MipTV returns to France with eyes on co-productions

International TV marketplace MipTV held its first in-person event in Cannes this week, following a pandemic-forced two-year hiatus.

Why it matters: The international TV space changed drastically in those years as streaming services found global hits and shattered the foreign-language barrier.

• The biggest difference, according to one TV sales exec who is in France, was the appetite for co-productions and licensing.
• "It's an incredibly live, brilliant moment for co-productions. Not only because there is an incredible demand for content, but also because the quality of content is raised and so is the budget, and it becomes more and more strategic to combine diverse partners to fund the project," Barbara Pavone, head of marketing and sales for Italy's Lux Vide, told Axios.
• For example, Lux Vide is co-producing the upcoming drama "Leonardo" with France (France Télévisions), Italy (RAI), German (ZDF) and Spain (RTVE); it was already picked up to air in the U.S. by The CW.

The big picture: As the U.S. subscriber market reaches its peak for streaming services, many of them are eying foreign subscribers and putting their money behind local-language productions.

• Pavone said they're selling their series — and not just selling the formats so it can be adapted — across Latin America, France, Hungary, Australia and Japan.
• "For producers like Lux Vide, it gives us the opportunity to really raise the quality of production, using the budgets that are given by the main local commissioner," Pavone says.

What's next: This was the first time MipTV was held separately in-person from its sister (and much larger-attended) event MIPCOM, which takes place in October.

• MipTV has about 5,000 attendees from 80 countries, over 150 exhibitors and more than 1,200 buyers. That was up from last October's scaled-down MIPCOM, which had 4,500 attendees. This year's MIPCOM expects more attendees as travel restrictions loosen around the world.