TV industry heads to Mipcom favouring pragmatism as streaming, YouTube and AI reshape market

Left · 2The international television business is heading to Mipcom in Cannes, the world's largest TV trade fair, which runs 12-15 October 2026, with what Variety calls a new mantra of pragmatism. 1 2 Left · 1Variety reports that the days of bidding wars for exclusive rights are mostly gone, with cutbacks after a streamer-fuelled growth cycle, advertising moving to digital, tighter public-broadcaster budgets and streamers themselves consolidating and retrenching. 1 Left · 1Ludovic Attal, president of Sipur Studios, said the cost-plus model, in which a platform pays 100% of a budget plus a premium, is retreating in favour of deficit financing and shared windows in which a platform takes the first run and perhaps one or two territories. 1

Left · 1Streamers and broadcasters that once competed for exclusive rights are now pooling resources: Mediawan's Elisabeth d'Arvieu pointed to "1536", a Drama Republic series with the BBC taking the U.K. and HBO the U.S. and Canada. 1 Left · 1Producers are keeping more IP; Gaumont Television's Isabelle Desgorges said tighter budgets and French rules stemming from an E.U. directive that took effect in 2021 let Gaumont keep the IP on most streamer shows, though streamers pay less, and she worries that aggregation deals make series lose exclusivity and value. 1 Left · 1Aggregation deals include Netflix carrying all TF1 channels in France, Amazon's similar pact with France Télévisions and Disney's agreement with M6 Group. 1

Left · 1Consolidation is seen as essential: Banijay bought All3Media and Mediawan bought North Road, and ITV agreed over the summer to sell its media and entertainment business to Sky for up to £1.6 billion ($2.1 billion). 1 Left · 1Former ITV chair Peter Bazalgette argued that European domestic broadcasters must merge to survive, and TF1 chief Rodolphe Belmer has said TF1 and M6, whose merger was abandoned in 2022 over competition concerns, could revisit a tie-up in 2028. 1 Left · 2Both outlets describe YouTube as the dominant force: Variety says its reach exceeds Netflix in average daily viewing worldwide and that Netflix's Ted Sarandos and Belmer are urging the E.U. to impose investment obligations on it, while The Hollywood Reporter calls it "the clear winner of the video wars". 1 2

Left · 1Industry players are also mining YouTube for talent: Fox Entertainment Global has committed to 200 microdramas, and Mediawan's "Backrooms", which grew from Kane Parsons' YouTube web series, grossed over $400 million worldwide. 1 Left · 1The Hollywood Reporter adds that phone-first vertical dramas are moving mainstream and AI-generated content is entering production pipelines, and Fox Entertainment Global president Prentiss Fraser said "Something feels inherently different this year" while the company keeps its traditional TV business. 2 Left · 1Conventional programming remains central to the market: The Hollywood Reporter's picks include a Matthew Macfadyen George Smiley adaptation (BBC, MGM+), a Stephen Fry spy procedural ordered straight to series by Fox, an NBC reboot of The Rockford Files with David Boreanaz, StudioCanal's Zulu epic for MultiChoice's DStv, and the BBC's reality format The Yacht. 2