CANNES, FRANCE — Mipcom 2025 played out in glorious sunshine, proving, however, in many ways a sobering affair. Since 2022-23 when Netflix first announced a subs decline and then Hollywood’s double strikes, the only certainty has been fear: That a sales-production sector’s chasing a contracted market is not a blip, but the new norm. With attendance just up on 2024’s event, the story of Mipcom 2025 is how the TV industry is reacting to this traction, especially by way of its exploration of possible partnership with YouTube and the creative economy revolution. These and other takeaways from this year’s Mipcom, which ran Oct. 13-17.
The Crunch
Though attendance at Mipcom this year, edged up on 2024 – plays – the party looks well and truly over. “Almost 18 months after we first identified the trend, we are still at ’75% Peak TV,” Ampere Analysis’ Guy Bisson said Wednesday at Mipcom. In other words, the market has contracted to 75% of its Peak TV Size. Compared to the first half of 2024, first-run scripted TV orders were 6% up in North America but down in Central and South America (-7%), Western Europe (-10%), Asia Pacific (-11%) and Central and Eastern Europe (-15%). Some countries – Spain, France and Italy – have held in commissions. But they are exceptions. Much of the downturn is driven by streamer pull back down over 100% on early 2024, Bisson said. The new reality, moreover, is here to stay, he added.
And the Good News?
The biggest draw at this edition of Mipcom was the presence of creator economy players. YouTube, which celebrates its 20-year anniversary, made its first official presence at the Cannes-set confab with a crowded session that brought together BBC Studios digital SVP Jasmine Dawson and YouTube’s EMEA boss Pedro Pina discussing their win-win partnership. It was one of the several examples of successful alliances between traditional media and the creator economy talked about at Mipcom — where Banijay unveiled the launch its YouTube-backed Entertainment Creators Lab in France, and announced its acquisition of the Dutch label Werktitel. A decade after hosting the Mip Digital Upfront, a one-off initiative, Mipcom also revisited the topic with a fully-fledged Digital Upfronts that welcomed on stage talents and executives from creator-led production companies, After Party Studios and Dhar Mann Studios, as well the AVOD platform Tubi.
Finding a Business Model
The big question, of course is: What is the business model?Traditional broadcasters cannot hope to make up the slack from declining advertising and lower audiences in a digital sphere where Costs Per Mille (CPMs) are radically lower, said Ampere’s Bisson. The maths will never add up. Yet they can leverage YouTube and other low CPM players in other ways. Banijay is now doing exactly with animation series “Ava & Digger,” produced by Banijay Kids & Family and digital giant TheSoul Publishing, which has 3 billion – that’s a “b” followers. The series will launch on YouTube later this year, honing and building IP. With data in hand – reach, demos, gender splits – the partners will then pitch streaming services.
Microdramas Dazzle….
What is the most watched form of TV in Colombia,– linear TV, powered by telenovelas, or global streaming services, led by Netflix? Neither, Spanish analyst Geca announced at Iberseries & Platino Industria two weeks ago. In viewing figures, both have been overtaken by microdramas. Hailed by Virginia Mouseler as one of the most watched TV shows of recent times, what title opened The Wit’s Fresh TV Fiction at Cannes on Oct. 15? ReelShorts’ 90-part, 90-second U.S. romantic melodrama “Breaking the Ice,” a vertical made for iPhone which notched up 340 million views in the U.S.
….And Are a Growth Phenom in International
Explosively growing, microdramas will reach $11 billion in global revenues by 2025: double the size of FAST channels, María Rua Aguete, at Omdia, announced Monday. Microdramas “combine the immediacy of social media with the emotional depth of television drama. They are short, snackable, and utterly addictive.” So lucrative: Available on subscription/ transactional bases, average user revenue can reach $80 per month. “This is not just a trend – it’s the next wave of content evolution,” Rua Aguete affirmed. Also, they’re taking off most everywhere. At Mipcom, Lebanon’s Scene and Arab World giant Rotana Media announced they would co-produce microdramas, introduced for the first time in the Arab world, they said. Both partners looked very chuffed.
Buzz Titles
One, leading the pack, is Richard Gadd’s “Half Man.” The latest from the creator of “Baby Reindeer,” a Netflix smash hit, looks like one of the most talked-about series at this year’s confab. Banijay has now sold it to Canadian (Crave) and Australian (Stan) pay TV networks. As Mipcom unspooled, English-language “Hotel Costiera, starring Jesse Williams and located at a luxury hotel on Italy’s dazzling Positano coast,” hit No. 1 on Prime Video U.S. amid fulsome sales. “The appetite for this kind of bold, sky-blue drama is clear,” Fremantle’s Jens Richter told Variety. Globo’s “Perfect Days” made both Variety’s Must-See TV and The Wit’s Fresh TV Fiction. Sally Wainright’s “Riot Women,”sold by Mediawan Rights, proved one of the most popular titles in the The Wit’s showcase.
‘Out of the Box’ Toy Brand Films and Series
Toy brands like Hasbro, Lego and Mattel continue to develop their IP in the audiovisual space, but the movies and shows still need to stand on their own feet. Robbie Brenner, president of Mattel Studios and chief content officer, spoke about her plans for film and TV versions of IP like Masters of the Universe and Matchbox. The intention was “to find ways to tell those stories that feel authentic, and that they have integrity, and actually celebrate brands but to do it in a way that feels interesting and out of the box and unexpected,” she said.
One Mantra: Flexibility in Rights Dealing
Exclusivity is less of a priority when it comes to rights, and there’s a greater willingness to collaborate. “We want to find the audience wherever we can,” Ben Samek, CEO of Banijay Americas. “The more flexibility there is in the market, the more value there’ll be for lots of players.” Kate Phillips, BBC’s chief content officer, underscored the value of partners, such as Amazon on “The Night Manager.” “They can just increase the ambition and increase the impact. In a crowded global market, trying to get drama that breaks through is getting harder and harder so the more partnerships we have, the better.”
What Territories Are Popping?
Brazil. Or, rather, at least TV giant Globo. On the eve of Mipcom, at a Carlton Hotel Showcase, Globo walked an industry audience through its latest production deals with the BBC (an Amazon two-part doc), Fox (an Xmas feature) and Ron Leshem’s Crossing Oceans and Janeiro Studios (a Rio de Janeiro new X-Gen focused series). Drilled down on by Globoplay’s Alex Medeiros at Cannes, Globo now has deals with Disney (four movies), Turkey’s Ay Yapim (Turkish remakes of Globo novelas, such as “Leyla,” sold to 20+ territories), Gaumont (“Deluxe”), Beta Film, Fremantle (“Crime Inc.) and Telemundo (a first title TBA). Globo is entering the global mainstream.
And, Yes, Flanders
The northern part of Belgium, speaking a form of Dutch. Malin-Malin-Sarah Gozin’s hilarious, melancholic and eco-conscious “Dead End,” where a sleuth has to nibble a part of corpse to get a really good idea as to how it died, was reckoned by many as the most notable drama at April’s Canneseries. At The Wit’s Fresh TV Fiction, Flanders had five shows selected: Fun crime series “The Big Fuck Up,” sisters’ reckoning road movie “How To Kill Your Sister,” interior design world-set drama “Eyecatchers,” daily drama “Florentina” and microdrama “Red Flag.” That’s a large presence at Fresh TV Fiction than any other territory in the world, including Europe’s streaming leaders, U.K. and Spain, which both had four a piece.
The Deals
A score and more of the biggest:
*The biggest deal announced during Mipcom: Warner Bros. Discovery and CJ ENM have formed a strategic partnership. WBD wants CJ’s possibly enormous viewing numbers; CJ wants WBD’s reach.
*Sony Pictures Television sold to Sky “The Miniature Wife,” s relationship comedy-drama starring Elizabeth Banks, Matthew Macfadyen, Mipcom’s exclusive opening night preview screening. SPT also added “Trainer Games” to its Mipcom slate.
*Mia Wasikowska is set to direct legal drama “The Great White” for “Slow Horses” producer See-Saw Films, owned by Mediawan which, in further news,
*Banijay Entertainment has picked up “Werewolves,” the buzzed-about strategic reality format that’s based on a cult board game, for multiple territories, from Studiocanal and Dreamspark.
*Banijay landed sales for a modernised “Maigret” in Australia (ABC) and Japan (Wowow) among major territories.
*Fremantle confirmed it had acquired worldwide distribution rights to feature documentary “Luca: Seeing Red” about the flamboyant life of businessman and former chairperson of Ferrari Luca Cordero di Montezemolo. At Mipcom, Montezemolo chatted to Variety.
*Globo signed landmark co-production deals with the BBC (an Amazon doc), Fox (an English-language Xmas feature) and Janeiro Studios and Crossing Oceans for a new show from Ron Leshem, creator of the original Euphoria, made in Portuguese and set in Rio de Janeiro, and depicting the new Gen Z.
*In a behemoth alliance, Banijay Kids & Family, part of Banijay Entertainment, and social media giant TheSoul Publishing unveiled Banijay Kids & Family’s first self-funded digital-first original series “Ava & Digger.”
*BAFTA nominee John Hannah (“The Last of Us,”) is set to lead “Death in Benidorm,” a new detective drama series launching on the Paramount Skydance-owned U.K. network Channel 5 and Germany’s ZDF Studios.
*Beta Film added marital caper “A Lovely Mess – Rob the Rich” and then two William Levy vehicles, “Under a Volcano” and “Road to Arcadia,” with Spain’s Secuoya Studios and Mexico’s ViX, plus a franchise refreshening “Rex – Vienna Calling,” about Europe’s sharpest-witted canine law enforcer.
*Conan O’Brien’s Emmy-Winning TBS late-night chat show series has landed at Radial Entertainment, for U.S. distribution.
*Warner Bros. Discovery has picked up medical reality series “Dr. Pimple Popper: Breaking Out” and “The 6000lb Diaries” for its European linear networks.
*Studiocanal brought to the market ‘Spinners 2,” the second season of the South African-set extreme motor sports thriller and coming-of-age tale, from Canal+ and Showmax.
*Mediawan Rights has boarded Icelandic crime series “Elma,” produced by Glassriver with Belgium’s Lunanime.
*ITV Studios has acquired production rights to “Solitary,” the controversial reality game show created by Lincoln Hiatt and Andrew Golder that was No. 1 on Fox Reality Channel, while inking a major overall deal with seasoned reality TV creators Karsten Bartholin and Kenneth Kristensen
*“La Favorita 1922,” from Spain’s Mediterráneo and Bambú Producciones sold to HBO Max Latin America, reaches 70 territories licensed worldwide
*In further unveils, Fremantle launched Greek myth inspired entertainment format “Pandora’s Box” at Mipcom.
*Australian actress Abbie Cornish (“Limitless”) and Scottish actor Dougray Scott (“Enigma” )are set to star in Southern African action thriller series “The Invisible,” for M-Net, ITV Studios, Scene23 and Berkeley Media Group.
*Atresmedia Sales has struck an AXN Japan deal for crime series “Una Vida Menos en Canarias,” as high-rating daily drama “Sueños de Libertad” bows on HBO Max cars Latin America and Angela hit Netflix’s global Top 10 of most watched non-English language shows.
*Wedotv and ZDF Studios are launching a “Legacy” FAST Channel, offering ease of access to the opulent South African smash hit series.
*Titan OS and Tubi announced a ‘milestone’ partnership to ‘unlock exclusive AVOD advertising opportunities’ in the U.K.
*Cineflix has closed multiple new deals on BBC One primetime crime thriller “Virdee,” with SVT (Sweden), Filmin (Spain), Britbox for its platforms across Norway, Finland and Denmark, and BBC Studios for Asia. Later in the Mipcom market, it revealed further international licensing accords on “Vanished History,” “Commando Missions” and “Cape Carnage: Killer Catch.”
*L.A. and Stockholm-based Dynamic Television has picked up global distribution rights to premium Swedish drama thriller “Till Death Do Us Part” from writer Veronica Zacco (“Top Dog,” “Quicksand”) and director Julia Lindström (“Young Royals”).
*Banijay Mexico & U.S. Hispanic, part of Banijay Americas, is gearing up for the 2026 FIFA World Cup with a new travel docu series, “Tres hinchapelotas,” led by three Latino household names – Jaime Camil (“Jane the Virgin”), Marcelo Tinelli (“Videomatch”) and Jorge Enrique Abello (“Ugly Betty“).
