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EXCLUSIVE: The organizers of MIPTV are in advanced talks over setting up a new event, MIP London, in 2025, Deadline can reveal.
The move would bring the curtain down on MIPTV in Cannes following the upcoming 2024 edition, which goes ahead as planned.
MIPTV and its larger sibling Mipcom, which will continue to run in Cannes in October, are operated by RX France, which Deadline understands has been holding top-level talks with stakeholders about setting up in London, creating a new market aligned with the London TV Screenings in February.
MIPTV has long been a fixture in the diaries of international TV folk. The industry traditionally descended on Cannes for springtime deal-making, lunches and hobnobbing. However, it has been in the eye of a perfect post-Covid storm, with industry belt-tightening and successful new events forcing the event’s organizers to take stock.
The move to London would be part of RX France’s long-term plans for its TV events. It has not made a final call on the London move, but plans are understood to be well-developed and advanced. MIPTV has existed for more than six decades and been in Cannes since 1965, making this, potentially, end of an era stuff.
Multiple sources confirmed the MIP shakeup and talks about a London relocation. RX France would not be drawn, but issued a statement to Deadline: “We are always looking to evolve our markets to meet the global industry’s needs. At present RX France has no announcements to make regarding new or existing markets. We are committed to delivering stellar editions of MIPTV this April and Mipcom this October in Cannes, France in 2024 and have announced that MipCancun will return for its 11th edition in November this year.”
Organizers have worked hard to reinvent MIPTV, leaning into coproduction, FAST, and other trends. With over 5,000 attendees from 80 countries last year and 2024 is tracking at similar levels, it remains the second largest industry event in international TV. It is still a draw, but this level of attendance is less than half of that of the market in its heyday. The discussions about a London move are a sign that RX France is getting onto the front foot in the face of an international TV business that is fast-changing.
The Content London event in November has enjoyed success with the international crowd, and March’s Series Mania in Lilles goes from strength to strength, putting yet more pressure on stretched travel and expenses budgets.
The London TV Screenings, meanwhile, has evolved from a boutique get-together to a full-fledged show-and-tell for the main international content companies. Created and organized by All3Media, Banijay, Fremantle and ITV Studios, there will be 29 distributors involved this year.
There isn’t an official market outside of the events each distributor puts on at the London TV Screenings, which was originally started as a means of capitalizing on the hundreds of buyers in the UK for the BBC Studios Showcase. A start-of-year market coinciding with and complementing the Screenings would bring even more buyers and sellers to town, making London in February a huge international TV shindig.
Any discussions around MIPTV, Cannes, and London will not have any impact on Mipcom in October, which remains the biggest international TV event of the year and a fixture in the calendar. The big distributors all have a major presence at the event, which annually attracts hundreds of U.S. execs as well.
The future of MIPTV has been debated in international circles for several years and swapping London for Cannes would change the whole cadence of the international biz. If 2024 is the last April outing for MIP in the south of France, it will be bittersweet for a lot of execs and many will be booking flights for the Cannes farewell.
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