INTERNATIONAL www.VideoAge.org The story of Gustavo Scaglione is just as interesting as the trajectory of Telefe, the Argentinean TV network that Scaglione, together with José Luis Manzano, acquired on October 23, 2025, for a reported U.S.$100 million from the U.S. studio, Paramount. A sidebar about Scaglione is on page 26, meanwhile here we explore the connecting elements between the city of Rosario and its prominent media pioneers. Telefe was founded as Television Federal S.A. in 1989 by the Italian-born Pedro (Pietro) Simoncini (1923-2020). In the beginning, Telefe was known as El Canal de la Familia (The Family’s Channel). The now 65-year-old Gustavo Santiago Scaglione, son of Italian immigrants, was born and For over a century, cinema thrived under a simple logic: scarcity. Scarcity of access, of channels, of films. A few titles per year, often selected by faceless executives that decided what was “worthy” of being released in theaters or on broadcast televiMy 2¢: How will history describe the TV era that began with streaming? Lifestyle: The liberating feeling of leaving the TV industry TV’s role in the demise of indoor soccer and the outdoor variant’s success MIP London: A good pond for “fishing” European TV buyers Page 30 Page 20 Page 18 Page 14 THE BUSINESS JOURNAL OF FILM, BROADCASTING, STREAMING, PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION January 2026 - VOL. 46 NO. 1 - $9.75 The Italian Telefe Connection: Simoncini-Scaglione-Daminato Content Americas, NATPE, Realscreen, Share Miami The Economy of Scarcity Caused By Abundance (Continued on Page 24) (Continued on Page 16) (Continued on Page 22) Once again, there will be three international content markets in Miami at the beginning of this year. Kicking off the events is, as usual, Content Americas on January 20, 2026, and it will continue for two more days at the Hilton Miami hotel. Then, after an 11-day break, Realscreen/NATPE Global will start on February 2, for a total of five days at the InterContinental hotel, also in downtown Miami. NATPE Global (February 4-6, 2026) will be
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) BILL BRIOUX (CANADA) ENZO CHIARULLO (ITALY) LEAH HOCHBAUM ROSNER (NY) SUSAN HORNIK (L.A.) CAROLINE INTERTAGLIA (FRANCE) OMAR MENDEZ (ARGENTINA) LUIS POLANCO (NY) MIKE REYNOLDS (L.A.) MARIA ZUPPELLO (BRAZIL) PUBLISHER MONICA GORGHETTO BUSINESS OFFICE LEN FINKEL LEGAL OFFICE STEVE SCHIFFMAN 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 How will history describe the television age that began in 2018 with streaming media? We know about the “golden age of U.S. television” that ended in 1960, but what about the current TV era? Page 30 Cover Stories News The Italian Telefe connection: Simoncini-Scaglione-Daminato Miami shared by Content Americas, NATPE Global, and Realscreen The economy of scarcity caused by abundance: Everyone can produce, but few manage to be seen. 6. Asia TV Forum at 26 shows endof-the-year vitality. A must-attend market for the East 14. MIP London: A good pond for “fishing” European content buyers 8. Book Review: A master class from the cable cowboy. John Malone tells his life story 10. MIP Cancun report: Mex mart full of dramas. Micro-dramas get a vertical makeover 18. The Sports Page: TV’s role in the demise of indoor soccer (football) and the success of the outdoor variant 20. Lifestyle: The liberating feeling of leaving the television industry 28. Airlines surveyed and rated by sector trade publication. Plus, Calendar of industry events Features
6 and Warner Bros. Discovery exhibiting in suites, while Lionsgate took a booth. As usual, ATF attracted a large contingent of Turkish production and distribution companies, many of whom had individual stands, but also some European distributors sharing Italian, Spanish, and French pavilions. There were also a few Latin American companies. Reps for the event organizer, RX, were also keen to remind interested professionals that the ATF On Line website will remain online until February 28, 2026. MJ Sorenson, CEO of the New York City-based public relations firm MJ Global Communications, pointed out, “As someone attending ATF several times over the years, the conference and market has solidified itself as a strong representation of the Asian content business, which has become a strong force in the global content space overall. All of my clients had positive experiences and one even closed a deal on the spot with a major broadcaster. Definitely a must-attend market for Western companies who want to break into the lucrative East.” And all this happened despite the fact that ATF comes right at the end of the calendar year, when most budgets have already been depleted. But it isn’t the last TV market of the year. There are also two in London: Content London, held December 1-4, and Focus, which celebrated its 10th anniversary on December 8-10. There’s also Latin America’s Ventana Sur, which returned to Argentina (from Uruguay) for its 17th edition, which was held December 1-5, 2025. The next edition of ATF is slated for December 1-4, 2026 at the Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. Pictured above: Something Special’s Courtney Boyett (l.), Hayoung Rhee, and Jacob Han The Asia TV Forum and Market (ATF), Asia’s Co-Production & Entertainment Content Market, concluded its 26th annual three-day run on December 4, 2025, with 558 exhibiting companies, some of them sharing booths in the 22 pavilions spread around the huge Marina Bay Sands Convention Center in Singapore. The event recorded 4,875 trade professionals from over 60 countries and regions. Among them were 977 buyers. The Forum portion started on December 2, with 148 speakers at the podiums, while the market site opened the day after and saw U.S. studios like NBCUniversal, Paramount, Sony Pictures, ATF at 26 Shows End-of-the-Year Vitality. A Must Market for the East VIDEOAGE January 2026 World Convergence is reshaping the content industry. NATPE Global and Realscreen Summit are bringing together all of the players - including brands and creators - who are collectively mapping out the future of entertainment. Maximize your time in Miami by connecting with an even wider network. Get a combo pass to NATPE + Realscreen Summit. LEARN MORE HERE Feb 2-6, 2026 InterContinental Miami JOIN THE COLLAB
8 The American businessman and billionaire recounts chapters of his extraordinary life and shares his thoughts on how the public engages with media, entertainment, and technology. A Master Class from the Cable Cowboy: John Malone Tells His Life Story By Luis Polanco American media mogul John Malone (born on March 7, 1941) was raised in the middle-class town of Milford, Connecticut. He received a pedigreed education at some of the top universities in the U.S. — Yale and Johns Hopkins. Early in his career, he landed roles at the industrial research company Bell Labs, the strategy and consulting firm McKinsey & Company, and the electronics manufacturer General Instrument. Today, Malone is best known for his industry-transforming roles as president and CEO of the cable television provider Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI), his generous donations to American universities, his share in the baseball team the Atlanta Braves, and his significant land ownership (he even exceeds CNN founder Ted Turner as the largest individual private land owner in the U.S.). In his new memoir, Born to Be Wired: Lessons from a Lifetime Transforming Television, Wiring America for the Internet, and Growing Formula One, Discovery, Sirius XM, and the Atlanta Braves (432 pgs., Simon & Schuster, 2025, $31), Malone shares his insider perspective on episodes from his life and key events in American media, including the launch of cable networks such as Discovery, QVC, and TBS, as well as landmark mergers, like Warner Bros. Discovery and Live Nation Entertainment, among other recent developments. The subtitle “Lessons from a Lifetime” helps frame the memoir. Some of these lessons are straightforward and feel-good reminders to live a life of positivity and gratitude, like the importance of who you work with, whether they be collaborators or antagonists. “Now that I am a bit older and slowing down, just a little, I have realized that, all along, the most important element was who was involved, not what,” he notes. “The people whom I befriended, learned from, and fought against — rather than the deals or the payoff — gave me the most satisfaction.” Other lessons are drawn from specific challenges and trials from his career. From the early 1970s to the 1990s, Malone spearheaded efforts at TCI as the right-hand man to founder Bob Magness, who Malone characterizes in those years as “a contemplative cowboy with the wits of a business tycoon and the quiet stability of a ranch boss.” One of the earliest challenges comes from the beginning years as CEO of TCI. As Malone recalled, in 1975, the banks had come knocking to discuss the company’s debt, threatening bankruptcy. In Malone’s retelling, his putting his foot down was a decisive move in saving the company. But more importantly, the challenge brought its own learning opportunity. This event “forced [him] to quantify risk with precision, weigh every deal with a clear head, and make bold moves without putting everything on the line again.” While this business model of restraint might contradict the “betit-all mindset” of contemporary businessmen like Elon Musk, it has allowed him to build a career of longevity. “This cautious, but calculated mindset would define my dealmaking for the next thirty years or more,” Malone said of his early days at TCI. The memoir is full of in-depth stories from all parts of Malone’s life. His relationships with people are given special emphasis. For example, Malone is generous in portraying his oft-times competitor Rupert Murdoch: “The way I saw it, sometimes he was playing on my team. A lot of time he was playing for a different team but not opposing us. And in certain games he and his team were playing against us — and hard.” Elsewhere he muses on relationships he wished he was able to better develop, including the one with Netflix’s Reed Hastings. The stories behind different deals provide fodder for contemplation on business. For example, after recounting how Liberty Media (which was originally under the TCI umbrella of companies but was later spun off by AT&T as an independent company) acquired a controlling stake in Formula One, Malone muses on the advantages of tracking stocks (a special class of stock issued by a parent company that links its value to the financial performance of a specific division, rather than the entire company). “We believe the tracking stocks actually provide more transparency and diversity for the investor, while giving Liberty enormous flexibility, tax advantages, and greater access to capital.” With Born to Be Wired, Malone has offered a lengthy chronicle that details the sagas of the American media and entertainment industry. As with any memoir from an industry bigwig, there is much to be gleaned about internal politics and the fast-paced decisions that govern this media landscape. Malone’s memoir is a wealth of knowledge and insight into the American media landscape and his business philosophy. While this business model of restraint might contradict the “bet-it-all mindset” of contemporary businessmen like Elon Musk, it has allowed him to build a career of longevity. VIDEOAGE January 2026 Book Review
10 Mexican Mart Full of Dramas, Micro-Dramas and Vertical Makeovers (Continued on Page 12) MIP Cancun opened on November 19, 2025 with a mini drama. No, literally, the annual TV market in Cancun, Mexico started with a conference on the popularity of micro-dramas, with Spain-based The Mediapro Studio’s Juan Acosta, Turkeybased Inter Medya’s Can Okan, and Shawn Wu from China’s COL Group taking to the stage to talk about the phenomenon. The following day, micro-dramas returned as the topic of another conference. Now it remains to be seen if this type of content can move any time soon from the first-floor location, where MIP Cancun’s conference talks are held, to the second-floor location of the MIP Cancun market, where inspired talks turn into business deals. Reps for RX, the France-based firm that organizes the market, reported that, on November 21, 2025, “MIP Cancun wrapped a vibrant four days of deal-making at the Moon Palace Cancun [Resort].” In addition, RX stated that its content and co-production market for the Latin American and U.S. Hispanic television industry “concluded its 12th edition with a strong attendance of 800 distributors, buyers, producers, commissioners, creators and brands from 47 countries. [There were] 250 buyers and commissioners (up from last year’s 221), [and] a total of 121 distributors (up from 115 in 2025).” It was also announced that the 13th edition of MIP Cancun will run November 17-20, 2026 at the same Moon Palace Hotel Convention Center. Exhibitors are now hoping that some of the pre-scheduled meetings at MIP Cancun will turn into sales agreements at January’s Miami, Florida-based Content Americas, a much larger market with over 600 content buyers, and when the depleted November budgets are refurbished. The Mexican MIP market also got good report card grades from the U.S. studios. Commented Luciana Santacruz from the Miami office of NBCUniversal: “We [were] delighted to attend MIP Cancun this year. This market continues to be one of the most valuable markets for our LatAm clients and it’s a great opportunity to present some of NBCUniversal’s top new series, like PONIES, and Telemundo’s new series Lobo.” Other studios also exhibiting with tables included Warner Bros. Discovery, Fox, Paramount, and Sony Pictures. On a colorful note, Fox Entertainment Global’s exhibition table was manned by the newly recruited Sabrina Hall Aguirre, next to that of her mother, Fremantle’s Sheila Hall Aguirre. Also, a Sony Pictures coordinator was very busy setting up breakfasts and lunches for the studios’ sales team at various restaurants at the resort, even bringing the studio’s own branded napkins. Other than that, the first thing most people noticed when arriving in Mexico by air for the MIP Cancun TV market was the large number of Canadian tourists. Nearly 10 large busses awaited the Canucks at the Cancun airport, many of whom opted to vacation in the Mexican resort town as opposed to spending their tourist dollars in Florida as a reaction to the Trump administration’s antagonism toward Canada. There was also the fact that, this year, not all content buyers were invited to MIP Cancun all expenses paid. Some buyers were, for the first time, asked to pay for part of their participation costs. Returning to the micro-drama explosion, organizers of the three-day market chose to stage two brief conferences about the subject rather than hosting any lengthy sessions. The first event was titled: “Micro Drama, Mega Audience.” For the second event, titled “Powering LatAm’s Micro Drama Boom,” panelists were confirmed just before the market started, and included Sammie Haw and Maritza Castro, both from Crazy Maple Studios, the California-based unit of China’s ICVR. For those viewers who have short attention spans and like to watch TV on their cell phones, Hollywood and, apparently, the rest of the entertainment world, has refined the concept first developed in 2018 by Quibi, a streaming service that was shut down at the end of 2020 by its creator, Jeffrey Katzenberg, after losing $1.75 billion. Today, Hollywood (led by Asia, and followed by LatAm and Europe), is back to banking on short-form dramas of up to 90 minutes transmitted in installments of one-to-three minutes to be displayed vertically on mobile devices. The budgets for micro-dramas are relatively inexpensive, but the shows are popular with young viewers (especially in China), and TV production companies like DramaBox, ReelShort, MicroCo, and GamaTime are all betting on this type of vertical video market, now estimated at $8 billion and expected to reach $25 billion worldwide by 2030. The micro-drama business utilizes the freemium model, where the first few episodes are free, and the rest are by subscription, via purchase, or with ads. The Mediapro Studio’s Juan Acosta, Inter Medya’s Can Okan, and Shawn Wu from China’s COL Group “MIP Cancun started as a complementary event, mainly focused on networking with smaller players. Today, it offers outstanding attendance quality, strong sessions, and presentations that combine an attractive format with a manageable pace.” — Michelle Wassermann, Banijay Rights VIDEOAGE January 2026 MIP Cancun Report
12 (Continued From Page 10) Going back to MIP Cancun, VideoAge recorded other observations from exhibitors from different territories. María Pérez Campi, director of Sales, U.S. Hispanic and Latin America, for the Israeli-based Dori Media, reported that, “MIP Cancun was a great market for us. We are now doing all our follow ups and all our best to close all these open negotiations as we head to Content Americas, or even before.” Similarly, Maria Ibarra, vice president, International Sales, for Canada-based Blue Ant Media, said: “MIP Cancun was a highly positive experience this year, coming off the recent corporate acquisition announcements in which we acquired Magellan TV and Thunderbird Entertainment, and Blue Ant has become a publicly traded company. It was also a great platform to highlight our expanding scale and the global advantages we now deliver across our integrated channels, production, and rights division. The breadth of buyers on-site gave Blue Ant Rights a strong platform to demonstrate how we’ve evolved as a business and to showcase the depth and diversity of our catalogue.” Michelle Wasserman, the Miami-based SVP, LatAm, U.S. Hispanic and Brazil, for the global distributor Banijay Rights, provided a more comprehensive assessment: “MIP Cancun has grown and it has become a key market for us. It started as a complementary event, mainly focused on networking with smaller players. Today, it offers outstanding attendance quality, strong sessions, and presentations that combine an attractive format with a manageable pace, while addressing highly relevant and current industry topics. It is one of the few markets where I can successfully balance a full commercial agenda with attending panels, and where I truly have direct and immediate access to participants. What used to be a ‘TBC’ event for us year after year has now become an established and essential part of our annual slate. “The market brings together a large number of local players who don’t usually attend events outside the country, which makes it especially valuable. I would even consider adding an extra day dedicated only to conferences, or adjusting my schedule to arrive one day earlier so I can make full use of Tuesday [the event’s first day, prior to the opening of the market floor].” Fox Entertainment Global’s Sabrina Hall Aguirre and her mother, Fremantle’s Sheila Hall Aguirre Luciana Santacruz from the Miami office of NBCUniversal VIDEOAGE January 2026 MIP Cancun Report FROM CREATION TO INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION RETURNS TO LILLE (FRANCE) MARCH 24–26, 2026 MARCH 23 BUYERS UPFRONT 2ND EDITION AHEAD OF THE EVENT, GET AN EXCLUSIVE LOOK AT HIGHLY ANTICIPATED SERIES
14 At first glance, the utility of the second annual MIP London event may not be obvious. The RX-organized market is scheduled for Sunday to Tuesday, February 22 to 24, 2026, at the Savoy Hotel and in the adjacent Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) building. The first edition, held in February 2025, attracted some 2,800 participants from 74 countries. For its second edition, MIP London shortened its format to a three-day schedule (from five days in 2025). As of December 15, 2025, MIP London had already reported 350 buyers, and in terms of participants, the large majority is expected to be coming from the U.K. As for European attendees, France tops the list, followed by Germany, then Spain. From across the “pond,” the largest contingent will arrive from the U.S., followed by Canada. However, if the reason to have a MIP London were to be analyzed in detail, a case would gradually be made that it makes sense and even cents (i.e., business). Traditionally, the London Screenings and the BBC Showcase attract over 700 buyers from all over Europe, and they are a magnet for London-based British entertainment companies, as well as London-based American studios. The BBC (which is celebrating its 50th BBC Showcase this year), in particular, asks buyers to register months in advance if they want to secure chairs in their screening rooms for its screenings, which will take place February 23 and 24 at the 180 Studios on Strand Street. For London-based companies, the costs are minimal (compared, let’s say, to MIPCOM), but the potential benefits are enormous. But what about the rest of the independent entertainment companies that are not based in London or cannot afford to rent a theater in town? Without MIP London, these enterprises would be in a quandary. They need to be where this many buyers congregate, but cannot afford their own individual screenings. Enter MIP London, where, for just U.S.$4,676 for a meeting table and registration (instead of $50,000 for a full-fledged separate screenings event in a cinema or $19,000 for a fourhour screening room at a hotel), participants can partake of all the amenities of a fullfledged private screenings event, including meeting tables, a buyers’ participation list, screening rooms (at extra cost), and even refreshments. Now, the question is: How can an independent compete with the major and large studios for buyers’ attention? And the answers are: promotion, marketing, visibility, and good TV content. MIP London can provide the facilities at affordable prices, but all the rest is on the shoulders of the exhibiting companies. Naturally, good content is essential, and just one show would do the trick of attracting buyers. After all, acquisitions executives are attracted by anything of good quality from indies that is priced low, allows for accommodating windowing, and offers all-around flexibility. But around this “bait,” producers and distributors need to create a hook — something colorful, prominent, and attractive, something that every fish requires in order to bite. MIP London can provide the pond and the fish, but the indies have to bring all the rest. The London Screenings will run for six days between February 22 and February 27, 2026, and this time with 33 companies officially registered (down from 35 in 2025), with Monday, February 23 as the heaviest day for cocktail parties, and Tuesday the heaviest for the number of screenings. Unofficially (i.e., not listed on the London Screenings website), some companies, like, for example, Fox Studios (which was part of the official schedule last year), will run its own schedule, supposedly in order to be free to change dates and times so as to have less of a clash with others. Going back to MIP London, this year, the organizers, RX France, will inaugurate prescheduled meetings between sellers and buyers MIP Cancun-style. The Opening party will be held on Sunday, while the Happy Hours will run on Monday and Tuesday evenings. A Case for the Indies at MIP London: The Pond and The Bait Bomanbridge’s Sonia Fleck and Carl Hall Inter Medya’s Ahmet Ziyalar The YouTube conference held during MIP London’s 2025 edition Record TV’s Delmar Andrade VIDEOAGE January 2026 Market Preview
(Continued From Cover) 16 preceded by the co-located Realscreen Summit, which gathers unscripted TV executives from February 2 to 4. The NATPE event will end at 12:45 p.m. on February 6. After an initial jockeying, the markets’ roles have now been clearly defined, with Content Americas reigning supreme as the Latin American TV trade show, while NATPE has reaffirmed its status as a more “global” TV trade event. Content essentially replicates what MIP Cancun represents to Latin America, and NATPE replicates MIPCOM for the rest of the television world. Coming at the beginning of the new year, and with budgets restored, Content is often used to complete deals initiated in Cancun in November, but not completed because of depleted end-of-the-year budgets. If more negotiations are necessary, NATPE can come to the rescue later on as it offers more opportunities for face-to-face meetings. This eventuality, however, doesn’t diminish the antagonism between the two market organizers — the London-based C21 publishing company (which organizes Content) and the Toronto-based Brunico (which organizes NATPE). In addition to publishing various trade publications, both organizations also run several TV trade shows. In order to better focus on NATPE Global in Miami, last month, Brunico announced that it would be discontinuing (or “pausing”) its NATPE Budapest TV market for Central and Eastern Europe. Stated David Jenkinson, editor-in-chief and managing director, C21Media: “Content Americas is now the number one market and conference for the LatAm, U.S. Hispanic, and Spanish and Portuguese entertainment business. With the Rose d’Or Latinos as part of the mix, it has brought fresh creativity to the sector, which has been embraced. We are looking forward to a buoyant market in 2026 and to continue to grow the event.” NATPE Global executive director Claire Macdonald had this to say: “NATPE Global remains North America’s largest and most important gathering for the global content community, and NATPE Honors celebrates the leaders and innovators shaping the future of the entertainment industry.” Hosted by Emmy Award-winning comedian and actress Dulcé Sloan (The Daily Show), the NATPE Honors Awards Gala will take place on February 5, 2026, at the InterContinental Miami Hotel and will honor executives like Kristin Dolan, chief executive officer, AMC Networks, and Sean Cohan, president of Bell Media. In terms of participation, Content Americas’ official figures indicate 650 buyers at the moment (but that number is expected to soon reach 700), and 117 exhibitors, with projected final figures to reach 140. As for the number of delegates, the expectation is close to 2,000 people. As for the program, Content Americas will feature 50 speakers scattered among 23 conferences that will take place during the same market floor periods, interspersed with a Rose d’Or evening ceremony on January 20, followed by the opening party, and on January 22, a Worldwide Audiovisual Women’s Association (WAWA) Women of the Year afternoon presentation, (which this year, will move to Content instead of last year’s NATPE), as well as a closing party in the evening. In this third edition, the Rose d’Or Latinos will also present the Lifetime Achievement Award to Argentinean screenwriter/director/ producer Juan José Campanella. Conference topics include sports and micro-dramas, with speakers ranging from Brendan Fitzgerald, CEO of Secuoya Studios, to Sandra Smester, EVP, Programming and Strategy, NBCUniversal/Telemundo. For its part, NATPE Global will benefit from Realscreen’s unscripted crowd, which, together with the representatives of the 80 exhibiting companies and 400 buyers at NATPE, will bring the number of participants to an expected 2,000 TV executives. Last year, 550 participants from the Summit remained for NATPE. Among the NATPE participants will be 67 speakers that will preside over 26 conferences, including such executives as Lawrence Szabo, EVP, BBC Studios; Mark Bishop, co-president, Blue Ant Media; Anna Saalfed, head of P&G Studios; and Javier Pons, CCO of NBCUniversal/Telemundo. The NATPE gala will take place on February 5, the day after the market floor opens for business. Realscreen Summit will feature 123 speakers for 23 conferences over two days, with February 4 overlapping with NATPE. Not being a real brick-and-mortar market, Realscreen Summit will revolve around talks (with some speakers shared with NATPE), an opening cocktail party, and an awards ceremony. Featured speakers include Michael Thorn, president of FOX TV network, Jane Turton, CEO of the London-based All3Media, and the Singapore-based Sonia Fleck, CEO of Bomanbridge. On the market side, configurations for Content and NATPE will follow the usual patterns, with Content happening in suites on 17 of the hotel’s 21 floors, at the market floor’s booths and tables, as well as in a few boardrooms, all of them located on the floor below the Hilton hotel registration area. It is hoped that, like last year, the wait at peak traffic times to get to the exhibitors who are holding court in suites will continue to be five minutes or less compared to the very long wait at the previous year’s event. NATPE’s market side will consist of its usual tables, stands, meeting rooms on the second floor, cabanas by the outside pool on the 5th floor, and hotel suites up to the 33rd floor of the InterContinental Hotel. VIDEOAGE January 2026 Miami Markets Preview
18 It has now been almost 41 years since the November 1984 day when ESPN announced that it would not renew its broadcast deal with the North American Soccer [Football] League (NASL). This was to be the final blow in what had been a slow but unceasing decline for the league, which would fold outright shortly thereafter. Five years prior to the NASL losing its broadcast deal, North America’s habitually loss-making soccer league thought it had hatched a plan to achieve profitability by way of indoor soccer. The NASL had toyed with the idea of indoor soccer since the early ’70s, adopting the format in exhibition tournaments scheduled in the off-season. These tournaments grew more elaborate each time they were held, and eventually the NASL staged what was billed as an “Indoor Season,” taking place in the winter of 1979-1980, involving 10 out of the 24 participants of the “regular” NASL season in the summer. The following “Indoor Season” saw the number of participating NASL teams grow to 19, and the third season to be staged (in 1981-82) had the finals broadcast on ESPN (which was created in 1979). While many parallel variants of indoor soccer have developed across the world, all involve a smaller field and fewer players than a usual game of soccer, with matches tending to be faster paced and higher scoring than soccer played on a full field. Many associate indoor soccer with recreational leagues and amateur play, especially in places like the U.K., where it’s common to hear people refer to variants of the sport with the names, “Five-a-side football” or “Seven-aside football.” In Italy, people might refer to it as “Calcetto,” which translates to “small soccer.” However, some indoor football variants do have professional traditions. Futsal, for example, is an indoor soccer variant popular in South America and Iberia, where the sport has been professional since the late 1980s. The indoor soccer variant adopted in North America by the NASL included raised sideboards that stopped the ball from rolling out of play, further increasing the action and excitement. The smaller arenas that typically hosted matches also helped keep costs contained. Together with containing costs, increasing the perceived excitement of football was a recurring objective of the NASL. Bold steps had to be taken to make football appetizing for North American audiences, and by extension, resolve the sport’s profitability problems. The fears weren’t unfounded. The NASL was plagued by financial difficulties right from the moment it transitioned into a fully professional league in the early 1970s. A recurring theme is the wide spread between resources available to different franchises. Large-market teams, most notoriously the New York Cosmos, could benefit from a large body of fans augmented by, among other things, ready-made interest from immigrant communities originating from countries where soccer was already popular. This translated to financial firepower, which in turn allowed the Cosmos to field high-profile rosters. During the 1977 season, the Cosmos team boasted three former World Cup winners, two of which were former Brazilian national team captains (Carlos Alberto and the legendary Pelé), while the third was a former West German national team captain (Franz Beckenbauer). Also on the roster were Giorgio Chinaglia and Ramon Mifflin, who had played for the Italian and Peruvian national teams, respectively. Smaller market teams habitually fell into a double-bind. They wanted to attract local fans to this minority sport by promising exciting matches. However, to play exciting matches they felt compelled to spend money they didn’t have to attract high-profile players they couldn’t afford. It also didn’t help that the NASL expanded quicker than the nascent U.S. soccer ecosystem could supply players. Some observers saw indoor football as the natural solution to these problems. Matches were fast-paced and high-scoring, while the smaller number of players needed made maintaining a roster less expensive. Some franchises, such as the Edmonton Drillers (from Alberta, Canada), who were crowned indoor champions in the winter of 1980-1981, saw more fans show up to fill indoor arenas than showed up to outdoor matches during the regular season. But while initially heralded as a lifeline, indoor football would ultimately contribute to the NASL’s demise. Emboldened by indoor soccer’s popularity, in 1978, a fully-fledged indoor league was founded (dubbed, “Major Indoor Soccer League” or MISL). A deal was struck first to broadcast matches on the USA Network, and eventually playoff matches moved to CBS. In 1982, one NASL franchise, the San Diego Sockers, even defected from the NASL to the MISL. When ESPN dropped the NASL to give space to the nascent United States Football League (a short-lived but high-profile alternative to the NFL, playing in the spring/summer), the only other network interested in soccer, CBS, already had the MISL’s soccer product on their schedule. Without a broadcaster, at the end of the 1984 season, the NASL franchises Chicago Sting, Minnesota Strikers, and even the marquee New York Cosmos left the NASL to join the MISL, driving the NASL to fold outright. But the MISL wasn’t exempt from issues either. Like the NASL before it, the MISL also struggled to find welcoming markets for many of its franchises. In fact, absorbing NASL teams may have been a white elephant, as the season prior to their joining the MISL had seen three franchises fold. The New York Arrows were among the teams that went bust, a harbinger of things to come for the Cosmos, which had been brought in to replace them. Amid this confusion, indoor soccer’s broadcast ratings slipped and advertisers balked. With a schedule already featuring the NFL (American football), NBA (basketball), college basketball, golf, and tennis, at the end of the 1984-1985 season CBS chose not to renew its deal to broadcast indoor soccer. Like the Arrows before them, the marquee Cosmos also folded at the end of the 1984-1985 season. The MISL was nonetheless able to wrangle exposure on regional sports networks (including PRISM-Philadephia, and Home Team Sports in Bethesda, Maryland), as well as occasional ESPN coverage. With a more regional focus, billing itself as affordable family entertainment in mid-size markets like Baltimore, St. Louis, Cleveland, Kansas City, and most prominently of all, San Diego, the MISL continued to operate until 1992. That year, the league finally folded amid internal disagreements on strategy (some owners wanted to re-launch the league in a bid for national exposure), along with increasingly high-profile plans emerging to launch a new professional outdoor league based in the United States, known today as Major League Soccer, or MLS, which began to play in 1993. By Yuri Serafini TV’s Role in the Demise of Indoor Soccer and the Success of the Outdoor Variant VIDEOAGE January 2026 The Sports Page
20 Years ago, I ran into the legendary Sandy Frank at a market event. He was well into his 80s, and looked sadly feeble. Me: “Sandy, why don’t you just retire?” Him: “I don’t know how to golf.” Well, I’m a retired TV executive. And I’ve got to tell you — I highly recommend it. “Retirement” is one of those words you hear your whole career and never really think it applies to you. Then one day, it does. Hopefully, those of you who are mid-career have already given some thought to that chapter of your life. You should, since Yogi Berra famously predicted, “The future ain’t what it used to be.” Now, I know you’re focused on the day-today — your projects, your deadlines, maybe who your boss will be after the next merger. Those things matter, but the day will come sooner than you think when the company emails stop, the meetings vanish, and your badge no longer opens the door at the TV trade shows or at your office. It’s worth taking a little time now to imagine that day — and to plan for it. I started CABLEready in 1992 to hyperserve the then-exploding cable market. Very soon, we expanded to international and all platforms, with programs like Inside The Actors Studio and Forensic Files. I went solo after leaving Columbia Studios because I finally found a “jerk” I could work for. Stress? Sure. Days without a paycheck? Try months. Through it all, CABLEready established itself as the expert in cable. (This is obviously far from the truth, but it’s a barely refutable, salable claim.) Conventions became key and we went all out, punching above our weight to sit alongside the big guys. Part of our visibility efforts, apart from the usual panels, advertising, speaking, press, networking, exhibiting, etc. at TV trade shows, was throwing parties, which grew to become the CABLEready parties… still legendary. People knew who we were. Then we delivered great programs and accompanying services and we had a solid company. The end of the story? Not so rosy. Rather than getting into it, let me just say, “Cash is king.” Back to you and retirement and how you might learn from my rocky road. Figure out how much money you’ll need to maintain your lifestyle, and start saving toward that goal. I know — easier said than done. Saving feels almost impossible these days. It always has been, obviously. But today, everything seems to cost more, and every dollar seems to have a dozen places to go. But find a way to do it with every paycheck. It doesn’t have to be huge — just steady. This isn’t new advice, but it’s the one thing I wish I had followed more faithfully myself. When I finally hit that retirement “age” — late 60s for me — I made a very conscious decision to turn off the lights and leave the TV industry behind. No hard feelings, no bitterness, just… time to move on. Remember, “There’s a time to arrive, and a time to leave.” For me, it was time. I didn’t want to drag, or be dragged, back into it. Because before you know it, you’re “consulting,” which is really just working under a different title — and I wasn’t ready to start that dance again. Now, leaving the TV industry sounds liberating — and it is — but it also comes with something I call FONBM: Fear of Not Being Missed. It’s real. After years of being on every group email, in every project update, in every “what do you think about this?” meeting, suddenly… silence. You’ll feel out of touch. You’ll check your phone to see if someone still needs your opinion, and you’ll realize no one does. You have no control over that. The best you can do is keep in touch with the people who really mattered — the good ones, the ones who helped shape your career. Stay connected to them, not because of what they can do for you, but because they’re the ones worth keeping. And while you’re at it, set your ego aside. That part’s not easy, but it’s healthy. After I retired, people kept asking me the same question: “So what are you gonna do now?” And my answer was simple: “Why do I have to do anything?” That was one of my smarter responses. I needed time to find a new rhythm, so I didn’t set lofty goals. I figured I’d see what came along — and what came along surprised me: Becoming Santa Claus. Yeah, that’s right — Santa Claus. I’ve been portraying the big guy for eight years now. And it’s not just “something to do.” It’s something that fills me up in ways I never expected. There’s a certain magic in seeing children’s faces light up when Santa says their names. For a few brief moments, you’re not a retiree, or a former executive, or a guy with too much free time — you’re part of someone’s pure joy. That gig fills a few months, but that still left three-quarters of the year wide open. Thankfully, so far, there aren’t enough doctor appointments to fill all that time. Then a buddy of mine who was working at a streaming radio station called me one day and said, “We could use a voice like yours.” He put in a good word, and the next thing I knew, voilà… I was a radio DJ again. My very first job in 1971 was in college radio, and for 50 years I’ve been introducing records and making witty banter in my head — waiting for the chance to do it again. And now I get to. It’s funny how life circles back. I didn’t go searching for a purpose. Another purpose found me. So that’s it, plain and simple: I’m retired, I’m Santa Claus, and I’m a radio DJ. That combination does a pretty good job of filling most of my days to the extent I want them filled. Hilariously bad golf fills the rest. Sitting with a book or staring at the view still comes with a touch of guilt — that little voice that says, “Shouldn’t you be doing something?” But John Lennon advised, “Time you enjoy wasting was not wasted.” And let me tell you — I never knew I could move so s-l-o-w. But I’m learning to enjoy it. Now, before I fade into the sunset, let me leave you with one last, unrelated — but important — thought about the industry I left. Or really, any industry: AI won’t take your job. You’ll lose your job to someone who knows AI. That’s the world we live in now. You don’t have to love it, but you do have to understand it. Keep learning, keep adapting, and don’t ever think you’re too seasoned to pick up a new skill. By Gary Lico The Liberating Feeling of Leaving the TV Industry Gary Lico at MIPCOM 2015 with Maria Liden, then head of Programming at TV4 Sweden. VIDEOAGE January 2026 Lifestyle
CONNECTING LATAM & US HISPANIC CONTENT WITH THE WORLD 17 → 20 Nov. 2026 Moon Palace, Cancun, Mexico Save the date
22 (Continued from Cover) sion. Scarcity of space: movie theaters had a limited number of screens, television imposed rigid schedules, and every hour of programming represented a compromise, a choice, a renunciation. Under this system, every film that passed the selection committees had enormous cultural and financial weight. In effect, the selection created scarcity, and this scarcity, while excluding many, guaranteed visibility to a few. Each title had its own space, its own guaranteed audience. Today, that world has all but disappeared following the digital revolution. Now, we live in an era of absolute abundance, which knows no filters. Every day, over 30,000 hours of content are uploaded to YouTube every hour. Each week, hundreds of independent films find an outlet online without going through any selector or buyer. Everyone can distribute — and they can do so at costs close to zero. Space is no longer limited. Access is no longer a privilege. But it is precisely for this reason that attention — which has remained scarce — has become the most precious and difficult commodity to acquire. In the world of abundance, it is the public — or rather, the algorithm that interprets the public — that decides what survives and what disappears in the sea of content. Authority has passed from the hands of industry professionals to the invisible hands of recommendation systems and engagement logics. For too long, we have considered the film industry as a vertical structure. The flow was top-down — from the studios to the festivals, from sales companies to broadcasters, from local distributors to the final viewers. Every step was filtered, every piece of content was mediated, every right was segmented by territories and time windows. That model was built on the historical premise that resources were limited. And therefore, it was worthwhile to concentrate, sell, resell, license, and segment. Today, that is no longer the case. In the last five years, cinema has undergone one of the most profound systemic shocks in its history. On the one hand, the pandemic accelerated the decline of the movie theater as the center of gravity of the industry. On the other hand, the uncontrolled rise of streaming has destroyed entry barriers, but also economic certainties. The average value of licenses has dwindled, while traditional production costs — especially in Europe — have remained high. Meanwhile, a paradox has occurred: everyone can produce, but few manage to be seen. The democratization of tools has generated unprecedented overproduction. Today, often those who evaluate a film don’t even watch it. They process it: with budget grids, metadata, and performance predictors. This doesn’t mean that the curator no longer has a role. The mediation of the future will not be vertical, but horizontal. More like an editorial algorithm than a gatekeeper. And above all, it will have to be fast. Because in the time it takes the traditional system to organize a territorial sale, the audience has already chosen something else. And when the audience chooses, the system can only play catch-up. What we now call “new models” have actually existed for over a decade. YouTube was born in 2005. The first forms of AVoD date back more than 15 years. FAST channels exploded during the pandemic, but their mechanisms had already been in place for some time. We are not facing something new. We are facing a consolidated reality, still largely ignored — or worse, snubbed — by a significant part of the film industry. Many producers, especially those who grew up between festivals, public funding, and European co-productions, look at these platforms with suspicion. Yet, for years, the numbers have been telling a different story. On Tubi, a free AVoD platform active in the U.S., more than a billion hours of content are consumed every month. On YouTube, longform content (over 40 minutes) is growing exponentially, with consumption that in many cases exceeds that of paid platforms. Even TikTok now has a rapidly expanding long-form section. The industry professionals need to relearn how to interpret what is happening. For a long time, the festival was the place of legitimization. Festivals were instruments of symbolic and commercial certification. A film that premiered in Berlin, Venice, or Cannes — or even just within a well-established circuit — immediately acquired a reputation and a negotiable value in the market. That system played a fundamental role in the development of auteur cinema, and in part continues to do so. But today it is no longer enough. In a context where over 10,000 independent films are produced annually in North America alone, it is unthinkable that festivals can still be the main channel of validation. Yet, part of the production system continues to build its entire distribution strategy around festival selection. This approach, in addition to being risky, is profoundly anachronistic. The festivals shouldn’t disappear. They just need to be decentralized. An emblematic example: in the last two years, films completely ignored by official circuits have built a niche audience through word-of-mouth on Reddit, Discord, or TikTok. Some were then “rediscovered” by the festivals themselves. We have entered a post-festival era. Not because festivals are useless, but because they are not enough. If distribution changes, production must change as well. But the production system continues to operate as if nothing has changed: budgets are written “the old-fashioned way,” public funding is sought, and partners are sought who often guarantee structure but not audience. One cannot continue to produce films without asking the most basic and most neglected question of all: “Who will see this film?” But there is another, more structural aspect that deserves to be discussed openly: the distorted role of tax credits. Tax credits were created with the idea of revitalizing the industry, attracting investment, and promoting local production. In theory, they are virtuous tools: They stimulate employment, increase competitiveness, and support the creative sector. In practice, they have become the only real tool that allows many producers to continue making films without any real interest in the audience, distribution, or the final result. In some cases, the tax credit has become more important than the film itself. Films can be made, production fees collected, and yet never reach an audience. This is not about demonizing the instrument. But about restoring it to its original function: supporting what has value. The production system must start again from adherence to the market. (By Mario Niccoló Messina) Mario Niccoló Messina (pictured on the cover) is the founder and CEO of the Los Angeles-based Insurgence. The mediation of the future will not be vertical, but horizontal. More like an editorial algorithm than a gatekeeper. VIDEOAGE January 2026 The Abundance of Scarcity
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(Continued From Cover) 24 raised in Rosario, Argentina’s third largest city, where Simoncini lived, and since 1975 has been the majority (70 percent) shareholder of Canal 5 Rosario. Canal 5 was the city’s first TV station (created in 1964), which became part of Telefe. Simoncini’s Canal 5 is the station that Scaglione took ownership of with the Telefe acquisition. In 2015, the Scaglione-Daminato family acquired 55 percent (each owning a 27.5 percent stake) of Televisión Litoral, the Rosario-based company that last year purchased Telefe from Paramount for a reported U.S.$13 million. Gustavo Scaglione married Josefina Daminato in 1996 (both pictured on the cover). Born in 1966, Josefina is the youngest daughter of Carlos Daminato (19252017), an Italian bank agent who inherited Daminato Sociedad de Bolsa S.A., the oldest exchange house in Argentina, founded in 1886. What is now Telefe’s flagship TV channel in Buenos Aires began as Teleonce (and is still numbered Channel 11 in Buenos Aires) under the indirect ownership of the U.S. TV network ABC (now owned by Disney), with the founder listed as the Italian-Argentinean Jesuit priest Hector Grandinetti. Newspaper reports in Argentina indicated that when TV channels in the country were being privatized in 1983 (after first being nationalized in 1973), Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi and Italian-born Argentinean businessman Francesco (Franco) Macri (1931-2019) bid for Canal 11. Macri was the father of former Argentinean president Mauricio Macri, who served from 2015 to 2019. However, the bid was won by a consortium formed by Television Federal (led by Pedro Simoncini) with 30 percent; Atlántida (of which Spain’s Telefonica owned 30 percent) with 14 percent; and the balance by investors Avelino Porto and Santiago Soldati. In 1998, Telefonica acquired the rest of Atlántida, as well as 70 percent of Telefe with its eight owned-and-operated local TV stations for a reported U.S.$530 million. That sum included the majority ownership of Azul Televisión (now Channel 9), and some other media entities. Subsequently, Telefonica divested its Azul stakes. In 2016, Telefonica sold Telefe for U.S.$345 million to Viacom (now Paramount). At that time Viacom was also the major shareholder of the CBS TV network, which in the 1980s was the indirect owner of Argentina’s Canal 13, Canal 11’s main competitor. The entry of the Scaglione-Daminato family holding (of which Scaglione is the president) into the media business started in 2015 with Televisión Litoral S.A. (TVL), which owns TV’s Canal 3, as well as two radio stations. Subsequently, TVL expanded with the acquisition of Canal 8 (El Ocho TV) in Tucumán, Canal 11 (El Once TV) in Salta, Canal 9 (El Nueve TV) in Bahia Blanca (all Telefe affiliates), and Canal 6 in Patagonia. In 2024, TVL acquired 10 percent of Grupo América (also known as the Vila-Manzano Group, headed and founded by Daniel Vila and José Luis Manzano in 1996), which also owned Canal 10 in Junín. Earlier, in 2019, Grupo América had sold newspapers La Capital in Rosario, and Uno in Santa Fe, as well as some radio stations to Scaglione-Daminato’s TVL. Moving on to Scaglione’s life, newspaper accounts describe him as a football (soccer), basketball, and rugby player who entered the business of the air conditioning of busses and trucks after buying a bankrupt refrigeration company. At the National University of Rosario, he studied political science, social communication, and economics. With his wife Josefina, Scaglione expanded in the 2000s into agricultural business, travel, and tourism, and managed six hotels they bought in the city of San Carlos de Bariloche. This was before buying into TVL, the Rosario media group founded by Alberto Ciro Gollán, a former mayor of Rosario. To acquire Telefe, TVL partnered with Jose Luis Manzano, with whom TVL shares ownership of Grupo América. The 70-year-old Manzano is a medical doctor and a former Argentinean Minister of the Interior turned financier and media owner, but is not involved with running Telefe. His unauthorized biographical book, Todo Tiene Precio, was published in 1992. Scaglione’s shares in the Buenos Airesbased Grupo América allowed him, in addition to a regional presence, to enter the national arena, where he became known as “El Pulpo” (The Octopus) for his ability to expand a media conglomerate throughout Argentina and in various sectors: Television, radio, newspapers, and digital media. In this respect, he defines himself as a “multi-sector” businessman, with investments in agriculture, tourism, financial areas, and in more than 30 media outlets nationwide. Televisíon Federal S.A. (Telefe) was acquired by TVL from the Argentinean group formed by Atlántida Comunicaciones S.A. (79.02 percent) and Enfisur S.A. (20.98 percent). Both companies are owned by Viacom Camden Lock Ltd., a U.K. subsidiary of Viacom Inc. (now Paramount Skydance Corporation). Telefe, one of Argentina’s six national TV networks, reaches 95 percent of Argentine TVHH (some 44 million people). It produces over 3,500 hours of content annually, and has a library of more than 33,000 hours. It also operates Telefe International, a pay channel available to more than eight million viewers across 20 countries. (By Dom Serafini) Scaglione defines himself as a “multi-sector” businessman, with investments in agriculture, tourism, financial areas, and in more than 30 media outlets nationwide. (Continued on Page 26) Scaglione and Daniel Vila of the Vila-Manzano Group VIDEOAGE January 2026 Telefe’s New Ownership
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