCOM (held in October in Cannes), the American Film Market, or AFM, (held in Los Angeles in January), the Monte Carlo market, and the National Association of Television Programming Executives, NATPE, (held in the United States in March). Another major site affecting television trade is the annual unveiling of the new season's programs from the major U.S. suppliers, usually in the month prior to the start of the fall U.S. television season. Here eager broadcasters from the importing countries anxiously view Hollywood's wares to try to guess what will play with their domestic audiences.

Some of these sales conventions are well established. The MIDEM organisation, which runs the MIP events, started in the 1950s and is now owned by Reed International, the publishing company. Others are just beginning; MIP Asia began in December 1994 in Hong Kong. MIP-TV, the longest running of the markets, attracted 400 exhibitors and 9500 participants from 99 countries in 1994. MIPCOM (International Market for Television, Video, Cable and Satellite Films and Programs) which began life in the early 1980s as an "obscure sibling" to the long running MIP-TV in spring, is held in the northern fall, also in Cannes. It grew fast to become the second biggest event after MIP-TV, and now is a huge meeting of the world's television buyers and sellers, with the established players dominant. The October 1993 MIPCOM attracted 1705 participating companies and over 8000 individual participants representing 36 countries. Xavier Roy, chief executive of the Midem organisation believes the event can accommodate expansion to 12-15,000 participants.

In these big markets, programming is often bought or rejected sight-unseen, in job lots, based on company reputation or distributor clout. Very broad, rough and ready, genre expectations are in play. Decisions to purchase programs not central to the schedule are made on grounds like this all the time, even though they seem arbitrary. Conversely, there is a tradition amongst some European public broadcasters of scrutinising possible foreign acquisitions extremely closely. In this atmosphere it is difficult for the new company, the offbeat product or the unusual concept to be discovered. (For its first foray as a seller into MIPCOM in 1993, the U.S. documentary cable channel Discovery tarted up their profile by dressing their stall as a movie set. Actors were employed to create live action scenarios around a World War II theme to coincide with its use of Normandy landing documentaries as their flagship programs.)

These markets are the places where buyers can view the programs on sale from various producers, distributors and sales agents. But just as crucially it is the place where the players can circle each other at screenings and parties in the attempt to set up or consolidate partnerships which can help to finance the next project. If there is one thing true about "world" television it is that it works on personal contact. Experienced distributor Bruce Gordon, Head of Paramount International, has described the international television market as a club. And not all players in this club are equal. The most powerful are the U.S. networks, the representatives of the Hollywood studios, the major broadcasters, both commercial and public service, from the richest regions - Japan and Europe, the emerging new pay services like Star TV and Canal Plus and perhaps some of the biggest television distributors, eg., Germany's Kirsch Group, whose large holdings of library material give them considerable economic clout. Given the multiplication of television distribution channels throughout the world, it islikely that the international markets will continue to grow inimportance. New participants will need to find ways to place themselves within the structures of power and exchange already contolled by these more established institutions and individuals.

-Stuart O. Cunningham