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“Stay in the mix till 2026” was the reworked refrain of Mipcom 2024
Changing windows, increasing co-productions, streamer licencing deals and the demand for“cosy crime” were the topics on the lips of delegates at this week’s Mipcom programme market in Cannes.
Mipcom remains, in its own words, the ’Mother of all Entertainment Content Markets’ – and a huge number of execs from all over the world beat a path to its anniversary 40th edition this year. But it took place against a backdrop of challenged broadcaster and studio finances, inflationary pressures on TV budgets and the aftermath of the last year’s Hollywood strikes.
Not surprisingly, many execs with whom Screen spoke believed the market was quieter this year, with companies saving costs by bringing smaller delegations. There were noticeably fewer stars in town this year and even anecdotal reports of rare vacancies in a number of the big hotels. But Mipcom long ago morphed from being a place where big deals were signed to one where sellers can meet with buyers to inform them about new and upcoming projects.
The biggest premiere of the market was for Beta Film’s ambitious, mostly Hungarian-language medieval miniseries Rise Of The Raven.
What buyers want
Several execs reported the streamers were looking for content that skewed towards older viewers, and were less interested in chasing young adult (YA) audiences. The reason? Grown-ups are the ones who pay for the subscriptions that streamers are keen to hold on to in a competitive market. “I’ve been really surprised at what Netflix has been buying,” said one sales exec. Several sellers said that buyers in general were looking for lighter and upbeat content rather than very dark programmes. ‘Cosy’ crime as well as procedurals were talked up as being in demand rather than expensive, auteur driven dramas.
“Art house and niche are not great words at the moment,” said Steve Matthews, content partnership executive at superindie group Banijay, whose Mipcom slate includes a reimagining of iconic UK detective drama Bergerac. Another exec said Scandi noir, once a pathfinder for international dramas, now has to be truly exceptional to travel.
Warner Bros Television Group’s Channing Dungey flagged the demand for procedurals, citing medical drama Brilliant Minds for NBC, and pointing to the acquisitions of shows such as Suits by streamers. Disney’s EVP of media networks and content for EMEA, Diego Londono, said: “We all know the genres that work: crime, action-adventure, general dramas, soaps, comedies in a limited space.” Known IP also helps, said Londono, pointing to the company’s adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s bonkbuster novel Rivals, which “has a huge fan base in the UK”.
Stay in the mix till 2026”
For some time now, TV execs have sought to weather 2024 and the brutal aftermath of the post-peak TV downturn in the hope that 2025 would see a hoped-for turnaround in business. This led to phrases such as the oft-parroted “Survive till 2025” gaining wide traction. Many now think the industry may have to wait until 2026 before things settle, giving rise to another version of slogan heard on the Croisette “Stay in the mix till 2026”.
The US, it seems, has been harder hit than most countries: Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman and chief exec Tony Vinciquerra said the next 18-24 months are going to be “very chaotic” for US studios grappling with the decline of legacy cable channels. ”There will be a shake-out there,” Vinciquerra said. ”There’s going to be mergers, consolidation, sales or some bankruptcies, potentially.” He also said the impact of last year’s Hollywood strikes is “far more severe” for the US industry than has been appreciated, and had forced productions to shoot in cheaper locations such as the UK, Australia and Eastern Europe.
Windows and dealmaking for feature films are continuing to accelerate according to Dan Cohen, the chief content licensing officer at Paramount, in a keynote interview. “Films move much more quickly. One of the new innovations [is that] we might license a movie to a FAST channel for a weekend.”
Exclusivity is no longer as important as it was either. “It used to be the first TV client and then the second wanted exclusivity. [You might have had] an HBO output deal, completely exclusive, followed by a basic cable deal, where there’s ads introduced, but exclusive. We live in a world now of co-exclusive deals, non-exclusive deals.”