For years, MIPCOM has been the market where broadcasters bought shows, streamers bought rights, and distributors shook hands over dinner in Cannes. But this year, something fundamental changed. The show floor was full of YouTubers, digital studios, and brands acting more like networks than sponsors. The centre of gravity in entertainment has shifted again.
We’ve gone from a broadcast-dominated market, to streamer control, and now to a new stage: creator-driven ecosystems, where content flows through social and digital platforms first and only later lands on TV or in cinemas.
That progression, broadcast → streamer → social, isn’t just a technology story. It’s a story about power.
The Big Picture
At MIPCOM 2025, YouTube didn’t just attend, it headlined. BBC Studios’ team openly discussed how the platform has become key to audience growth and fandom. The message was blunt: if you want attention, go where people already are.
Vertical storytelling was another recurring theme. Senal News called it “the new language of young and not-so-young generations.” Panels on short-form storytelling, AI-enhanced editing, and micro-dramas packed out early. Delegates talked less about the “next big show” and more about “the next 90-second universe.”
Legacy distributors are scrambling to adapt. Broadcast Now noted that traditional sales teams are partnering with creators, experimenting with AVOD, FAST, and brand-backed content. The lines between content, advertising, and social media are gone, it’s all storytelling now.
Variety framed the bigger trend as media consolidation meets creator fragmentation. Big players still own the infrastructure, but the energy has moved to the edges, where individual creators or small teams can reach millions overnight.
Creator Economy Goes Mainstream
MIPCOM’s decision to feature influencers like Inoxtag and Nil Ojeda alongside studio chiefs wasn’t just token inclusion, it was recognition that creators are the market now. These figures are shaping viewing habits more than any broadcast schedule ever did.
The new “Brand Storytelling Marketplace” summed up the shift. Brand budgets that once went to 30-second TV spots are now funding full-length YouTube series, podcast networks, or creator-fronted documentaries. That means advertisers are becoming commissioners, not just sponsors.
And because creators understand their audiences better than traditional media ever could, they’re shaping both the content and the commerce.
So, Is This the Death of Television?
Not quite, but it’s the end of television as a marketplace. The old system depended on scarcity: limited slots, fixed schedules, and controlled access. The new one depends on abundance, endless platforms, unlimited creators, and algorithmic distribution.
Broadcasters aren’t dead, but they’re now part of a hybrid ecosystem. The next decade will be less about “broadcasting” and more about flow: how stories move between formats, platforms, and devices. A hit might debut on TikTok, expand on YouTube, get repackaged for Netflix, and end up clipped again on Instagram.
The business model will follow that path too. Monetisation will be layered, a mix of ad revenue, merch, in-app payments, brand deals, and licensing. Rights management will become a workflow problem, not a contract issue.
The Takeaway for Creators and Producers
If you work in content, this is the time to stop thinking of yourself as a supplier to a broadcaster and start thinking like a platform in miniature.
Build your IP like a world, not a single show. Design for every screen. Let social media test and refine your ideas before the pitch. Because next year in Cannes, the biggest deals might not be signed at hotel bars, they’ll be made in comment sections and Discord channels.
Altmedia view:
We’ve reached the end of “TV as territory.” The new market isn’t divided by channel or country, but by culture, community, and connection. If MIPCOM 2025 proved anything, it’s that the future of media isn’t about distribution anymore, it’s about belonging.
So how does this change the landscape?
The answer is, quite radically.
We are already seeing many creators build their own studios. The Sidemen in the UK have their own facility, and MrBeast in the US operates one of the largest creator-run productions in the world.
Below is a case study of the rapidly expanding Dhar Mann empire, preceded by a list of some of the most notable creator-led studios of the moment.
At a time when traditional studios in Los Angeles are shedding jobs, these new creator-led operations are taking up the slack — and redefining what a production company looks like in 2025.
And finally the development notes i set myself every few months from the whispers and asks from around the platforms and trends on line.
