Mipcom, the largest market for TV content took place from 14th to 17th October at Cannes, France. In this 4- day conference many major collaborations were made and major personalities from the field were honoured.
This year’s theme “The Streaming Offensive” reflected the seismic changes in global distribution models, their impact on content production and licensing, and the global response to the direct-to-consumer challenge.
Personalities such as Darren Star, Robert Greenblatt, James Farrell, Head of International Originals for Amazon Studios; Farhad Massoudi, CEO/Founder and Adam Lewinson, Chief Content Officer of TUBI; Twitter’s Kay M. Madati, Global VP and Head of Content Partnership; Max Conze, CEO of ProSiebenSat.1; Bibiane Godfroid, CEO, Newen; Maria Kyriacou, President, ITV Studios International and Jed Mercurio, Screenwriter and showrunner were the keynote speakers for MIPCOM.
The Keynote speakers talked about creating effective ways to promote quality content and to increase its reach to the audience. Darren Star in his speech said that back when channels still had must-see TV, they were aiming for massive hits. “Networks wouldn’t give shows a chance to build an audience, they made very, very quick decisions. Networks and network executives are going more with their gut because they have to give a show more time and the ratings metrics are so low,” he said.
Some of the major collaborations in Mipcom were:
– Beta Film has sold Movistar Plus’ Canneseries winner “Perfect Life” to France’s M6 Group, in a deal which unusually included both the original and format, for a potential French remake from M6 production distribution arm SND.
– British hosting duo Ant and Dec’s Mitre Television and Stephen Lambert’s Studio Lambert are teaming up for BBC pilot “Street Car Showdown,” in which teams convert ordinary cars and take each other on in challenges.
– “Sky Blue Academy,” an animated series set inside the training academy of English soccer team Manchester City, is being developed by Singapore’s August Media Holdings, the Philippines’ Synergy88 Entertainment and Spain’s Minoria Absoluta.
– ITV Studios Global Entertainment racked up pre-sales for its leading Mipcom drama “Noughts and Crosses” to M-Net in Africa, Russia’s More TV, TVNZ in New Zealand and on BBC First across Benelux.
– Indian streaming platform Hotstar Specials, which is owned by Disney, bought the remake rights to relationship drama “Doctor Foster” from BBC Studios.
– Cineflix Rights pre-sold Australian wildlife documentary series “Inside Taronga Zoo” to Nat Geo Wild for the U.S. and More 4 for the U.K. The 10-part series is produced by McAvoy Media for Nine Network Australia.
– Amy Jenkins, the creator of BBC series “This Life” and writer on Netflix’s “The Crown,” is to adapt Allison Pataki’s “Sisi” novels, based on the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. The series is being developed by Picture Perfect Federation.
– Endeavor Content closed a co-production deal for Glassman Media’s hit game show “Spin the Wheel” with France’s TF1. The deal marks the first major international primetime commission for the show.
– Media Musketeers, the European banner launched by former Apple and Warner Bros. executives, joined forces with France’s Alliance Entreprendre, which took at 20% stake in the company.
