The weather is lovely in Cannes, the spring flowers are in bloom, lots of animation abounds, but many MIP-goes may not experience any of this due to an air traffic controllers strike in France that has cancelled most flights coming into Nice, the closest airport to the MIP market.

Those entered the Palais convention hall on Monday, April 3, 2006, saw a handwritten list of affected flights. While expected to be over before the weekend, this presents a hardship to those expecting to arrive and leave mid-market.

Attendance tends to be lighter in the spring when the concentration is on documentaries while more animation is launched during the MIPCOM Jr. in October. However, lots of shows are getting a big push here as distributors such as Marathon, AB and Xiliam have taken some of the more prominent marketing/advertising spots at MIP-TV.

The telcoms and mobile entertainment entities are here in full force, dominating the conference schedule and snapping up bigger spaces and more stands. Most are trying to figure out what they need to be doing in this arena and lots of animation producers are adding shorts productions to their mix to then be used on the Web and on mobile devices.

Places like Aardman Animation have been addressing and delivering to this growing space for some time. Scholastic Ent. is jumping in with a series of one-minute shorts, WORDGIRL, to be followed by a full TV series while some are producing TV episodes and mobisodes instead of staggering productions or repurposing with plans to release both simultaneously.

As this new area grows, those stuck at the airports and other areas often affected by future strikes in France may be accessing content on their cell phones and the like while they wait and remotely cover some of their business meetings until they can arrive in Cannes for face-to-face meetings.