The key takeaways from PUSH and Content Europe
By Siobhan Crawford
08-06-2026
Bonjour besties! I have been waiting and finally we are going to get down to the Lisbon vs Paris review you have been waiting for. Let’s be clear: I work with the Frenchies and I am here at C21, so no one is getting panned (but that has never stopped me saying all the things)!
The inaugural year of Content Europe and the second year of the (delayed) Paris Unscripted Showcase was the rumble in the jungle that never was as the attendee count for both events was unaffected by each other. The starkest difference: Lisbon was for distributors and broadcasters and Paris was for the producers. So within these two events you have the European format industry covered.
What did we learn and what did we get (with the two months gap between them)? Well, sunburnt in Paris. But let’s dive into the learnings.
Lisbon
Three and a half sunny days, a market environment plus conference sessions and generous meeting space dedicated to the format industry with a flourish of kids content. My thought bubbles:
• Research is not the reality. I attended the trend sessions to get the snapshot of the industry we love. The take-home was that the research is not supported by our reality in the industry. Graphs naming biggest buyers, predictions on market growth, number of active formats. In 2026, when we know many formats are cancelled, entire budgets are gone – and we’re talking about industry growth? Calling formats ‘safe and stable’ – compared to what? Very safe factual? Maybe Spain makes commissioning look easy but look at the French struggle, or the US. There is a reason ‘risk’ is the word most associated with formats.
• We are in an industry worth US$843bn and it is mostly pay and subscription. Yet as an unscripted distributor, the majority of our money comes from linear (and linear streaming). You can even look at the statistic that YouTube is handing out US$100bn to creators and studios and Netflix only US$79.5bn in cash content spending in the same five-year window. Streaming is not our saviour, and sure as anything, no one mentioned FAST.
• Male-skewing content is doing the best on streaming, but they are deficient and need more content… although the statisticians tell us young men only watch YouTube. There is a need to make this make sense because I thought the discussion was around young viewers – now we want to dive into young, male viewers before we fixed one problem? And please, more Mr Beast is not the solution here. Content can be 52% male but I still think 18-34 is the priority.
• The experience of channels (plural!) right now is that ideas are not coming in fast enough. They need more ideas and they have development budgets for this and will not refuse foreign origination. The question is are the ideas they have not good enough to hit the brief or has the desire to lean into ‘national ideas’ over ‘international ideas’ caused a bit of a draught? Or have the conditions of the market reduced creativity?
• The need for entertainment is high. Nation’s Dumbest from the BBC is the example: out of the studio, light ent, feel good, co-viewing. World building is big. And Nobodys Fool from ITV, while not being the newest of ideas, was a perfect fit for the demand we are hearing. Also, strategy but with couples, or less strategic reality-driven content (not talent-driven).
• There is a discussion right now whether distributors are happy with their 25-30% commission only. If you have nothing in the backend or co-own, is this now sustainable or attractive as a business, in a landscape of mega mergers? There is an increased need to commercialise brands and to do more than just sell the format, but the indies are not placed to maximise value potentially. Is collaboration with a mega group essential? When more work than ever goes into selling a format and keeping it renewed, do we need a new business model?
• People are being inspired by other formats again and creating new formats, rather than buying formats. You want to watch retired footballers play for pride, just buy Eternal Glory and make a rustic-shitty version with no food.
• Ella Umansky said something that really got me thinking: mechanics. Did The Masked Singer lead the guessing game genre that led us to The Traitors? Think about it. The turning chairs are instant satisfaction. The costumes though, they kept us in an arc of suspense. The location changed, and the game, but we had the same suspense arc and play-along with Traitors. What mechanic do we enjoy that can be developed in another genre. We know what buyers want, but the mechanic?
Paris
One and a half long days, screenings of unscripted only with a Fresh Wit presentation, French broadcasters’ roundtable with independent and broadcaster-attached European distributors the majority and a few group power players. The toplines:
• There is only one queen and she fills all the chairs: it is Virginia, hands-down more relevant than any analyst. The headlines being that Paramount is out of the top 10 distributors but Primitives is in, France is top four for origination of formats, displacing Flemish Belgium, and that we are now living in the great format depression. This means the number of newly launched formats in 2025 that travelled is only an eighth of the level it was in 2016. Plus, we see Japan take the lead over South Korea in exports from the region, but still only 6% of global format sales come from the entire region. Breathe this in, you are doing just fine!
• French broadcasters are trying to pave the way for originals and Make France Great. TF1 alone said they had originated 47 paper formats – three in this past half-year. The problem is, while France may have climbed the rankings as an importer and originator, it has an industry economic state that is currently in trouble. Because commissions are taking longer (or being cancelled), there is a higher reliance on streamers and the affiliated and/or power players are getting the bulk of the rewards.
• There is no logic in commissioning still and while two months ago we were told about world building, non-studio content being the most important, now we are told dating shows for singles and adventure competition (with arcs). We are still told about genre saturation and that we need content that makes us laugh. What is commissioned? Not this.
• There is a development funding issue globally that is seeing prodcos forced to incur the costs of extensive research without paid development – or payment that is woefully short. €25k for one year of development? Or even US$25k for one year (and remember this is recouped if you reposition it to another broadcaster). The impact is that producers are less willing to acquire third-party content, over internal developments, because, ultimately, they at least own that 100%. This has been a worsening problem with no end in sight.
• With the lack of new commissions and the consolidation of the market it means that paper is becoming acceptable. Yes, people want to say it is exceptional but if you can take a US$3k option on a great paper title, it is better than no new content on your slate. Eureka just secured a US paper commission with rights – and that is a land where nothing moves! Magic happens. Spain is possible, the Nordics is possible, Germany is slightly less possible than it was two months ago, but it is all in the way the concept is presented to the broadcaster and packaged. And I mean this in every way: commercial, legal and creative! But Q3 2027 is when the schedules are being filled, so be in for the long wait.
• There has been a shift in streaming, and I am talking in the linear sense: Media For Europe, the Berlusconi family-owned group that owns Mediaset Spain and Italy and a majority stake in ProSieben group, has altered the market in de-prioritising streaming. But it is not alone. There has been a shift in the past year when the growth in streaming hit a bump. Now, many commissioners must weigh in parallel the linear and streaming balance of new commissions to spread the budget and not cannibalise the ratings. They need to sit hand in hand – even if the linear broadcast is a reminder of the programme’s existence as more of a marketing push for the streamer. And this is throughout Europe. It impacts what will be acquired as the stripped, slightly more reality formats are not holding up as well for a primetime slot. One other change, the main SVoD streamers are changing the business models for more flexibility but they can wield their power or relax it when they choose.
The round-up
Ultimately, these two events co-existed in a space where MipTV was. It shows this is still required in the April-ish timeframe. These events are still as busy and exhausting as Cannes, with the long days. Will both exist next year? Yes, and likely attendance will grow. Will the lack of new commissions matter? No, because this is like Hunger Games: we are always hunting. Until the last (wo)man standing.
