MIPTV 2024 finishes today, with all the attention focused on the MIPLONDON 2025 basics that Lucy Smith, director of the MIP markets, announced yesterday with a press conference at midday and a close-up cocktail in the evening. MIPTV has had the figures PRENSARIO had anticipated on Monday: 3537 people (vs. 5500 last year) from 84 countries, 1133 buyers, 135 exhibitors, 11 national pavilions. The FAST & AVOD Summit (now +IA) was again the segment with most growth. London? No exhibition booths nor MIPCancun matchmaking system, yes for regular screenings, scalable meeting lounges and enhanced networking. All genres are included.

Apart at this same daily, we provide a full article with Smith’s comments about MIPLONDON. She’s mainly stressed: ‘We are developing a new event format that the market was requiring. Forget the exhibition floors, we want to provide a premium networking experience based on buyer areas, scalable meeting lounges -according to the size of the venture- branded meeting tables, country pavilions, private club rooms, 2 screenings theatres and spaces for events. It will be different too from MIPCANCUN. We have already 50 top confirmed buyers, and growing. They have full free invitations’.

‘We’ll be held at the Savoy hotel of the West-End, February 24-27, the same week of the LONDON SCREENINGS, that in 2023 joined 29 distributors and 150 buyers. We’ll be complementary, adding more buyers, international business and networking supported solutions. We’ll be allocated 10 minutes walking from them. There won’t be conferences either during our market days, but we are analyzing if we include some the previous Sunday (Feb 23). We want just networking. Though LONDON SCREENINGS are focused on fictions, we will include special offers for our doc, formats and kids communities. Many news are to come’.

Let’s come back to MIPTV… latest trends we haven’t mentioned yet? Yesterday at ‘Thriving in the sport frenzy’, Scott Young, SVP sports content, WBD (UK), said: ‘Sports is the new big hit for platforms, that now consider the genre as another entertainment, not a genre apart. It is great to attract massive audiences and advertisers’. At ‘Fresh TV Fictions’, Virginia Museler, The Wit, told: ‘What’s on top in fictions this year? Police dramas, videogame adaptations and biopics, based strong real (usually female) personalities’.

What’s up in factual & docs? A big AMC European buyer resumed: ‘War content. It is usually with ups & downs but now is strongly up. Also, ancient civilizations, especially Egypt. Third, the localization is key, so if you can’t produce, look for foreigners producing about your national relevant people. ‘True crime’ continues on the extreme top, but now not only US productions, but also from France, Spain and even the Nordics. The mystery genre, in a wide sense, is present everywhere now in factual, connected to other issue. What’s down? Factual character-driven series… there is less production’.

A new vein in entertainment formats? A major US studio format head, answered: ‘Nostalgic comedy games, that combine past with present, including figures of the channel to promote other programs’. Twists? An Indian distributor said: ‘This is a good moment for foreign suppliers, to approach regional broadcasters in Europe, as Basque TV or TV3 Catalunya in Spain, etc. They have budget vs. the national networks, to buy more and to afford the dubbing, supported by the local Governments’.

Keys to open difficult regions, as Africa, CIS or small Asian nations? Paloma García, Caracol Colombia: ‘Now we have the new local digital platforms, that need content and if you have success, you can approach broadcasters or bigger OTTs with a better background. To propose traditional female love stories is always good; to have dubbed series to English or French, essential’.

The end: good bye MIPTV, we will miss you. It is a pity that the 2nd global market of the calendar couldn’t find sustainability to perdure. The content industry needs worldwide meeting points to optimize trips, introduce news, push relationships and networking. Let’s see not only London, but also April, so far absurdly empty of content markets in 2025, when other months have 4-5 announced events. The new times…

Nicolás Smirnoff, Alberto Buitrón, Francisco Ferreyra

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