FRAPA launches new website

The new website www.frapa.org forms part of a wider FRAPA makeover that will see the format association reposition itself as ‘a meet-and-greet platform, a networking forum, an advice shop, an information resource and an industry thought leader', Biernat said.

Among the new services featured on the revamped website is the world's first format-rights price calculator. Available free to FRAPA members, the online calculator is designed to help format creatives to put a realistic commercial price on their concepts. The initiative, which has taken six months to perfect, is based on input from some of the format world's most experienced brokers and traders.

Biernat explained: ‘Many FRAPA members have no real understanding of how to price their IP on the open market --or even who to turn to for this sort of nuts-- and-bolts commercial advice. The problem is particularly acute for smaller companies, whose inexperience and lack of financial clout leaves them vulnerable to exploitation when venturing into unknown markets'.

The website project was driven by FRAPA board member Patty Geneste, founder and CEO of Amsterdam-based format specialist Absolutely Independent. She commented: ‘Our investment in new tools and services will benefit not only our existing members but will also attract a lot of new members'.

Set to launch on the new website is another FRAPA first: a format contract generator. The online tool, again available free to FRAPA members, will draw on the most commonly used format license and option agreements to create standard contracts, the details of which can be modified according to the deal in question.

FRAPA will promote these new online tools during MipFormats, to be held before MIPTV starts. Moreover, the company is organizing there the workshop How to resolve your format dispute? with World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Cannes on Saturday, April 2 nd at 3.10pm in the Grand Auditorium of the Palais des Festivals.

‘In recent months, FRAPA has upgraded its mediation services via a collaboration with the UN agency WIPO; expanded its presence at international television events; appointed new board members from emerging format territories such as Argentina, and boosted its membership via strategic partnerships with the likes of the influential

, whose 200 or so members represent around 80% of the turnover of German production companies', finalizes Biernat