MIPTV Confirms Move to London in 2025

Scott Roxborough
·3 min read

This year will be the last hurrah for MIPTV in Cannes.

The international television market has been a fixed date on the industry calendar since it first launched back in 1963. But organizers RX France say this year’s MIPTV will be the last one on the Croisette.

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Facing declining attendance and a rapidly shifting global TV industry, MIPTV is pulling up stakes in the sunny South of France and will shift to rainy old England next year, sidling up alongside the popular London Screenings, which in just four years has grown to become the most important small screen event in Europe in the first half of the year.

MIP London will take place Feb. 24-27th, 2025 in London’s The Savoy Hotel and the neighboring IET London: Savoy Place, running concurrently to next year’s Screenings, which will take place Feb. 24 – Feb. 28, 2025. MIP London will kick off with a pre-opening event on Sunday Feb. 23.

A spokesperson for RX France said MIP London is meant to be “complementary” to London Screenings and will target smaller international companies “who don’t have London offices, a London team or London expertise” who want access to the business being done during the Screenings and the network of international executives on the ground.

“The creation of MIP London is a direct result of clear and evidenced market factors,” said Lucy Smith, Entertainment Division Director, RX France. “There is a continued appetite for a global content market in the first half of the year. Mip London will not only alleviate a busy events calendar but will provide an additional entry point for international companies to gather in London at the same time.”

Unlike the traditional MIP market, MIP London is being conceived as more of a networking and development hub and will not be an exhibition event.

It remains to be seen how the move will be received by participants at the London Screenings, some of whom have bristled at the idea of MIPTV moving in on what is a well-run and highly successful industry event.

London Screenings itself was launched in 2020 by five leading London-based distributors: All3Media International, Banijay Rights, eOne, Fremantle and ITV Studios, to piggy-back on the BBC Studios Showcase, and is less a TV market than a screening showcase similar to the LA Screenings, with international acquisition execs watching episodes of new shows. Over the past four years, many international distributors, including Studiocanal, Beta Film and Viaplay, have added their own screenings to the event. The fourth edition, held last month, had 29 distributors screening and saw a 50 percent jump in buyer attendance, with some 750 executives making the trip to London.

MIPTV has been struggling for years with declining attendance and increased competition from other industry events, including Content London and French TV festival Series Mania. While RX France’s Fall market Mipcom remains popular, few major studios or production companies see the value in making a second trip to Cannes every year.

The demise of MIPTV Cannes could also mean the end of the TV festival Canneseries, an event launched in 2017 to complement the MIPTV market and compete with Series Mania.

Best of The Hollywood Reporter