Mipcom 2026 moves forward with very good energy facing an expanding digital future, but main news from the industry don’t help to feel better: apart from the acquisition announcement of Skydance Group to Warner Bros Discovery, The Wit at its crowded “Fresh TV” conference revealed yesterday a 62% drop in new format creation since 2013-2014 peak. Also, many European broadcasters keep the volume of production hours, but reducing costs to a small percent, due to very low-cost live programming.

Skydance handles now both Paramount and WBD, so again Hollywood, since the Disney & Fox big merger, feels challenged its offering to the market. Talking ‘off the record’ with high-end studio executives, they say having mixed sensations. On the hand, a reduction of structure comes for sure. But on the other hand, the investment group seems to keep the studios separated, not to cannibalize each other. ‘I hope they can do something different from previous mergers’, it was said.

Virginia Mouseler from The Wit stressed that the global TV format market is experiencing a ‘Great Depression’, that explains the strong drop, returning numbers to 2008 volumes. ‘There is a new religion of adapting successful digital properties to streaming platforms. Amazon Prime for instance turned French YouTube show “Terminal” to a big budget global production, offsetting new IPs. This is a general move now’.

A big UK producer completes the picture: ‘We see both in UK and Spain the same trends: just the public broadcasters are buying formats nowadays, the private channels don’t buy. They keep the production hours, but with extreme low-cost live programming, as talk shows in a studio. About 70% of the TV screen in Spain today is cheap live programs, with just about 20/30% from traditional costs. In France, in Germany, even in Italy with Sky, the private players invest more, but I am afraid this is an expanding trend’.

What about fiction? Glance at its conference said that the streaming industry has entered a mature phase of “coopetition”, where platforms like Netflix and Prime Video are partnering with traditional broadcasters to handle local original series. About genres, scripted formats are favoring ecological dramas and stories of ordinary heroes challenging powerful systems. The same above big UK producer adds: ‘As unscripted reduces with live talk shows, scripted reduces with co-productions. The same volume of fictions, but now shared with many others. ITV with Sky, Amazon, Netflix. RTVE with Disney, Amazon, Netflix, etc. What everybody wants is to hold all the rights, for 360 developments’.

Good trends? Mike Beale, ITV Studios (UK) said after its press conference: ‘We have 10 new formats vs. London Screenings in February, now from all over the world. And in scripted, as much as long-form fictions continue steadily demanded, there is a strong growth in short-form series. We see a wider landscape’.

Also, there are many new ventures that make business better. At Mipcom, former Hollywood executive Matt Vasallo is now at Social Department, that provides AI marketing solutions for big content suppliers. For instance, to develop campaigns choosing profitable audiences, right contents from the portfolio, right media and it generates all the materials. It works per annual fees or on demand. Product Placement Market provides connecting producers with brands locally or globally, through accessing to an automated community or per project, taking 25% of incomes. NHK, the public broadcaster, is offering Virtual Reality content, expanding customers to retailers, museums, etc. So…

Nicolás Smirnoff, Alberto Buitron, Juan Pablo Morales

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