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.”
The number of co-productions are increasing too, with streamers and broadcasters increasingly looking to share the burden of financing shows. “We’re definitely open to different models,” Disney’s EMEA content head Londono noted. “In our early days, there was a lot of focus on full commissions, but as things have evolved, we’re much more flexible in terms of the types of things we do and working with partners.”
He flagged Whiskey On The Rocks, a co-production with SVT in Sweden, which has the first window. “We come four months after in Sweden, but in the rest of the world, we’re in first position. That is something we’ll look to do more of.”
In France, Disney+ is working with TF1 on the French adaptation of BBC Studios’ Ghosts. “We have taken a first position in that, with a second window on TF1. We’re having conversations with broadcasters about different models to bring new content to the platform.”
Warner Bros Television Group’s Channing Dungey said co-productions were “not something that we were very interested in doing” previously, but shifts in the market are now making them more appealing. “What has happened over the past few years is that we’ve seen so many changes and in some ways it has made it harder than ever to get ideas onto screen. For us, it’s how we put these things together and that could mean taking on different partners.”
Licencing
All streamers are now very open to licencing their content to third parties, rather than hoarding it on their own platform. Disney’s Paolo Agostinelli, SVP of affiliate and content distribution for EMEA, said it has “rebalanced” its distribution strategy to “maximise the reach” and generate more value from its originals. “We can have an exclusive window on Disney+ and then license to third parties,” said Agostinelli.
He gave the example of UK superhero comedy Extraordinary which was licensed to ITV2 and ITVX just ahead of the season two drop on Disney+. “It raised the profile of season one and engaged fans in season two. We’ve done more than 20 such deals in the last few months.”
Londono said Disney+ is also acquiring local content itself: “We have a lot of conversations with free-to-air broadcasters in various markets to license content in a second window. It increases the local content on our platform, and increases funding for free-to-air players at a difficult time.”
Some execs grumbled the decision by streamers to licence out their content is flooding the market with shows, making it harder for others to sell their programmes.
Spain reigns
Spain was the country in focus at Mipcom this year. CEX Spain Trade & Investment and Parrot Analytics released a study that showed content from the country generated $5.1 billion in global streaming revenues over the last four years, flagging shows such as Money Heist and Elite on Netflix, Prime Video’s Red Queen and the Apple TV+ co-production Land of Women.
Parrot Analytics also found a 22% increase in the availability of Spanish series and films on major global streaming platforms since 2021. Society Of The Snow director J.A. Bayona gave a keynote in which he said Spain might lack the “resources” of Hollywood but has “passion and very talented people.”
The Mediapro Studio also announced details of its expansion into the North American market, with CEO Laura Fernández Espeso and US and Canada head JC Acosta unveiling a lineup of English-language feature films and series. They included Son Of The Bride, Juan José Campanella’s English-language series remake of his Oscar-nominated film; John Turturro feature Is There No Place on Earth for Me?, an adaption of Susan Sheehan’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book that he writes, stars in and directs; and feature Mother Wolf, starring Melissa Leo.
No comments yet