Opinion: ‘MIPCOM 2023: The One Where We All Got Together & Didn’t Buy Anything’

MIPCOM 2023

TBI’s resident format expert Siobhan Crawford reflects on the past few days at MIPCOM and what we learned about the market as a whole.

Shall we sum up MIPCOM 2023, for those that joined us and those that did not?

There is a beautiful English expression that describes such a thing…a damp squib.

Now let me preface this: hello, my name is Siobhan and I am a MIPCOM lover. However, not all things are created equal and this MIPCOM, we got a duff one.

Little light relief

We love MIPCOM. Nowhere else will this many of our favourite people be in one place in the correct mindset to sell, develop and acquire content – but the content was not present at this content market and nor was the money.

Check the news during the last week and you will find it light. Check your pre-MIPCOM offers and you will find them light.

MIPCOM was never in question, it was MIPTV we were worried about. And yet, if you ask people they will tell you that the first MIPTV post-covid was one of our most enjoyable markets ever, and that MIPTV 2023 was excellent with quality new content offerings and launches.

So exactly what has happened?

The Dutch rule the (Format)world

My love of the Dutch aside, they were out in force this MIPCOM. The Dutch beach party was packed with the whole A-Z of Dutch media and if you attended the Fresh Wit you would struggle to believe the Dutch were not number one on the exports list given the sheer volume of formats featured.

The addition of Dutch All Right Media to the distributors line-up took no less than 10 new titles to MIP, showing the financial market woes are gentler on some territories than others (Spain, Netherlands and Belgium being the blessed ones and Denmark, Sweden and Germany being the unfortunate). And it shows in the launches and in the Fresh.

Where in Cannes is everyone?

The town was notably quieter than normal, restaurants took walk-ins, the beach bars featured a large number of tourists who picked an unfortunate time to travel to our media mecca and Brown Sugar… well it is still the place to be but some ‘grown up’ had prioritised sleep over partying so the bar only took 20 minutes to get a drink!

One big reason for the change in numbers, despite attendance being estimated at north of 11,000, is the lack of group local prodco representatives.

The travel ban/reduction across the groups saw many locals forced to stay home or only send one representative to the market. The groups seem to be trying to centralise more and reduce the need for locals to schmooze their clients (or distract the other locals in their group) in Cannes, rather schmooze at home.

We knew in advance many independent prodcos were not attending the market, with production schedules and budgets to blame. We also seem to have seen a large amount of illness in the community reduce planned attendees.

The Ups(ide) and down

We had a great MIPTV – Destination X came out swinging plus The Golden Egg, Stranded On Honeymoon Island, Tempting Fortune etc and so we all came into the market hopeful (and poor). But we were met with very few diamonds of the season.

Siobhan Crawford

Pre-market, I was told there was a demand for more shock docs, so naturally Keshet should be having a great time with Celeb Save Our Sperm.

The Fresh Wit did what it does best and allowed us to watch more trailers than we normally would in a week in just one hour, introducing us to the new EndemolShine Nederland title Upside Down, which may have one of the best trailers ever – but remember a perfect trailer does not a perfect full episode make.

Then we have Stars On Stage from AllRight causing queues at the pitch table, part of a severely reduced primetime offering.

We know that the genres in most demand right now are studio gameshow, primetime entertainment and reality (in the broadest sense). And we know that paper has never been harder, that risks are not being taken and the extensions to existing brands like Deal Or No Deal Island (which admittedly is a great idea) are rife.

Come to Cannes they said, and we did… to long queues at the barriers, heatwaves and rain clouds, heavenly truffle gnocci and all our favourite people, including some new ones. RX can’t create the content, this market is not on them, it is just a casualty of the times, but I am starting to wonder if we do need a move to Barcelona just to inject some heart back into the market?

Now to rest, because we all hit Cannes hard when we attend – packed diaries, packed social schedules and barely a vegetable in sight – so to those who ruined themselves, well done. You squeezed all you could out of the opportunities.