This is an era defined as “unpredictable,” “dysregulated,” and “uncontrollable.” However, while TV trade shows like MIPCOM continue to exist, the industry can try to become Situationistic and be amused and bemused.
Some questions about the future of television are floating around the Cannes Palais, but I’m hoping that MIPCOM could again serve as a guiding light. Questions include: What’s going to happen with Paramount and Warner Bros.? What’s going to become of All3Media? Is Comcast on the shopping list? Is Media For Europe actually integrating? And what about Latin America? Are Televisa and TV Azteca going to rebound? Is Telefe on the right management path? Are micro-dramas a fading fad? And what about streaming? Are the U.S. studios going to turn their streaming services into free broadcast television on the Internet instead of on the airwaves? Will gaming grow again?
Getting closer to MIPCOM itself we’re facing an industry that is shrinking, and yet the number of international TV and film trade shows is actually increasing. Why is that happening? And, while some TV trade shows are closing up shop (like NATPE Miami, NATPE Budapest and MIP London), there are those that, after an initial cancellation for financial reasons, have started up again (like Sunny Side of the Doc, which, next year, will move from France’s La Rochelle to Strasbourg). Plus, while the success of France’s Series Mania inspired similar new events, the Italian TV series festival (IGSF) flew under the radar, and Canneseries was largely ignored by the industry.
The world is so unpredictable nowadays that prediction-market firms are booming. Members of the press are supposed to have answers to such pressing questions, but lately I’m at a loss. I suspect top TV executives are similarly stumped. While they generally know more than journalists, their ability to predict outcomes belonged to an era when the industry was still regulated. In today’s “dysregulated” era, keeping up with the chaos feels nearly impossible.
Now, I’m not a Situationist (someone who, before the movement dissolved in 1972, after its founding in 1957, lived in the future, if only in their minds). These days, like many executives, my future is reflected by the past, thereby rendering me (or any of us, really) unable to decode the present.
Consider the possible merger between Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Skydance, which has had to face challenges from 12 U.S. states and the Writers Guild. This is after the merger received approval from the European Union, China, and U.S. president Donald Trump’s Justice Department. Should such a deal fall through, Paramount is facing a $7 billion breakup fee, when its market capitalization sits below $9 billion.
The situation is so dire that even TKO CEO Ari Emanuel, a professed Democrat, came out in favor of the merger in a July 2026 Wall Street Journal opinion piece, arguing that it would save Hollywood rather than destroy it. Others countered that Paramount’s projected $6 billion in annual synergies confirms the fears driving the Writers Guild lawsuit — pointing out the irony that Paramount threatened to leave Hollywood in order to save it.
Alas, this is modern life, and while TV trade shows like MIPCOM continue to exist, the industry has an opportunity to be amused and bemused.
(By Dom Serafini)
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