MIPCOM Boss Lucy Smith gave Cannes attendees a preview of what to expect the recently unveiled MIP London set for February 2025.

MIP Londonconnected as a multigenre international the content and networks market following MIPTV’s demise, will take place at the Strand’s Savoy Hotel and IET venues from 23-27 February next year, hoping to attract over 250 companies from 36 countries.

There will be a focus on unscripted, FAST (free ad-supported streaming television) and children’s content, Smith explained. After talks at MIP Junior earlier this week, Smith said they already have buy-in from a number of key players, including from BBC Children and Education and Skyto organize a co-production summit for children in the UK and Europe in London. “There will be more on this soon,” the RX France boss added.

Attendance at the Cannes conference this year has dropped by 500, the organizer also revealed on Wednesday. She explained that after listening to feedback, the goal is now to take MIP London into the “era of cooperation”. Smith said: “We’re talking about co-exclusivity, co-branding, collaboration and collective. We can also help connect people more easily. We’ll bring a central database to the week that hasn’t existed before, and over a week of screenings will we also to provide an online and on-site viewing library, which we know many people value highly.”

Smith added that London in February has already become the biggest content week in the first quarter — with London views from February 23-28, for example – and they see it as a chance to capitalize on business already buzzing in the UK capital that month.

“I think what we’ve seen from MIPTV over several years was a reduction in the number of companies that felt it was an important enough moment in the calendar for them to participate and invest in the same way,” Smith said. “And what we heard was that the choice was going to be, is it MIPTV or do we go to the BBC showcase and London TV screenings?”

“The last MIPTV there were 3,500 delegates here. We all know that’s not quite enough for a mid-market of this caliber,” she says. “And we felt it was time to make the radical change, and we believe in change and development. So therefore we felt we should bring a new and additional event to create a central hub around such a busy moment in the calendar.”

She continued: “I spoke personally to the founders of London TV Screenings over a year ago now. And the first message is this: it was clearly not a rival event. We consulted them before we announced our plans to launch this event. They understand the business reasons for doing this… I think a lot of companies arrived around the events in London that week already happened. There were already 29 distributors this year.”

Smith was quizzed on what kind of value MIP London can deliver for people on a budget in a notoriously expensive city. She explained that it is a completely different event from Cannes, and not a big exhibition. They will have plug and play solutions for anyone who wants to attend, and early bird registration at £450 ($583) is already open with access to all their venues across central London.

“I just want to be very clear about the fact that it’s not comparable,” Smith stressed. “We didn’t move MIPTV to London. This is a new conference, networking and screening event with an international marketplace. We bring more business, more companies, more opportunities. We really believe the value is there.”

“We want to open it up and create a marketplace beyond just buyers and sellers,” RX France added. “It’s about more people doing more business.”