Lucy Smith: Last News

Good afternoon Insiders. We’re back after a busy week in Cannes and Max Goldbart is here helming your weekly dose of news and analysis. Read on and sign up here.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor “It’s been a really buzzy and busy market,” said Lucy Smith, director of Mipcom TV market and conference, and MipJunior, the kids TV event that preceded it, in Cannes Wednesday. More than 11,000 participants from more than 100 countries had come to the event, which runs Oct. 16-19.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Mipcom Cannes, the international TV conference, opened on a solemn note with market director Lucy Smith paying tribute to the “innocent victims in Israel and Gaza.” Smith addressed the reverberations of the Israel-Hamas conflict at the market and within the industry. Out of the 70 Israeli industry executives who had registered for Mipcom, only a few were able to attend due to the devastation brought by Hamas’ attack on Oct.

EXCLUSIVE: The major U.S. studios heading to Mipcom are proving global streaming and third-party licensing “can co-exist and work together,” says the event’s director.

Dozens of delegates from the Israeli TV sector will not travel to Mipcom Cannes next week following the Hamas-led attack on the country’s civilians over the weekend.

China has been named the country of honor at next month’s MIPCOM Cannes TV entertainment market (Oct 16-19). More than 300 delegates and nearly 40 companies from the Middle Kingdom are expected at this year’s market, the country’s biggest presence at MIPCOM since 2019.

Bob Bakish is to be honored with the Personality of the Year gong at this year’s Mipcom Cannes.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Gerhard Zeiler, president of international at Warner Bros. Discovery, will give the opening keynote at the 39th edition of TV market Mipcom, which runs Oct. 16-19 in Cannes.

A community has been left devastated once again after two girls from same school tragically died in water-related incidents in less than a year.

Media vet and Emmy-nominated producer Evan Shapiro will keynote this year’s Mip TV in April.

The first fully in person Mipcom for three years is winding down as thousands of tired, fuzzy-headed but happy delegates make their way to Nice airport or jump on trains to Paris. The market was set to a backdrop of an industry in a deep state of flux, as new buyers establish themselves and more seasoned ones react and adapt. Below are just some of the key takeaways from three action-packed days on the Croisette. One thing is for sure, while making TV is not the easiest business, the 10,896 attendees RX reported to have attended were simply delighted to be back together in person (last year’s restriction-laden Mipcom was hybrid and attendance figures comparatively low) and the atmosphere was the buzziest for many years, especially when the coffee machines were locked away and the alcohol started flowing. Read on.

Liza Foreman CANNES —  Taking place in the Grand Auditorium in Cannes, the crowd that arrived to cheerlead winners at Mipcom’s Cannes TV Diversify Awards, was compact but buoyant as winners took to the stage. Some of the TV industry’s only awards to celebrate diversity and inclusion, a record 190 submissions were received this year from 27 countries. Hosted by the international anchor and diversity advocate, Femi Oke, the Awards saw 10 winners announced on Wednesday night with many present to receive awards. Canada proved the biggest prize winners, accounting for three awards.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor International TV market Mipcom came back with gusto this year, but it’s not back to the level reached at its pre-pandemic peak. A total of 10,896 delegates attended this year, which is down from the peak year of 2019, when more than 13,500 delegates came to the Cannes event. MipJunior, which ran over the weekend, had 1,311 delegates this year. In 2019, there were 1,500. There were 3,100 buyers this year, compared with more than 4,700 in 2019. The largest numbers of buyers this year came from the U.S. (442), followed by the U.K. (301), France (251), Germany (242) and Spain (140). In 2019, it was U.S. (461), U.K. (450), France (423), Germany (359) and Russia (207).

Welcome to the International Insider, Max Goldbart here. We’ve been all over the proverbial shop this week with Mel and Jesse in sunny Rome and Zac racing round London at the speed of light to cover LFF. Read on for the biggest news in international TV and film.

EXCLUSIVE: This year’s Mipcom will place co-productions “front and centre” as the market moves with the times, according to Lucy Smith, who runs the annual RX France event.

Eight people already lost their lives to drowning in Manchester's city-region waters in as many months. As of August 31 this year, eight people have died in the city's waters. Over the past five years, that death toll amounts to a staggering 66 - with a five-year record high of fifteen deaths recorded in 2021.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Fremantle Group CEO Jennifer Mullin and Fremantle Group COO and CEO Continental Europe Andrea Scrosati are set to deliver a keynote address at Mipcom. The session comes on the heels of Fremantle Group’s recent high-profile acquisitions, including Element Pictures (“Conversations With Friends”), Lux Vide (“Medici”), Dancing Ledge Productions (“The Salisbury Poisonings”) and Eureka (“Holey Moley”). alongside talent partnerships with globally-renowned creatives including Angelina Jolie, Neil Cross, Paolo Sorrentino, Luca Guadagnino, Michael Winterbottom, Jimmy Fallon, Sir Kenneth Branagh, Simon Cowell, Penelope Cruz, Pablo and Juan De Dios Larrain and Cara Delevingne.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentBanijay CEO Marco Bassetti will deliver a keynote address at the upcoming Mipcom TV market in Cannes.As CEO of one of the world’s top independent content production and distribution outfits, Bassetti oversees a large-scale operation spanning 22 territories, over 120 production entities and a catalogue that includes “Survivor,” “Peaky Blinders,” “Big Brother” and “MasterChef,” as well as upcoming titles “Rogue Heroes,” “Blow Up,” “Starstruck” and “Marie Antoinette.”Bassetti will be on stage on the Oct. 17-20 market’s second day.

Banijay CEO Marco Bassetti is to deliver a keynote at Mipcom.

A teenage girl who died after getting into difficulty in water in Tameside has been named as Lucy Smith.

James Bay has married his childhood sweetheart Lucy Smith.The Give Me A Reason singer announced this week that he and his long-time partner have tied the knot, sharing the news on Instagram.James, 31 and Lucy have been together for around 15 years, since the couple were teenagers.And last October, they welcomed their first child together, daughter Ada Violet.Announcing the happy news on Instagram, James shared two professional photographs from their special day and captioned it simply: ‘Mr and Mrs Bay, August 2022,’ along with a red heart emoji.One black-and-white photo sees the beaming couple walking down the aisle as they’re showered with flower petals, Lucy appearing to be shrieking with laughter.Another shows James leading Lucy by the hand into a garden as the sun sets.The Hold Back The River hitmaker previously shared the joy of becoming a father for the first time, writing on Instagram that he and Lucy were ‘so in love’ with their new arrival.Sharing photos of himself cradling the little one and holding her hand, the 31-year-old wrote on Instagram: ‘Family ♥️ After all these years together as two, we’re so excited to be three!‘Last week Lu gave birth to our first baby, Ada Violet Bay. We are so in love and filled with gratitude and joy for this little miracle in our lives.’While James – who has been in a relationship with Lucy since 2007 – is usually private about his relationships, he opened up in an interview last year about how Lucy inspires his music.He explained: ‘These next singles and album are a bit of a tribute to the 13-year journey my girlfriend and I have been on.‘She’s the coolest person in the world.