The trends seen at MIPJUNIOR during the weekend, are the same that give shape MIPCOM for this week: more players are participating in the content bowl, due to convergence & 360 opportunities, the opening of major distribution and the AVOD/FAST fever. Monetization and segmentation come together.

MIPJUNIOR finished yesterday after three days --there were some activities on Friday for the first time-- with intense meetings, screenings and announcements. The main news? More companies enter the kids & teens arena looking for IPs, to develop new segments of known products or directly new properties. Two of the flagship contents of the trend are Roblox from Canadian Spin Master and Pocoyo from American Animaj/Zinkia. They’ve had TV series, now they have digital games, new apps, fresh consumer products, etc.

On the opposite, yesterday took place the launch of Crayola Studios, the content division of Crayola, the famous consumer products brand. It is developing alliances with content producers as 9Story from Canada to develop animated series based on the abilities of its products (see the separated article below). Mattel’s Barbie is a recent blockbuster of the same trend. So, from or towards content industry, business gets wider.

MIPJUNIOR attendance? RX France announced on Saturday good numbers, and let’s see what they confirm during the week. The sensation so far is MIPJUNIOR has had more people than last year, but the figures are not like before the pandemic. The market is more selected, part in person and part online, and the stereotypes --I have to attend because everybody attends-- are not so stronger nowadays. Let’s see the whole week. Something notorious is the much more presence of Asian companies, from South Korea, Japan and other territories. China is the ‘Country of Honor’ this fall. Asia is back, undoubtedly.

Trends for Mipcom? The progressive re-opening of international distribution of major US studios as Disney for third parties, and the launch of Amazon MGM to distribute Amazon Originals apart from MGM catalogue to anybody below strict window rules, set up a new market, more plural to access to the top product. Also, the big SVOD project reductions have reinforced the broadcaster option for the big studios, as more stable partners to push new initiatives. The evolution of content business moves from linear to pendular, many times.

The best example of this is the AVOD/FAST fever, that put again the focus of monetization on advertisement vs. exclusivity and subscribers, and especially the FAST channels, represent the return to the traditional linear Pay TV signals that intended by the ‘80s and ‘90s to have as many channels as market niches. With the FAST move, the industry can go much further, because you can generate one full channel with just one tittle, and the multiplication of channels has no tech limits about costs or deployment.

Most of the big broadcasters and content factories internationally, are announcing FAST channels and new AVOD platforms within the rest of the year and 2024 first half. We have to add the XVOD efforts, to generate OTT platforms in every cable operator or ISP (Internet Service provider) that reach audiences, even there are companies creating OTTs for the banking sector, credit cards, etc., which provide free contents to the consumers when they reach certain goals. We will have un unprecedent market with so many platforms, that it is difficult to imagine any overal rule. The doors are already open.

Alberto Buitron and Francisco Ferryra from Cannes, France

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