Video Age International October 2026

INTERNATIONAL www.VideoAge.org Tech giant Microsoft will reportedly shed 2.1 percent of its workforce. Xbox, Microsoft’s gaming division, is taking the hardest hit, with 1,600 employees facing immediate layoffs. Contributing factors include lower margins compared with competitors, high costs, and growth that has fallen short of expectations — all within a sector that is also grappling with a hardware crisis. The global video game sector has been reacting to slowing growth following a period of expansion that, in Microsoft’s case, included the acquisition of game-production companies to increase subscriptions to its Game Pass service. Those subscriptions were expected to reach 77 million in 2026. But, Although we are accustomed to sophisticated visual effects today, their origins can be traced back to the 1900s, or even earlier, when early attempts to create spectacular and unusual effects involved combining different sections of THE BUSINESS JOURNAL OF FILM, BROADCASTING, STREAMING, PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION October 2026 - VOL. 46 NO. 7 - $9.75 Expectations, Reality, Trends For Game IP Business Factual Challenges And Opportunities For Distributors Special Effects Vs. Visual Effects in the Age of AI (Continued on Page 38) (Continued on Page 34) (Continued on Page 36) Below, find a Q&A with some of the world’s major players in the factual TV arena: Patrick Vien, group managing director, International, A+E Global Media; David Buoymaster, CIO, Radial Entertainment; Nick Tanner, Passion Distribution’s director of Sales and Co-productions; Tim Mutimer, CEO of Cineflix Rights; and Amanda Groom, CEO, The Bridge. VideoAge: Do you see growth in both the factual genre and in terms of buyers’ demand? Patrick Vien: We are seeing strong growth in demand for factual proMy 2¢: An unpredictable, dysregulated, uncontrollable era converges at MIPCOM Turkey: How to win the hearts and wallets of the world’s TV buyers The World Cup, the Super Bowl, and the search for endless revenue growth MIPCOM is preparing for the biggest TV content show on earth Page 42 Page 30 Page 24 Page 14

MAIN OFFICES 216 EAST 75TH STREET NEW YORK, NY 10021 TEL: (212) 288-3933 WWW.VIDEOAGEINTERNATIONAL.COM WWW.VIDEOAGE.ORG VIALE ABRUZZI 30 20131 MILAN, ITALY EDITOR-in-CHIEF DOM SERAFINI EDITORIAL TEAM SARA ALESSI (NY) ENZO CHIARULLO (ITALY) LEAH HOCHBAUM ROSNER (NY) SUSAN HORNIK (L.A.) CAROLINE INTERTAGLIA (FRANCE) CAROLINA MANCINI (ITALY) OMAR MENDEZ (ARGENTINA) LUIS POLANCO (NY) MIKE REYNOLDS (L.A.) MARIA ZUPPELLO (BRAZIL) PUBLISHER MONICA GORGHETTO BUSINESS OFFICE LEN FINKEL WEB MANAGER BRUNO MARRACINO DESIGN/LAYOUT CLAUDIO MATTIONI, CARMINE RASPAOLO VIDEO AGE INTERNATIONAL (ISSN 0278-5013 USPS 601-230) IS PUBLISHED SEVEN TIMES A YEAR,. PLUS DAILIES, BY TV TRADE MEDIA, INC. © TV TRADE MEDIA INC. 2026. THE ENTIRE CONTENTS OF VIDEO AGE INTERNATIONAL ARE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT IN THE U.S., U.K., AND ALL COUNTRIES SIGNATORY TO THE BERNE CONVENTIO AND THE PAN-AMERICAN CONVENTION. SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO VIDEO AGE INTERNATIONAL, 216 EAST 75TH STREET, SUITE 1W, NEW YORK, NY 10021, U.S.A. PURSUANT TO THE U.S. COPYRIGHTS ACT OF 1976, THE RIGHTS OF ALL CONTENT DONE ON ASSIGNMENT FOR ALL VIDEOAGE PUBLICATIONS ARE HELD BY THE PUBLISHER OF VIDEOAGE, WHICH COMMISSIONED THEM This is an era defined as “unpredictable,” “dysregulated,” and “uncontrollable.” However, until TV trade shows like MIPCOM cease to exist, the industry can try to become Situationistic and be amused and bemused. Page 42 Cover Stories Trends, expectations, reality for the global TV gaming sector Special effects vs. visual effects in the age of AI Factual challenges and opportunities for international content distributors News 6. World: NAB New York to dazzle with the latest TV gear, while pondering the future 6. World: A Russian threat to the Europen Union’s television sector 8. World: An Italian film company story with an American ending 12. Content Americas Miami without NATPE, MIP Cancun with Content Americas 10. Book Review: Muskonomics: A new book about Elon Musk explains how he came to be 14. Market preview: Cannes is preparing for the biggest TV show on earth 18. Territories: MIP Africa poised to remedy a region under TV stress 24. Sports finances: The World Cup, the Super Bowl, and the search for endless revenue growth 26. The future TV promised us: Technology vs. behavior 30. Turkey: How to win the hearts and wallets of the world’s TV buyers 40. Calendar, news, and events: The passport control mess at most European airports Features

6 (Continued on Page 8) though the number of content-production companies has been greatly reduced, while the number of technology companies has increased. The event now spans virtually every aspect of film and television production. In the past, NAB events were a magnet for the U.S. syndication business, attracting a significant number of international broadcasters and content-distribution companies. Today, the smaller international presence is mainly focused on the equipment and engineering sides of the business. However, the NAB New York conference will cover sports, news, consolidation, and content creation, in addition to a range of technology-related subjects. The market side will take place across four show floors, while the conference rooms will be scattered throughout the below-ground level. A Russian Threat to the E.U. TV Sector The European Central Bank (ECB) is hypothesizing about a Russian attack on a NATO member state — Poland is reportedly on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s mind — and is preparing a “stress test” for European banks that assumes a capital loss of 3 percent. According to the Luxembourg-based European Investment Bank (EIB): “A military confrontation between Russia and a NATO member, such as Poland, for example, would damage the European television economy in the short term, but it would greatly enhance the strategic role of broadcasters as critical information infrastructure. “NATO and the E.U. are already considering the resilience of digital infrastructure as a strategic priority. For the TV industry, “in a situation of high geopolitiWith some 200-plus exhibitors, NAB New York is much smaller than its sister market, NAB Las Vegas, which will be held next year at its traditional home, the Las Vegas Convention Center, April 4-7, 2027. NAB New York, meanwhile, is taking place at its usual Javits Center on the west side of New York City, October 21-22, 2026, with the conference portion starting a day earlier, on Tuesday, October 20. The Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Broadcasters, a radio and television trade and lobbying organization, describes NAB New York as an event for media, content, and technology companies, even NAB New York to Dazzle With the Latest TV Gear, While Pondering the Future VIDEOAGE October 2026 World

40 x 50 minutes All 4 seasons 10 x 60 minutes New Radial Original series New unscripted FAST channel RADIALENTERTAINMENT.COM/SALES @RADIALENT Over 75,000 Movies and Episodes RIVIERA HALL R7.N 9 Collecting and Sharing Stories Around the World. 297 Millennium Media titles, inc. Has Fallen series, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, and more. 121 x 60 minutes New episodes in production

8 subsidiary. Note that while Sky Group has agreed to buy ITV, the deal does not include ITV Studios. In the early months of 2026, VD sent nine films to Italian movie theaters, with one, Due Cuori e Una Capanna (Two Hearts and a Hut), generating €2.2 million at the box office. The nine films generated a combined boxoffice total of €4.71 million. Throughout the remainder of the year, VD released seven additional films. In 2025, VD produced and released 11 films, generating a total box office of €31.3 million and netting €12.6 million. Factoring in other revenue streams, such as broadcast and streaming rights, VD generated total revenue of €50.1 million in 2025, resulting in a profit of €3.3 million (U.S. $3.8 million). This marks a significant turnaround from 2024, when losses of €29.3 million prompted Sky Italia to inject €7.6 million into VD. According to published reports, as of August 2026, VD is searching for a new CEO after Massimo Proietti left the company in March to join Comcast’s Universal Pictures International Italy. VD’s toplevel structure currently consists of three executives of equal importance (pictured from l. to r.): Daniela Mauri, who joined VD in January as CFO; Simone D’Amelio Bonelli, who joined in May as COO; and Laura Mirabella, who joined VD in April 2017 and serves as CMO. Rome, Italy-based Vision Distribution (VD) isn’t ready to give VideoAge an interview and, according to a company official, is not planning to attend MIPCOM. However, based on published figures, some of them from financial daily ItaliaOggi, VD has become one of Italy’s largest film and TV production companies. It helps that VD is 68 percent controlled by Sky Italia, which in turn is owned by U.S.- based Comcast through its U.K.-based Sky Group. It also helps that VD has four additional partners, each owning eight percent of the company, who are among Italy’s major film producers: Cattleya, IIF, Palomar, and Wildside. Cattleya’s majority owner is the U.K.’s ITV Studios; IIF is a public company founded by the late Fulvio Lucisano; Palomar’s majority owner is France’s Mediawan; and Wildside’s majority owner is Germany’s Fremantle, which operates as a British An Italian Film Company Story With An American Ending (Continued from Page 6) cal tension, smaller TV groups would suffer, while large pan-European operators could strengthen, and mergers and partnerships to share infrastructure and costs would increase,” reported the EIB. A Russian Threat to the E.U. TV Sector VIDEOAGE October 2026 World Do you want distribution at MIP Cancun and ATF?

10 Historian Quinn Slobodian and tech writer Ben Tarnoff present an impressive portrait of Elon Musk and the world that made him. Muskonomics: A New Book About Elon Musk Explains How He Came To Be By Luis Polanco Named after American industrialist and business magnate Henry Ford, “Fordism” describes a 20th-century economic and manufacturing strategy that advocates for mass production and mass consumption. The term has come to be used in economic and business contexts, but it also has come to describe an implicit set of social norms about work and family that play out in broader society. What Henry Ford was to the 20th century, Elon Musk might be to the 21st century. At least, that’s what writers Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff argue in their joint book Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed (Harper, 256 pgs., 2026, $30). Muskism proposes that Musk is our era’s comparable industrialist who ushers in a new economic epoch. For Slobodian and Tarnoff, Musk is an interesting specimen representing a changing worldview that merges technology and politics. When you get a historian and a tech writer to co-write a book on one of the most prominent contemporary global figures, you get fascinating results. Slobodian, a professor of international history at Boston University, has written several books, including Hayek’s Bastards, for which he received a National Book Critics Award in criticism. Tarnoff is a frequent contributor to New York Review of Books and author of Internet for the People: The Fight for Our Digital Future. Slobodian and Tarnoff each bring a distinct perspective when brought together, and for that reason, they make a compelling pair to tackle Musk. Muskism is a book about the life and career of Elon Musk, but it more importantly addresses the historical trends and circumstances that have shaped and given rise to Musk as an international citizen, businessman, entrepreneur, rocket enthusiast, former advisor to the current United States president, and Internet troll. Slobodian and Tarnoff cover Musk’s upbringing in apartheid South Africa, his early career in Silicon Valley during the dot-com boom, his founding of the aerospace manufacturer SpaceX in 2002, and his takeover of Tesla, the automotive company known for its battery-powered electric vehicles. The second half of the book aims to track Musk’s preoccupation with the idea of “cyborgs,” a term that is short for “cybernetic organism” and represents the merger of the biological and the mechanical or electronic. In the second half, the authors also discuss Musk’s online antics, especially on X (formerly Twitter), and how those antics triggered business decisions. The first half chronicles the emergence of a new type of economy steeped in the increasing importance of technology firms and new entrepreneurial ventures, while the second demonstrates why Musk has sought to gain a foothold not only in communication platforms but artificial intelligence and other technologies that aim to automate human capacities. Slobodian and Tarnoff arrive at unexpected and perceptive explanations of how different stages of Musk’s life brought forth key tenets of Muskism. For example, in discussing apartheid South Africa in the 1980s, the authors discuss how apartheid embodied Muskism because it relied on technology to entrench social inequality. “[A]partheid South Africa was the cradle of Muskism,” the authors write. “It taught the lesson of fortress futurism: the belief that technology can strengthen self-reliance in a hostile world.” When Slobodian and Tarnoff turn to the early days of Silicon Valley, they write, “Silicon Valley would teach him that the real opportunity didn’t lie in escaping the state but grafting onto it—using its guarantees as scaffolding for private gain.” While the founding ideology of Silicon Valley was that networked technology would sideline the role of the state, Musk instead saw that technology could be integrated with state functions and resources for private profit. In the authors’ view, Musk positions himself as an intermediary between different actors within the federal government. On the topic of Musk’s involvement and development of SpaceX, the authors point out, “In space, the state would finance the development of ‘fundamental technologies,’ as Musk said. Publicly funded innovations in rocketry would be central to SpaceX’s success. But that wasn’t all: the state would also become a customer.” By becoming the recipient of funding meant to advance technological development, Musk could then turn around and sell back to the state. Slobodian and Tarnoff deliver an incisive read on the subject of Tesla. “If Tesla is the company that most defines Musk in the eyes of the public,” they write, “it also offers the most complete example of Muskism in action.” They identify three developments that allowed for Tesla’s success: its position as the beneficiary of public investment with the Obama-era attempt to generate a green energy economic recovery; its position as one of the era’s major technology companies alongside FAANG (Facebook, now known as Meta, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google, now known as Alphabet); and its model of vertical integration that allows it to exist within the political and geographic confines of one nation as compared to the older multinational corporations. Muskism synthesizes biographical detail with broad historical developments to illuminate both the individual life of a contentious personage and to reveal something novel about the direction of the economy and politics. As Slobodian and Tarnoff write in their conclusion, “No person embodies the twentyfirst-century man-machine more than the subject of this book, Elon Musk.” VIDEOAGE October 2026 Book Review

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12 Content Americas Broadens Its Strategy, MIP Cancun Sharpens Its Focus With an unexpected announcement in March 2026, Brunico Communications discontinued its U.S. conventions, which included NATPE Global, Realscreen Summit, and Kidscreen Summit. Among its three defunct expos, NATPE Global’s departure generated the greatest international impact, as it competed directly with British publishing firm C21Media’s Content Americas and, collaterally, with French exposition firm RX’s MIP Cancun (as well as MIPCOM and MIP London). The disappearance of NATPE Global reshapes the crucial Content Americas’ Miami, Florida market. The most immediate visible consequence is the opportunity opening up for C21Media’s convention to expand across North America. However, Brunico reportedly refused to sell the NATPE brand to a U.S. company that is looking to start a new trade show in Los Angeles in June 2028. MIP Cancun and Content Americas somewhat overlap in two markets they both serve (Latin America and U.S. Hispanic), though they do so with different profiles and scopes. RX created MIP Cancun in Mexico specifically to cater to the Latin American and U.S. Hispanic television industry. Meanwhile, C21 launched Content Americas as a market connecting Latin America, U.S. Hispanic, Spain, and Portugal with the broader international market. The exit of NATPE has raised several questions, including: How is Content Americas 2027 capitalizing on the absence of its direct rival? Is MIP Cancun genuinely on its radar as a territorial competitor? Will it adopt a more aggressive strategy to attract more buyers? On the other hand, must MIP Cancun 2026 realign its strategies to contest overlapping territories against a strengthened Content Americas? A survey VideoAge conducted in Buenos Aires, Argentina, among companies that frequently attend both trade shows revealed largely consistent responses — they view the two shows, separated by 61 days, as two complementary events, not as competitors, each falling within different annual budgets for distributors. (MIP Cancun runs November 17-20, 2026, and the next Content Americas will be held January 18-21, 2027.) The same impression was left by the responses given to VideoAge by the top executives of the Miami and Cancun events. For David Jenkinson, founder and president of the London-based C21Media, this has been an opportunity to capture more territory on the continent. “We decided to incorporate the North American market in a more significant way. Following the disappearance of NATPE and Realscreen, there is a demand for greater interaction with the United States. Therefore, Content Americas is driving the presence of commissioners, buyers, and co-producers from this market to Miami for 2027.” In addition to these updates, Jenkinson confirmed that the third edition of the Vertical and Shortform Summit will take place within the framework of Content Americas, calling it “a sector that arouses great interest and has already consolidated itself as a fundamental pillar of the January event.” In the case of MIP Cancun, the disappearance of NATPE Global did not alter its programming at all. “The exit of NATPE naturally represents a major shift in the international calendar and commands respect for what this market has meant to the industry. However, it does not change our strategy. MIP Cancun is not evolving to occupy the space left by another event,” said María Pérez-Bellière, director of MIP Cancun. “The evolution of MIP Cancun 2026 was already underway and responds to continuous listening to our community: higher curation, more effective meetings, and new opportunities surrounding the development, financing, and monetization of intellectual property. The decisions we have made do not respond to the movements of other events, but rather to the transformation of the industry and the priorities that our clients have conveyed to us,” she added. Both executives flatly rejected the term “competition.” However, PérezBellière backed up her stance: “Content Americas is a relevant event with its own positioning, and our responsibility is to continue strengthening the differential value of MIP Cancún. I have always believed that these markets are complementary. Companies choose events based on their territories, objectives, and business timing. A strong industry needs different meeting spaces, each with a clear value proposition.” Jenkinson highlighted a feature of the Miami convention that embodies their decisive strategy. “The business is going through times of transformation, and it has never been more important to stay ahead of change. There is a shift from B2B, where content was brought to market through commissions and acquisitions, to D2C [directto-consumer], with more and more producers launching their programs through digital platforms, often in partnership with brands or using different commercial models. Attending Content Americas will allow for a deep dive into this emerging market,” he noted. Pérez-Bellière’s take follows the same line of thinking — identifying the major issues and bringing them up for discussion in Cancun. “We are undergoing a profound transformation. Budgets are tighter and decisions are more selective, but at the same time, new opportunities, audiences, and business models are emerging around social video, FAST, AVoD, Connect TV, vertical formats, brands, artificial intelligence, and the creator economy.” Expectations for both conventions remain high for their respective leaders. Jenkinson expects to increase delegate participation at Content Americas 2027 by 20 percent. On the MIP Cancun side, projections are highly optimistic. “We already have more than 250 buyers and commissioners, new digital and vertical content platforms, and a significantly reinforced international participation, featuring a prominent Japanese delegation alongside other delegations and companies from Asia, Europe, and various international markets. Furthermore, we received over 100 projects for the first edition of our fiction project competition. All of these elements reflect the community’s interest in a more curated, diverse, and results-oriented proposal,” concluded the RX executive. By Omar Méndez María Pérez-Bellière, director of MIP Cancun David Jenkinson, founder and president, C21Media VIDEOAGE October 2026 LatAm Markets

14 Cannes is Preparing for The Biggest TV Show on Earth While we don’t yet know much about the conferences, VideoAge already has all the numbers it needs for this report on MIPCOM Cannes 2026, the TV trade show that is taking place, as usual, in Cannes, located in the south of France, from October 12 to 15. The event is expecting 549 exhibitors with some 350 stands. Out of the 86 countries participating, the largest contingents will come from the U.S. (with 204 companies) and the U.K. (with 204 companies). From Europe’s mainland, France takes the lead (with 160 companies), followed by Germany (105), and Italy (91). The whole of LatAm will be comprised of just 30 companies, with Argentina being the largest (with 10 firms in attendance). From Asia, most participating companies will hail from Japan (44), and China will be attending with 22 companies. In terms of content buyers, MIPCOM organizers are reporting the same number of acquisition executives as last year: over 2,500. Similarly, the total number of attendees is expected to reach 10,600, the same as in 2025. Even though the fall market has seen a reduction in the number of participants — it went from 2016’s 14,000 attendees to just 10,600 in 2025 — the event is still the largest and most important TV trade show in the world. VideoAge would rather not focus on MIPCOM’s sideshows and instead zero in on the real bread-and-butter of any TV market: the floor, the hotels, and the backrooms where the buying and selling of content takes place. But, conferences, workshops, and seminars will dominate the event’s conversations, driven by a barrage of official press releases announcing speakers both familiar and unfamiliar with equally large fanfare. Therefore, considering the content available from the expected 350 exhibitor stands, the large number of announced international buyers, and even the diverse conference topics, the answer to the question of whether MIPCOM can leverage its exotic locale for more content sales has now turned from “Cannes you believe it?” to “Yes, you Cannes believe it!” Thomas Devlin, president, International Sales & Marketing for the Sarasota, Floridabased Entertainment Studios Television, has attended the market since it was called VIDCOM (it didn’t become MIPCOM until 1985). “I’ve attended all of them, except during COVID,” he said. “Today, MIPCOM is a multimedia bazaar. Streamers are everywhere, and YouTube is massive. However, fewer people attend than in the past for all kinds of reasons, but mostly for economic reasons — saving money is the biggest. Everyone has to spend their travel budgets wisely. Plus, there are too many [TV trade] shows, and not enough buyers spending money. [For example,] not many African buyers will attend because the FAME Africa Show is a month later. Not too many from LatAm, because MIP Cancun comes after, while for Southeast Asia, the Asia TV Forum is in early December. Nonetheless,” concluded Devlin, “MIPCOM is still the big show and worldwide attendance is important [since] international sales distribution has never been more challenging than now.” Michel Zgarka, executive VP, International Business Affairs, for the Montreal, Canada-based Sonic Origin, has so far attended 38 MIPCOMs. In his opinion, the event “has become too short and not as market-driven and innovative as it used to be. However,” he added, “the 2026 edition still has positive values and hence must not be missed.” If he could change anything, Zgarka did note that the event is missing “market-driven conferences, plus conferences focusing on the new technologies, and how to face the new copyright-protection laws.” Nonetheless, “it’s the only one left truly serving the international market and where the major players attend and are available,” he concluded. Hervé Michel, a former French broadcaster and onetime president of TV France International, also attended the market since 1980 back when it was called VIDCOM, noting that he never missed one. “Basically, [MIPCOM] has remained the most important international fair for our industry over the years, [while] everything else has changed around the Palais — meaning cable, satellite, digital, and vertical programming. Platforms and AI have emerged and developed dramatically, but MIPCOM has not changed that much. You still find the same kind and number of people running around the alleys of the Palais, eager to find the best content, to build up co-productions, and to sign deals. [But] one aspect of industry negotiations that has been overlooked these past few years are carriage deals. So far, MIPCOM organizers have not integrated linear channel vendors and buyers. It’s regrettable that these professionals are unable to formally participate in the event within the MIPCOM frame, as this has resulted in a certain loss of global turnover.” Michel also explained why MIPCOM is still the world’s foremost international TV event. “The timing of the show is ideal,” he said. “Budget visibility is good. And apart from some regional market fairs, MIPCOM is clos- (Continued on Page 16) Michel Zgarka, Sonic Origin Thomas Devlin, Entertainment Studios Television “Today, MIPCOM is a multimedia bazaar. Streamers are everywhere, and YouTube is massive.” — Thomas Devlin, Entertainment Studios TV VIDEOAGE October 2026 Market Preview

16 ing the fiscal year. Attendance covers most continents of the world and the market still gains the favor of the key U.S. execs.” From his Munich, Germany-based Poorhouse International distribution company, founder Reiner Moritz reported that he has “attended all MIPCOMs since the market started. “It has very much changed over the years from a video cassette event to the most important television trade fair in the world,” he said. But, he lamented, “It unfortunately caters more to some 10 American companies instead of keeping in mind the thousands of buyers who make it worthwhile for everybody to attend. For example, [this year’s] ‘Focus on Branded’ excludes all public broadcast reps as they are not allowed [by law] in that business. The Lions advertising trade show in Cannes also deals with this ‘branded’ topic [even though] there are very few companies that can afford to underwrite top programming. Nonetheless, even with the large number of specialized events around the year, MIPCOM is still the only general event that draws more buyers than any other,” Moritz concluded. Lucy Smith, director of MIPCOM Cannes and its related children’s programming-focused MIPJunior, which will unfold two days before MIPCOM, said: “We’re seeing entirely new sectors of the entertainment business mature at remarkable speed. What were emerging trends only a year ago, from vertical storytelling and creator-led businesses to AI-powered production, are now attracting investment, generating scalable business models and becoming an increasingly important part of the global content economy.” Anthony E. Zuiker, creator of the CSI TV franchise, will take to the Grand Auditorium stage for the global debut of Cinemalistics, a new platform featuring AI-powered motion picture and short documentary versions of breaking true crime events. Anatolii Kasianov, co-founder and Co-CEO of Holywater Tech, will also step into the spotlight for a separate MIP Headliner session. The market will also bring together many of the executives shaping the rapidly evolving market of vertical storytelling and microdrama, including Timothy Oh, Col Group; Maria Rua Aguete, Omdia; Alex Montalvo, GammaTime; Scott Brown, Second Rodeo Productions; Cassandra Yang, RJ RisingJoy; Stephen Liu, NetShort; Vivian Yin, Y+X Entertainment; and Jay Blumenfield, Jay & Tony Show Productions. MIPCOM will partner with The Media Odyssey podcast for a special recording examining the era of premium vertical television. Moderated by Evan Shapiro and Marion Ranchet, the conversation will feature RoseBerry Media CEO and co-founder Guy Hameiri and head of Business Development and co-founder Lior Friedman. Additionally, the program will feature an invitation-only Global Microdrama & Vertical Leaders’ Summit, and a new official matchmaking platform that will introduce a dedicated Vertical Content Speed Matchmaking category. Earlier, MIPCOM had launched a MIP AI Entertainment Forum, a new international conference and marketplace that will connect AI innovators with studios, streamers, producers, creators, brands, and IP owners. Among the first confirmed partners for the MIP AI Entertainment Forum were Versos AI and Protege, alongside an expanding exhibition line-up, which initially included HappyClient, Lingopal.AI, LoglineAI, and Massif Network. “What we are seeing now with AI is not incremental evolution, it is a fundamental rewiring of how content will be created, financed, distributed, and monetized globally over the next decade,” said MIPCOM’s Smith. “MIPCOM Cannes 2026 will bring together the international entertainment community to engage with that transformation — not to theorize about it, but to build partnerships, strike deals, and define what comes next.” The Forum will spotlight three key areas: Creation & Storytelling, Production & Workflow, and Licensing & Distribution. YouTube will return to MIPCOM with an expanded presence building on its market debut in 2025. Pedro Pina, VP, YouTube EMEA, will kick off the market with a main-stage keynote on opening day in the Grand Auditorium of the Palais. YouTube will also be present at MIPJunior (October 10-11) as the official sponsor of the Opening Happy Hour. According to Pina, “The media landscape is shifting rapidly, and YouTube is here to help broadcasters and studios grow.” In addition, MIPCOM 2026 has unveiled MIP BrandWorks, a new initiative connecting brands and agencies directly with studios, production companies, streamers, creators, IP rights-holders, and commissioners. This builds on last year’s introduction of “brand entertainment” into the MIPCOM program. This year, it will run across the three days of the market and will be co-produced in partnership with Doug Scott, co-founder of Unxnown, founder of Ogilvy Entertainment, and former Cannes Lions jury president for branded content. (Continued from Page 14) Lucy Smith, director of MIPCOM Cannes Reiner Moritz, Poorhouse International Hervé Michel, former president of TV France International “We’re seeing entirely new sectors of the entertainment business mature at remarkable speed.” — Lucy Smith, director of MIPCOM Cannes VIDEOAGE October 2026 Market Preview

18 MIP Africa Poised to Remedy a Region Under TV Stress “The African TV market is dead at the moment,” stated Chevonne O’Shaughnessy, founder and CEO of American Cinema Inspires, a Los Angelesbased film producer and international distributor, who is very familiar with the African entertainment market. She explained: “No TV is buying. M-Net, the big channel, was bought by Canal+ and everything is on hold. The tax incentive they had has stopped so no one is going to make movies. People in Africa are hoping that the tax credit will start again in November. However, there are a lot of producers who have not yet been [compensated].” Martin Hiller, Portfolio director of FAME Week, which organizes MIP Africa in Cape Town, South Africa, set for October 28-30, 2026, took issue with O’Shaughnessy’s statement, and explained how MIP Africa will be able to address her issues, as well as help exhibitors. “It is fair to say that the African film and television industry is navigating a challenging period, particularly in South Africa, where commissioning has slowed and uncertainty around the film incentive has affected production confidence,” said Hiller. However, he “would strongly challenge the suggestion that ‘the African market is dead’ or that nobody is buying or producing.” Hiller also explained that “concerns are justified” with regard to the South African film and television incentive. “The delays and outstanding payments have put significant pressure on producers and have affected confidence in South Africa as a production destination. However, I would be careful about saying that the incentive has ended or that it will simply ‘restart in November.’ The situation is evolving, and any claims around a specific restart date should be based on the latest official Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) position rather than industry speculation.” In addition, Hiller “would describe what we are experiencing as a market in transition, not a market in collapse. Commissioning is more cautious, financing models are changing, and producers are having to work harder to put projects together. But at the same time, a R300 million [U.S.$18.73 million] international feature is shooting in South Africa, Canal+/MultiChoice/StudioCanal are actively seeking new African dramas, and an African financial institution is spearheading a film fund of up to U.S.$1 billion. That is why FAME Week Africa is particularly important right now,” said Hiller. “In a changing market, producers need access to new sources of finances, commissioners, buyers, distributors, and international partners. We want FAME Week Africa to be the market where fresh, commercially bankable African projects are discovered, where new partnerships are formed and, ultimately, where African content gets commissioned, financed, and sold.” Ettore Botta, president, Pasadena, California-based SpaceWoW, also sees some positive developments in the African TV market coming from France and China. “The South African government ultimately greenlit the takeover of South African broadcaster MultiChoice by the French media giant Canal+, creating a combined pan-African media ecosystem with nearly 50 million customers,” said Botta. “In addition, StarTimes, a Chinese multinational firm, provides affordable digital television services widely across Sub-Saharan Africa. The demand for culturally relevant local (African) programming is at an all-time high. Markets like Nigeria are fueling major creator economies, with local Nollywood-native platforms and independent producers bypassing traditional pure-SVoD models in favor of hybrid pricing and cinema-first releases,” he said. “A surge in mobile connectivity, local content production, and major corporate consolidation has contributed to the rapid expansion of the African Television and VoD market, expected to reach $97.42 billion in 2026.” However, Botta cautioned that “two major transnational powerhouses (Canal+ and StarTimes) control over 70 percent of the continent’s pay-TV subscriber base, making the subscription pay-TV sector operate largely as an oligopoly. The remaining 30 percent is highly fragmented with some four operators: Azam, Zuku TV, beIN Sports, and MBC. Plus, subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) faces monetization hurdles due to rising living costs and limited disposable incomes. As a result, ad-supported video-on-demand MIP Africa takes place at the Cape Town International Convention Center (Continued on Page 20) “We want FAME Week Africa to be the market where fresh, commercially bankable African projects are discovered, where new partnerships are formed and, ultimately, where African content gets commissioned, financed, and sold.” — Martin Hiller, Portfolio director, FAME Week Africa Martin Hiller, Portfolio director, FAME Week Africa VIDEOAGE October 2026 Territories

GOD KNEW IT TAKES TWO. THE WORLD’S FIRST RELATIONSHIP COMPETITION THROUGH MUSIC

20 (Continued from Page 18) (AVoD) via YouTube outpaces Netflix in revenue across many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. Another reason is that YouTube has a majority of local African content produced in Africa in contrast to Netflix content that offers about 30 percent of African-produced content for Africa. At the same time, FreeTV dominance, mainly by government controlled television across the continent, is ending with advertisers shedding off this medium.” Going back to MIP Africa, one LATAM distributor with extensive knowledge of the African TV market but who wished to remain anonymous, reported that “FAME Week Africa may easily be the most stylish of all the global television markets, in large part due to its inclusion of music, tech, and fashion brands, and Cape Town is an ideal location for such a hip event, at which meetings and the market floor are meticulously arranged by the event’s clearly capable organizers.” However, “the question of how valuable this market is to the greater international industry remains.” This source also added: “It seems that this still isn’t a more global or even a pan-African event. Rather, it’s the ideal way to meet young South African producers and be introduced to perhaps new ideas and/or current trends that are floating around the continent.” They concluded: “Sadly though, for the distributor looking to place international content in African homes, or even the acquisitions executive looking to transplant African content to another part of the world, with all its good intentions, this market still has not yet evolved into the right place to be.” Subsequently, FAME Week’s Hiller detailed the current television market in South Africa as it relates to MIP Africa: “M-Net is part of MultiChoice Group, which is now a Canal+ company, and we are already seeing tangible evidence of continued commitment to African content. In fact, MultiChoice Group, Canal+, and StudioCanal are partnering with FAME Week Africa this year on a dedicated Premium Drama Call for Projects, specifically seeking bold, commercially compelling African drama series. Selected producers will pitch directly to representatives from MultiChoice Group, Canal+, and StudioCanal as part of their editorial evaluation process for potential commissioning. “This is significant because it demonstrates that the combined group is not simply talking about African content; it is actively looking for new African IP and commercially viable projects. Canal+ has previously stated that its ambition with MultiChoice includes investing in local African talent and stories, commissioning ambitious African content and supporting local production companies. “We are also seeing that commitment translate into major productions. StudioCanal’s The Road Home is currently in production in South Africa. Directed by Academy Award winner Bill Condon, the musical drama stars Thabo Rametsi as Hugh Masekela, Cynthia Erivo as legendary South African vocalist Miriam ‘Mama Africa’ Makeba, and John Legend as Harry Belafonte. “This is an approximately U.S.$15.8 million production, filming in Cape Town and employing over 300 local film crew members and up to 3,500 extras. Importantly, Canal+ itself has said that the production underscores commitments made during its acquisition of MultiChoice Group. StudioCanal is financing the film alongside Flora Films and Rob Bath and will distribute it across multiple international territories. “There is also significant new capital being mobilized for African content outside the traditional broadcaster model. [The pan-African export-import bank] Afreximbank, through FEDA (Fund for Export Development in Africa) and its Creative Africa Nexus program (or CANEX), is spearheading an Africa Film Fund of up to U.S.$1 billion. The fund is designed specifically to support the production and global distribution of African films and television series and to help African filmmakers create content capable of competing internationally. “So, while traditional commissioning models may be changing, we are simultaneously seeing new financing structures, international investment, and new routes to market emerging. “The response from African producers themselves also tells an important story. At FAME Week Africa, our Micro Drama and MultiChoice Group drama opportunities generated over 300 pitches in a matter of weeks. We are continuing to expand the pitching ecosystem through additional opportunities, including the Eastern Cape Development Corp. (ECDC) Pitching Session. “For us, this is an important indicator. There is clearly no shortage of African creators, producers or commercially interesting projects. What the industry needs are stronger mechanisms connecting those projects with commissioners, buyers, distributors, financiers, and co-production partners. That is precisely the role FAME Week Africa is positioning itself to play,” concluded Hiller. “It’s the ideal way to meet young South African producers and be introduced to perhaps new ideas and/or current trends that are floating around the continent.” The ACI stand on the MIP Africa exhibition floor VIDEOAGE October 2026 Territories

24 The chatter that emerges whenever the quadrennial FIFA World Cup ends is increasingly familiar, with high-flying proclamations of ever-increasing numbers of viewers recorded in the billions, new sponsorship revenue records, and in North American media, the inevitable comparison: how does the World Cup compare with the American Super Bowl? The comparison has become more interesting than a simple argument about which event attracts the larger audience, as under the presidency of Gianni Infantino, FIFA, which organizes the World Cup, has increasingly sought to turn the competition’s audience into the fuel for a commercial machine that could become the world’s most successful sports businesses, with the most recent post-World Cup developments leading to extraordinary headlines even by FIFA’s bombastic standards (given how the organization has been no stranger to scandal and criticism throughout its existence). In July, immediately after the conclusion of the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, leaks revealed that FIFA was developing plans for a new commercial subsidiary, FIFA Forward Enterprise, which would consolidate FIFA’s commercial and event operations (including broadcasting, sponsorship, ticketing and licensing) and which would raise as much as $4.2 billion from outside investors at an initial valuation of $20 billion. Following the leaks, FIFA insisted that it would retain control of football’s governance and sporting decisions even with the entry of private investors, and that proceeds from this new vehicle would ultimately be reinvested in football development. In spite of these reassurances, FIFA soon announced the plan was being scrapped in the face of overwhelming opposition. What the episode illuminates more than anything else is how FIFA is sitting on one of the most powerful media properties in the world, and it is increasingly asking what that property might be worth if it were managed less like a governing institution and more like a global sports business. The raw numbers prove that FIFA’s claims of global scale and value are more than justified. The entire 2026 World Cup Championship broadcast, per FIFA’s estimates (which can certainly be debated), affirm that more than six billion people had engaged with the 2026 tournament worldwide, while the final itself produced a combined U.S. television audience of 62.8 million across the FOX (in English) and Telemundo (in Spanish) TV networks. However, in terms of viewership in the U.S., these numbers are still inferior to the Super Bowl, with Super Bowl LX in February of 2026 averaging 124.9 million viewers in the U.S. When audience is translated into commercial value, FIFA’s 2026 budget projected $3.925 billion in television-rights revenue, most of which would come from the World Cup. Considering other sources of revenue, such as marketing rights, S&P Global has independently estimated that the World Cup tournament would generate roughly $9 billion for FIFA in 2026. In the U.S., FOX reportedly paid approximately $485 million for the English-language U.S. rights to the 2026 World Cup tournament, while advertising-industry data indicates that FOX generated roughly $835 million in World Cup advertising sales. Meanwhile, FOX coupled with Telemundo (which in turn secured the Spanish-language rights) attracted approximately $1.03 billion in U.S. advertising spend. While the World Cup revenue numbers are massive, they nonetheless significantly trail behind the Super Bowl, which is bundled into massive multi-year media packages that require networks to pay billions of dollars annually for regular-season and playoff games. The National [American] Football League (NFL) domestic media rights deals running from 2023 through 2033 are valued at roughly $110 billion in total, with four main broadcast partners paying billions of dollars each to secure a four-way yearly Super Bowl rotation. If FIFA wants to understand how much commercial value can be extracted from elite sports, the NFL is perhaps the most logical benchmark available because it is undeniable that the NFL has successfully transformed its sport into the world’s most valuable media business. The league generated an estimated $14.5 billion in national revenue in 2025, summing together media rights, sponsorships, licensing and other centrally negotiated commercial arrangements. FIFA, by contrast, is simultaneously a sports governing body, a competition organizer, a commercial rights holder, and a development organization representing 211 national associations with radically different levels of wealth, sporting infrastructure, and political influence. Thus, the FIFA World Cup, operationally, is much more akin to what a North American audience would recognize as an “all-star tournament,” with national teams made up of players who otherwise spend the vast majority of their time plying their trade at one of the innumerable clubs around the world. Every club, national federation, and regional governing body operates with its own set of ambitions and expectations, which might include the expectations to see World Cup revenues redistributed back into the global game, as well as strong opinions on how those revenues should be generated. This is where any comparison with the NFL breaks down, in that the NFL is a league of privately owned franchises operating within a highly developed commercial and legal framework. FIFA is not even, strictly speaking, a sports league. The World Cup belongs, in a complicated institutional sense, to the global football ecosystem where individual clubs develop the players, national associations assemble their teams, and confederations organize the regional tournaments as well as the qualification criteria. On top of that, host countries provide the physical infrastructure. FIFA sits above all of these intersecting participants, organizing the competition and distributing its proceeds. By Yuri Serafini The World Cup, the Super Bowl, and the Search for Endless Revenue Growth The National Football League (NFL) domestic media rights deals running from 2023 through 2033 are valued at roughly $110 billion in total. VIDEOAGE October 2026 Sports Finances

26 The Futures TV Promised Us: Technology Vs. Behavior Few industries have spent more time trying to predict their future than television. What is remarkable is not how often those predictions proved wrong, but how consistently they were wrong in the same way. Every generation imagined tomorrow as an improved version of today: a better disc, a bigger satellite, more channels, sharper pictures, faster delivery. The industry’s forecasts were almost always technological. The revolutions that reshaped television were behavioral. For more than 50 years, the biggest breakthroughs have not come from improving television itself. They have come from giving viewers more control over it. In the 1970s, the future was VideoDisc. RCA’s SelectaVision, Philips’ LaserDisc, and others promised a world in which consumers would build libraries of movies and television programs just as they collected records. Engineers perfected optical media while executives envisioned lucrative new licensing businesses. During the 1980s, attention shifted skyward. Satellite television promised virtually unlimited bandwidth, national coverage, and hundreds of available channels. The 1990s extended that thinking into the celebrated “500-channel universe.” Digital compression meant every interest could support its own network. Television’s future, it seemed, would simply be more television. History chose a different path. The industry’s greatest disruptions rarely emerged from the technologies it expected. Instead, they transferred power from the programmer to the viewer. Home video was the first great surprise. The VCR was revolutionary not because it recorded programs, but because it liberated viewers from the network schedule. TiVo and the DVR accelerated that shift by allowing viewers to pause live television, skip commercials, and build their own schedules. Cloud DVRs eliminated storage limitations. Streaming eventually made recording almost unnecessary by keeping entire libraries continuously available on demand. Each innovation transferred another measure of control from the industry to the consumer. Cable television had once represented one of the greatest values in media. A modest monthly fee delivered dozens of channels that had never before been available. Over time, however, that value proposition steadily eroded. Retransmission consent — first aggressively leveraged by FOX TV network and eventually adopted throughout the U.S. broadcast industry, transformed broadcast stations from freely available programming into increasingly expensive assets for cable and satellite operators to carry. At the same time, programmers routinely required distributors to carry numerous affiliated cable networks as the price of receiving their flagship services. Many of those secondary channels attracted relatively small audiences while materially increasing programming costs. Sports rights became dramatically more expensive. Programming costs continued climbing. Monthly subscription prices rose steadily. Consumers found themselves paying for hundreds of channels while regularly watching only a fraction of them. Consumer satisfaction became smaller. In hindsight, the industry’s effort to maximize the value of the bundle may also have accelerated its decline. Then Netflix changed the conversation. Its breakthrough was not streaming technology. Delivering television over the Internet had been envisioned years earlier by VideoAge’s Dom Serafini in his book TV via Internet, published in 1999. The breakthrough was economic. Netflix demonstrated that consumers preferred paying directly for the services they valued instead of subsidizing dozens — or hundreds — they ignored. Streaming was the technology. Unbundling was the disruption. The competitive battle became about who owned the customer relationship. The means of delivery have become almost invisible. Few viewers care whether programming reaches them through cable, satellite, fiber, broadband, Wi-Fi, or 5G. They care that it starts instantly, plays flawlessly, and follows them seamlessly from one screen to another. The infrastructure has become a commodity. The experience has become the product. That distinction becomes even more important as television enters what may be its most profound transformation yet. Artificial intelligence is often described as a better recommendation engine. That significantly understates its potential. AI is unlikely to change what television is. It is likely to change what television becomes. Instead of searching, viewers will simply ask. Instead of browsing, television will understand intent. Instead of watching fixed experiences, viewers may increasingly receive adaptive ones. Advertising may undergo an equally profound transformation. For more than 70 years, television advertising followed a broadcast model: everyone watching the same program By Blair Westlake* (Continued on Page 28) * Blair Westlake was an executive at Universal Studios for 20 years in various roles, including Chairman of the TV & Networks Group. For a decade, he was corporate vice president of Media & Entertainment for Microsoft. He has served on numerous boards, including the entertainment holding company for the Public Investment Fund, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, KCTS, and Research to Prevent Blindness. “The future is already here. It’s just not evenly distributed.” — William Gibson Television no longer competes primarily against other television. It competes against every claim on human attention and time. VIDEOAGE October 2026 Predictions & Reality

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