Mipcom 2024 Debates U.S. Costs, Downturn as ‘NCIS’ Grabs the Spotlight

Welcoming a bevy of stars, led by “NCIS’” Cote de Pablo and Michael Weatherly, talking up spinoff “NCIS: Tony & Ziva,” and some big new shows, such as “Rise of the Raven,” a sword and mace epic, Cannes’ Mipcom confab hit its final straits Wednesday evening announcing 10,500 delegates in attendance. 

That’s down some 500 from 2023’s edition but still makes Mipcom the biggest TV sales and production market in the world.

And the wheels of business are still turning. “The market is definitely picking up, and deals are being made. All our key buyers were here, although the Asian presence was a bit soft. Mipcom is definitely the biggest fall market for us,” said Helene Aurø, sales and marketing director at REInvent, Scandinavia biggest international TV distributor.

Despite massive attendance, however, the event also registered multiple strains in the TV business sparked by a saturation of shows and investor backlash as it looks set for yet another reconfiguration post-peak TV. 

Following, 10 or more takeaways from this year’s Mipcom, about the major challenges facing the industry and some major reactions or green shoots which were seen at this year’s Mipcom, which ran Oct. 21-24 at Cannes on the French Riviera: 

Is the U.S. Pricing Itself Out of Business?

Tony Vinciquerra, Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO, said so as he received the Variety Vanguard Award, arguing that the union deals that halted the Hollywood strikes are forcing production out of the U.S. to countries or regions with lower-cost crews and shoot incentives, “We tried to talk to the unions about what we thought would happen and now it is happening.” he said. He’s not alone. Runaway productions stepped up as major European countries introduced tax rebates for foreign shoots – France from 2009, Spain from 2015.  New union contracts have accelerated that trend, agreed Guy Bisson at Ampere Analysis.   

The ‘Broadcastification’ of Streaming

It is absolutely no coincidence or serendipity that Paramount+ used Mipcom to present the new spinoff from “NCIS,” as of 2022, the third longest-running primetime scripted franchise still on air in the U.S. Without advertising, streaming income will grow 27% between year-end of this year and 2029, with advertising it will grow by 46%, Ampere Analysis’ Guy Bisson forecast in his Mipcom wrap on Thursday. “Advertising now is becoming central to the market story, and that is impacting content demand as well, with long-running crime or medical procedurals coming back in fashion because they keep people coming back week after week,” Bisson told Variety at Mipcom.

One Thing’s to Sell, Another Is to Sell Well

The wheels of business are still turning. NBCU announced it had sold  Eddie Redmayne thriller “The Day of the Jackal” to nearly 200 territories,  Fremantle “Nightsleeper” to 148. The question, regarding many other sales, is at what price.  This year’s Mipcom, as markets before, was replete with horror stories of producers who have gone into production expecting platforms or established broadcasters to pay such an amount customary during the peak TV bubble, only to see these players now offering a minute fraction of that sum. Apart from on hot tickets, buying prices are very often falling short of distributors’ original estimates. 

Costs Bedevil Production 

Production budgets for premium scripted shows continue to rise as they battle to grab viewer attention with high production values and movie-quality VFX, as well as being based on established IP or with star talent attached in front of and behind the camera. Production costs in general are also rising, in part fuelled by tax incentives and U.S. shows coming to Europe to take advantage of them and the lower crew cost compared to the U.S. To plug the deficit, producers are splitting the rights within territories – inking separate deals for free TV and pay TV windows and pre-selling territory by territory. 

And One First-Step Solution: Co-Production

Drama budgets continue to rise as shows battle to grab eyeballs with high production values. The solution?: Co-production and other forms of collaboration. Fremantle’s Jamie Lynn said: “There was a little bit too much pressure on the distributor in many cases, where we were handling the lion’s share of the budget. We are going back to getting more partners on early with a rise in co-productions with the right partners.” Rise Studios’ Amanda Turnbull called for more collaboration: “You are seeing people being more pragmatic about [splitting rights], so you can structure something where you have a streamer and a free-to-air partner. People are much more realistic about how that works.”

The Golden Age of Unscripted

After being considered as a sub-genre for decades, unscripted content has seen its profile rise through the pandemic and the Hollywood strikes as streamers and broadcasters looked to fill slots deserted by scripted series and scale back their spending. With higher demand for unscripted, production value for these shows has also gone up. “People have realized these shows could have that escapist value and enough drama to hook audiences, and they’re cheaper to produce than scripted,” said a veteran producer. 

In a market saturated with content where everyone is competing for eyeballs, formats, spinoffs and reboots are thriving. During Mipcom, Variety broke the news of “The Traitors” being adapted in South Korea and “LOL: Last One Laughing” being expanded into “LOL in Real Life” by Amazon Prime in France. Elsewhere, Mediawan Rights and Studiocanal have brought to market new sports commentating talent contest, “Hit the Mic! A New Voice For Sports,” an early venture by Studiocanal into unscripted.

Book to Screen Surge

While the route from book to screen is a well-trodden one, in recent years, the demand for literary IP has reached a fever pitch. Some of the biggest, buzziest scripted shows currently on TV began life on the pages of a novel, including “Slow Horses,” “Shogun,” “A Perfect Couple,” “Fool Me Once,” “A Good Girls Guide to Murder,” “Presumed Innocent” and Alfonso Cuarón’s “Disclaimer,” to name just a few, and fierce bidding wars are now erupting over books sometimes a year before their published (or even finished). In the last couple of weeks, Lianne Moriarty’s latest “Here One Day” was snapped up by Fifth Season, with Nicole Kidman again attached to star, and Netflix has just commissioned another adaptation of “Pride & Prejudice.” Meanwhile, Disney+ launched “Rivals” to rapturous reviews. Could a Jilly Cooper multiverse be incoming?

Navigating the Downturn: “Lighter” Procedurals

Crime, in fact, was the order of the day at Mipcom. Or so sellers hoped. Of the 18 scripted series put forward by many of the biggest players outside the U.S., eight were procedurals. But their tenor has changed.  “The Crow Girl” might see a female Bristol police detective on the trail of a serial killer who dumps corpses in public thoroughfares, but part of her drama is her family: a hapless artist husband and comic home to just cold pizza at night. As crime adopts a lighter tone, in Global Screen’s “Recipes for Love and Murder,” foodie Tannie Maria mixes criminal investigation and cooking. In “Sherlock & Daughter,” Sherlock confronts Moriarty with the aid of unexpected offspring.

“Blue Sky” Dramas

Seeking to hook far broader audiences, murder mystery dramas are heading south. “Tom & Lola” “blends the procedural crime genre with compelling feel-good family elements, tapping into the current market demand for light crime narratives that offer a mix of humor and mystery,” said Mediawan Rights of one of its biggest new Mipcom plays. It’s also set in Aix en Provence, southern France. Equally, cop show “Weiss & Morales,” backed by public broadcasters ZDF in Germany and RTVE in Spain, offers not just blue sky but blue water, set in the stunning Canary Islands, with an aquamarine Atlantic Ocean consistently and attractively forefronted in a promo. 

Top-Tier Scripted Content is Still in Demand

Peak TV may be waning as streamers and TV channels have scaled down their spending, but top-tier scripted content is still in demand. All3Media’s CEO Jane Turton said during her fireside conversation with Variety’s  co-editor-in-chief Cynthia Littleton that the company, which is best known for “The Traitors,” was looking to ramp up their output in scripted, even if she admitted that it was highly competitive and challenging because audiences have become more sophisticated. Turton  said “the announcements we’ll be making over the next few months/years may well include quite a few scripted, units and labels.” Big European groups such as Mediawan and Studiocanal are also investing in tentpole English language series. Mediawan fully financed “The Count of Monte Cristo” directed by Bille August, while Studiocanal launched a label dedicated to big-budget shows such as “Paris has Fallen,” which was just bought by Hulu, and they’re looking to produce these kinds of ambitious shows more consistently going forward.

Driving Into English-Language Production

For several years now, even the most acclaimed producers with big Netflix hits have been finding it nearly impossible to place non-English language titles with big streamers or studios for the U.S., which is still by far the most valuable of markets. So other producers apart from Mediawan and Studiocanal are driving into English-language production. Fremantle began in 2022, doubling U.K. production levels. At this Mipcom, Federation Studios offered three high-profile English-language titles: “Sherlock and Daughter,” starring David Thewlis, family drama-thriller “I, Jack Wright” and premium high-concept procedural “Curfew.” The Mediapro Studio made most probably the biggest sale business announcement at Mipcom, revealing a powerful first English-language slate at The Mediapro Studio US & Canada. And Fremantle began to talk up “Costiera,” which seems to tick every box out: A crime thriller made in English, starring Jesse Williams, episodic, and set at a luxury hotel on Italy’s gorgeous coast.

*The New Nostalgia 

With a huge poster for classic BBC Studios game show “The Weakest Link” beaming from the front of the Palais, you’d be forgiven for thinking Mipcom had skipped back in time a couple of decades. But this theme of relying on beloved, tried and tested IP — or rebooted, retweaked and  reimagined versions of it — continued inside the market, where France TV was touting its upcoming “Zorro” series with Paramount+ (starring Jean Dujardin in the lead role) and one of the new formats being sold was a gameshow from Warner Bros. about “Friends.”

Spain: Powerhouse  Recognition 

Spain’s Country of Honor recognition prompted or coincided with a host of studies and stats confirming the country’s emergence as a European TV powerhouse. Spain-originated content has generated an estimated $5.1 billion in global streaming revenue over the past four years, an ICEX/Parrot report estimated. At €1 billion ($1.1 billion), Spain ranked second in Europe, after the U.K., in 2023 in global streamer investment on original content, according to a European Audiovisual Observatory report. Spain was the No. 1 country for non-English language originals in 2024, The Wit announced at Cannes. As global streamers are relying ever more on “safe” global languages, says Bisson. Spanish-language orders skyrocketed 150% Jan.-June 2024 compared to first half 2023, said Ampere Analysis. Spain repped the most popular Spanish-language content on Netflix, accounting for 49% of the platform’s Spanish-language offerings, Omdia announced at Mipcom

In Europe, The Global Streamers Aren’t the Only VOD Act in Town

Research organization Glance reported that the streaming platforms of the major European broadcasters now offer a deeper catalog online than the global streamers. In the U.K., BBC’s iPlayer has 10,000 shows viewed per day – up 2.5 times in two years – compared with Netflix with 4,800, Prime Video with 2,400 and Disney+ with 900. The broadcasters’ platforms are attracting a slightly younger audience than their linear services: the average age of ITV’s linear service is 59 years old, while for VOD service ITVX it is 51, but the gap is narrowing. ITVX’s average age has risen four years since 2023, while the average age of viewers of the linear service remains constant.  

And the Wheels of Business Are Still Turning

Below, 20 or so of the biggest deals unveiled at 2024’s Mipcom:

*The Mediapro Studio’s Laura Fernández Espeso and JC Acosta unveiled a  powerful eight-title English-language slate which features John Turturro, Melissa Leo, “24” and “The Floor” showunners, an Oscar winner, “Homeland” and “The Handmaid’s Tale” executive producers, directors of “Mafia Spies” and “Dear Lemon Lima,” and novelist adapted in “Palm Home Royale.”

*Starring Eddie Redmayne and playing off heavyweight IP, “The Day of the Jackal” has been licensed to nearly 200 territories worldwide, NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution at Mipcom. 

*Made by Euston Films, a Fremantle company, train set BBC One thriller “Nightsleeper,” starring Alexandra Roach and Joe Cole and, will launch in 147 countries around the world. A 90-country roll-out is reckoned a smash hit.

*Signalling one of the biggest European packages to hit Monday’s Mipcom, “Mozart/Mozart,” the latest big series swing from Germany’s Story House Pictures, behind Beta Film/RTL mega-hit “Sisi,” has been boarded by Germany’s ARD and its Austrian public broadcaster counterpart ORF.

*”Downton Abbey” alum Hugh Bonneville has joined espionage thriller ‘The Agency’ at Showtime.

*Beta Film, Grupo Globo have signed a multi-year production partnership, kicked off with ‘Discipline’ from the “Sintonia” Team and Janeiro Studios(.)

 *Anonymous Content has struck a partnership with Brouhaha Entertainment, the production banner behind “Boy Swallows Universe,” on a new joint venture in Australia and New Zealand.

*Leonine’s Odeon Fiction, Patrick Nebout’s new Dramanation will co-produce English-language industry spoof and murder mystery “The Studio.”

*Paramount Global has signed a multi-year volume deal with Qatar-Based powerhouse BeIN Media Group.

*Beta Film’s thriller series “The Couple Next Door,” commissioned by the U.K.’s Channel 4 and Starz in North America, has secured major deals in more than 55 territories.

*ZDF Studios and BlackBox Multimedia are partnering to produce romantic comedy drama “The Little Italian Hotel.”

*‘Last One Laughing'(“) is set for ‘a real life’ spinoff with hidden cameras at Prime Video France.

*Studiocanal’s SAM Productions has set a shoot date for Danish royal drama ‘By the Grace of God,’ and is prepping ‘Britta’ from ‘Borgen’s’ Adam Price.

*Fremantle has sold “Mozart: Rise of a Genius” in first Key territories as it begins to roll out the BBC doc.

*A Ken Burns’ Leonardo Da Vinci Series launched at Mipcom, with the U.K.’s BBC, Germany’s ZDF Arte and Sky New Zealand pre-buying the show.

*Banijay Rights has teamed with Banijay Iberia label Diagonal TV and Crescendo Media Production on the feature documentary “The Silence of the Earth.”

*Rakuten TV unveiled Enterprise Services to help rightsholders set up streaming apps, FAST channels. 

*ZDF Studios has boarded world sales on “Lume,” an eco-thriller set against the background of endemic wildfire devastation on the Portugal-Spain border.