The wait is over: MIPLondon takes place for the first time from today, Sunday, with its pre-events: MIPDoc and MIPformats, that last till Tuesday. From tomorrow, the main market days will happen, till Thursday noon. The main goal of the full event? To provide networking to the strong European traffic that traditional London screenings generate in the city, quite similar as it happens in May with the LA Screenings, in Los Angeles. Is it a good idea? The initial figures are good, let’s see real business during the week.

Organizer RX France speaks about 1600 registered delegates from over 70 countries, including almost 800 buyers. The last MIPTV had 3500 people from 84 countries and 1100 buyers, so the intention is to make focus on less people more important, with 50% of buyer density from total. There are no booths, sponsors have from tables to suites, with extra chances as meeting and screening spaces. The event is developed in two hotels at the same street block --Savoy Hotel and IET London-- with all the London Screenings locations around, 10 minutes walking at the most.

MIPDoc and MIPformats assure the focus on unscripted --MIPTV was called the unscripted week in the past-- while the London Screenings climax gives priority mainly to fiction. There are also new spaces about emergent Asian entertainment formats --Japan and Korea, leaders-- ‘Digital First’, with YouTube and Tiktok on the spot, Branded Entertainment with the advertisement connection and lastly a Kids summit, for the mature UK kids commissioners.

The market has reacted about MIPLondon mainly with caution, with some players waiting for the first experience to make next year better deployments. The opinions against say that the event and the city are expensive, and it is no good to overlap events. But well, the MIPTV traditional movement needs a market and it does continue for sure at MIPLondon. If the synergies with London Screenings add high-end industry members, we’ll have a new fresh market. Let’s see soon…

Main market trends to take in mind? Worldwide, the challenge is the same: traditional businesses are flat or down, while new digital segments are still hard to monetize. Most of the new platforms appeared recently are below AVOD & FAST models, not paying for the content, they offer revenue sharing models and so on. So, a sort of cross-roads appears above industry members. Should I continue with traditional? Must I invest more in digital? The decision of most industry members is to move forward over the new times, and to find solutions on the road.

Certainties that make future more understable: Tiktok and YouTube are taking most of the advertisement pies, so people move to these kinds of media at the new times. And the incomes road is always through advertisement, because the other models are not consistent on time. Good challenges are: to move into digital advertisement twists, because ad package processes of ad agencies can define investments more than content sometimes; and to explore the monetization options that the market is already providing: branded content, screen sharing, more co-productions at every step, production hubs for entertainment, etc.

In this so taught content moment, there are also many companies having a good present: the international studios that produce the same with lower costs, broadcasters that develop 360 business, digital platforms with solid niches, etc. A good present, not only future, is possible, when someone takes good decisions kept on time.

Nicolás Smirnoff

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