Mipcom 2024: positives in a changing content economy

By Luci Sanan 31-10-2024

Luci Sanan delivers her key takeaways from last week’s Mipcom, with the success of indies at the Format Awards, the influence of AI and YouTube, and the value in traditional catalogues front of mind.

I recently returned from my annual pilgrimage to the South of France, along with thousands of other TV executives. On every video meeting since I have been asked the familiar question “how was the market?”, and for once I’ve found it a difficult question to answer.

In short, the individual and company views on whether it was good or not depends on where they are positioned in the changing content economy, and how willing and excited they are to embrace change. Here are my key takeaways from Cannes…

(Almost) all content is valuable.
Linear deal sales are clearly being done, and those licence fees are still very sizable. There is less new content to sell, due to a reduction in global production output, however there is more need for ready-made content than ever before as channel and streamer budgets are squeezed. As one Nat Geo exec told me “there is nothing to buy”. Perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, but the sentiment is real. If you have a content catalogue, it likely has potential to sell, and the good news is there are more platforms, models and monetisation opportunities than ever before. And yes, everyone is still buying true crime.

Pre-sales abound
The lack of commissioning has created a lot of opportunities for pre-sale models to get content made. Companies such as Jimmy Humphrey’s Marmalade Sky, Night Train’s Bossanova and the newly renamed Sphere Abacus are testament to the power of bringing multiple international parties to the table to facilitate production, sometimes using acquisition budgets rather than commissioning budgets to get deals done. There are certainly a lot of UK-Australia funding celebrity travelogues knocking around.

AI transformation 
It is happening, whether you embrace it or not. Content creation, production methodology, marketing, and audience analysis are being transformed. Technology’s potential to transform various aspects of production with cost and time efficiencies is a game-changer for me. Two of the most exciting areas for monetisation include virtual and AI assisted brand integration with partners such as Ryff, and the licensing of content to AI learning distributors such as Caliope. There is so much opportunity and we are only scratching the surface. Of course, ethical considerations clearly require careful thought, but I would rather be embracing change and finding opportunities than left ploughing the field.

Evan Shapiro

AVoD and social monetisation models
Everyone was talking about YouTube, in part due to cartographer and increasing influencer in his own right, Evan Shapiro’s largely pessimistic forecast for the industry unless is fails to pivot rather more quickly than it currently is.  (I agree with Evan, by the way). The difficulties for those used to traditional media (ie linear, cable) models in embracing change is largely routed in the economics. Linear deals pay large amounts upfront, with decent budgets. Digital budgets (YouTube and social I refer to here) are comparatively tiny, and the revenue potential is longer term and difficult to forecast. The reality is some people are producing hour-long, premium looking, location-based content for 10% of the budget of a linear show, and they are making money on YouTube and socials. Some are managing to do a full 360 in monetisation on linear as well. Pioneers in this space like Quintus Studios and Cowshed Collective are showing that these digital models can work.

Parkinson lives on
I was very excited to hear how Deep Fusion Films and Eccho Rights are using AI technology and existing IP to create new content.  Deep Fusion Films announced the commission of a new eight-part podcast series Virtually Parkinson hosted by an AI replica of the late Sir Michael Parkinson to be launched later this year with Night Train, in conjunction with the late talk show’s family. Cool, no?

Indies Can Win 
Despite the dominance of the super-groups in the format space (with notable launches  that caught my eye from the likes of All3Media with The Anonymous and Passion’s Virgin Island, not to forget Nippon’s Man or Mannekin), the C21 format awards proved that smaller independents can still come out tops with awards going to Underdog, Jury Trial and Poker Society (the latter being a YouTube launched show, may I add!).