YouTube Becomes the Connective Tissue of Global TV at Mipcom

By Daniel Okafor

YouTube ran through this year's Mipcom like a spine. Four days of panels and closed-door deals in Cannes produced one dominant thesis: media giants can no longer treat Google's platform as a rival, and most have stopped trying.

The annual content market on the Croisette gathered top industry players from Europe and beyond. The verdict, repeated in session after session, was blunt. Streaming did not replace television, and the companies that thrive will be the ones that use YouTube to feed every other platform they own.

What did the analysts actually say?

Evan Shapiro, the industry analyst often billed as a "media cartographer," drew the threads together in a well-attended Wednesday presentation. His stats on audience change were sobering. The world's population is getting younger, and legacy leaders must cater to consumers raised with technology in their pockets.

"We believed television would be replaced by streaming 1 for 1 — that didn't happen," Shapiro said. Streaming and social video, he argued, have augmented viewing time and deepened fan connection. He urged executives to think in generations and affinity groups, not the old age-and-gender demographics.

"Now consumers have an infinite number of channels. Every human with a phone is a channel," Shapiro said. Call it personalized television through a combination of your phone and your television set.

Who is winning with YouTube right now?

Matt Schnaars, president of platform distribution and partnerships for NBCUniversal, reinforced the point in a separate session.

"The embracing of social media platforms, starting with YouTube, to drive people back to live viewing, we see that in results. We see that in audiences," Schnaars said. "When we look at YouTube … [they] are an example of somebody who's in really every business that we're in, but not in a way that's competitive. It's accretive and incremental. And so we get excited."

NBCUniversal now windows some of its most prized content — college football — on YouTube. Peacock shares its weekly exclusive games there and, earlier this year, struck a distribution pact to be bundled into a YouTube TV premium tier. In the old days, that would have been unheard of.

"It can build habituation, and then ultimately, hopefully, a purchase of Peacock or going to YouTube TV even to go experience the full slate," Schnaars said.

The BBC is on the same road. Kate Phillips, chief content officer at BBC Studios, noted the broadcaster runs 34 channels on YouTube, rising to 50 by the end of 2028.

"YouTube for me is exciting because it's where a lot of the audience are now," Phillips said.

Germany's RTL Deutschland offered the hardest numbers. After uploading more than 200 episodes of its long-running action series "Cobra 11," RTL generated 30 million YouTube views, a 123% increase in first video views for the series on RTL+ and a 26% rise in linked subscriptions. ITV has also partnered with YouTube, while France's TF1, M6 and France Télévisions have struck distribution deals with Netflix and Amazon.

Justin Connolly, YouTube's global head of media and sports, kept it diplomatic: "We only win when our partners win."

Mipcom also delivered its classic Cannes moments. Christie Brinkley pitched her docu-series "Uptown Girl: The Christie Brinkley Story" for Fox Global Distribution, and the "Baywatch" revival made a splash with a photo call featuring Stephen Amell and Brooks Nader.

What does consolidation look like this year?

French giants are pushing into Hollywood while the Americans cut costs. Fresh off its merger with British powerhouse All3Media, Banijay Entertainment is eyeing the U.S. scripted market; CEO Marco Bassetti and chairman Jeff Zucker said the enlarged group has the financial firepower to pursue opportunities where it has yet to build a major scripted business.

Mediawan is further along. After acquiring Peter Chernin's North Road Company, the Paris-based group teamed with Reese Witherspoon to buy Hello Sunshine from Blackstone-backed Candle Media at a steep discount to its $900 million valuation in 2021. The Hollywood portfolio also includes Brad Pitt's Plan B.

Where is growth coming from?

Latin America, according to Omdia's María Rua Aguete. The region is forecast to grow 15.4% to $62 billion in revenues, exceeding the U.S. growth rate of 10.2%, she announced at Mipcom, calling Latin America "one of the most exciting growth opportunities in global media and entertainment." The driver is online video, led by Netflix. The challenge is connectivity. The politics are no help either: Javier Milei's Argentina has decimated public-sector subsidies, and Brazilian cinema is now at risk.

Why the political mood matters

Far-right parties are challenging public broadcasters across Europe, and executives know it. In France, Marine Le Pen's National Rally leads presidential polls ahead of the 2027 election and has called for privatization of public broadcasting. Germany's AfD wants to abolish the license fee that finances ARD and ZDF. Brazil heads into a fiercely contested runoff between Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and far-right candidate Flávio Bolsonaro.

Public broadcasters are responding on YouTube. France Télévisions' franceinfo channel generated 110 million views in September — eight times its audience a year earlier. ARD's Tagesschau and ZDF's ZDFheute distribute news on YouTube and are developing formats for younger viewers. The stakes, as the market framed it, go beyond ratings: at a time of polarization and disinformation, broadcasters want to remain trusted, independent news sources for the next generation.

What about creators and true crime?

Dhar Mann, with more than 170 million followers across social platforms, laid out his vision for Creator City in Los Angeles, opening in February when L.A. hosts the Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium. The four-acre campus will house nine sound stages and about 175 sets.

"It's going to be able to have about 15 concurrent productions happening at the same time," Mann explained. "All the sets are actual brands. So, when you see content being created, it's not just a random coffee shop — it could be a Starbucks."

And crime pays. Crime represented 27% of scripted TV orders globally in the first half of 2026, per Ampere Analysis estimates — the single most commissioned genre — and 61% of the No. 1 series at Mipcom. Offerings ranged from "Killing a Bear," a true-facts murder mystery about a Pyrenean brown bear and Spain's first criminal investigation into an animal's suspected slaughter, to John Hannah as a crimebuster in Benidorm. The platform is the story now; the genre is just the cargo.