MIPCOM: Despite all the headlines about new global digital platforms, the buzz in Cannes seemed to be about local programming and old media, argues Richard Middleton.

Netflix, Amazon et al might be transforming television in a way that nobody has seen since the advent of pay TV in the US, but in some ways the market is reverting back to what it knows best.

Marion Edwards, 20th Century Fox Television Distribution’s ^[1] outgoing global TV chief, was certainly clear that in her mind ^[2] linear television remains king – despite the upstarts that are causing so much disruption to buyers and sellers here in Cannes.

Linear TV, Edwards argued, is still able to make a connection with viewers in a way that SVoD services cannot, despite drama soaring ever higher in terms of both aspiration and budget.

Certainly, the shows on the billboards of Cannes this week point to a scripted industry that is growing fat as both network and on-demand operators push expectations ever higher.

Designated Survivor’s Kiefer Sutherland was in town to talk up ^[3] the potential of his show – hoping it might help the “elasticity” of political discourse in the US along the way. Sony’s The Halcyon, Red Arrow’s Mata Hari and Beta Film’s The Same Sky all attracted buyer praise.

Sales of ITV’s Victoria suggested international broadcasters are as interested as ever in luscious period pieces while the range of shows – from NBCUniversal’s colonial era show Jamestown to Newen Distribution’s Amazon-set drama Ouro – highlight creativity is alive and well.

But as Edwards pointed out, a taste for procedurals also seems to be emerging again. The Fox exec admitted that her development team was in Cannes focusing on a genre that has been largely ignored, particularly in the US, over the past few years – almost as if the intervening years of obsession with serialisation had never happened. “Everything old is new again,” the veteran added.

Local programming demands also seem to be surging again, as Cathrine Wiernik, director of programmes at Bonnier Broadcasting, explained. This was a particularly pertinent point given the Nordic region’s ahead-of-the-curve uptake of SVoD services.

It suggests that while the likes of Netflix are investing heavily in mega-dramas that they can spin globally, what some viewers really want isn’t one or two local originals on their international SVoD service but a slew of programming that they can immediately identify with.

That concept of identification seems to be the key, with brands and talent never more important across originals for both scripted and unscripted. For YouTube, it means making the most of those on its platform by combining production prowess with talents such as PewDiePie to garner more clicks and dollars for SVoD offering YouTube Red.

It is also sprinkling stardust from the likes of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson into its beefed-up drama output ^[4], with the ex-wrestler exec producing and starring in an as-yet untitled sci-fi action thriller to be produced as a TV-friendly half-hour series by Seven Bucks Productions and ProSiebenSat.1’s digitally focused Studio71.

Another of YouTube’s forthcoming scripted shows, revealed here at Mipcom ^[4], will be hour-long action thriller Impulse, about a young girl who can teleport. Lost’s Jeffrey Lieber is writing, Suits’ Doug Liman directs and it is being produced by Universal Cable Productions.

The platforms might be evolving but the content still sounds remarkably familiar.
  ^[5]