Why the World’s Netflix Business Moves to Cannes in October
2026-09-12 12:01
Walk along the Croisette in Cannes in mid-October and something feels different.
The red carpet is still there. The façade of the Palais des Festivals is instantly recognisable. The Mediterranean still glitters beyond the palm trees. But the people moving between the hotels, terraces and meeting rooms are not primarily film stars.
They are television executives, producers, streaming-platform strategists, distributors, creators, buyers, investors and technology companies.
From 12 to 15 October 2026, the Palais des Festivals will host MIPCOM Cannes, one of the world’s major international markets for television, streaming and entertainment content.
And this is why, metaphorically speaking, the world’s “Netflix business” moves to Cannes every October.
Not Netflix alone, of course. Something much larger happens here: the people who decide what millions of viewers may be watching next year gather within a few hundred metres of one another.
Cannes Has Been Selling Stories for Decades
Long before streaming changed our screens, MIPCOM was already turning television programmes into international business.
MIPCOM is not a television festival in the traditional sense.
It is a market.
A producer may arrive in Cannes with a drama series developed in Scandinavia. A distributor might acquire it for several territories. A broadcaster from another country may negotiate remake rights. A streaming service may study whether the story can travel internationally.
Sometimes the programme being discussed does not even exist yet.
Financing, co-production agreements and distribution can be negotiated before cameras start rolling.
That is one of the fascinating details visitors outside the media industry rarely realise: many of the series that later appear effortlessly on your television screen have travelled through an invisible international marketplace first.
Cannes is one of those marketplaces.
MIPCOM traditionally coincides with an important autumn buying period, when broadcasters and platforms are planning future programming and production strategies.
During a private tour of Cannes and the French Riviera, I often explain that the Palais des Festivals is much more than the home of the famous May film festival. Throughout the year, the building repeatedly changes identity.
In May it represents cinema and glamour.
In October it becomes a global trading floor for stories.
From Television Channels to YouTube Creators
MIPCOM 2026 reveals how radically the meaning of “television” has changed.
Twenty years ago, the international television business was dominated by broadcasters, production companies and distributors.
Today the borders are disappearing.
Streaming platforms compete with broadcasters. YouTube creators build audiences larger than some traditional television channels. Brands finance original entertainment. Independent creators develop intellectual property that can become series, documentaries or international formats.
MIPCOM 2026 makes this transformation unusually visible.
One of its central themes is the Creator Economy — bringing creators together with studios, platforms, brands and investors capable of turning digital audiences into global entertainment businesses.
YouTube is also expanding its presence at the 2026 edition, with sessions focused on distribution, monetisation, creators and new forms of digital entertainment.
According to MIPCOM’s programme, audiences worldwide are already watching more than one billion hours of YouTube on television screens every day.
That statistic alone tells you why Cannes matters.
The television screen has survived.
But television itself has changed.
Artificial Intelligence Arrives on the Croisette
In 2026, one of the biggest conversations in Cannes will not concern a new series, but the technology changing how series are made.
For the first time, MIPCOM is placing an AI Entertainment Forum at the centre of its programme.
The discussions go far beyond spectacular AI-generated images.
The industry is examining how artificial intelligence can influence script development, production, localisation, dubbing, rights management and entire production workflows.
Studios, technology companies, creators and intellectual-property owners are being brought together specifically to discuss this transformation.
There is an interesting historical symmetry here.
Cannes became internationally famous because of cinema — one of the great mass-media revolutions of the twentieth century.
Now, inside the same Palais des Festivals, the industry is debating another technological revolution whose consequences are still impossible to predict completely.
A curious Cannes paradox
The discussions may concern artificial intelligence, algorithms and global digital distribution.
Yet many of the most valuable negotiations still happen in an astonishingly traditional way: two people sitting opposite each other over coffee.
That is perhaps the secret of MIPCOM.
Technology changes.
Human business does not change quite as quickly.
The Rise of the Vertical Screen
Even the shape of storytelling is changing.
One of the most revealing additions to MIPCOM 2026 concerns microdrama and vertical content.
Stories created specifically for smartphones — often divided into extremely short episodes — have become a rapidly developing entertainment format.
MIPCOM is dedicating part of its programme to the people developing, financing and distributing this new generation of content.
Think about the historical journey for a moment.
Cinema began with enormous screens.
Television brought stories into the living room.
Streaming removed the broadcasting schedule.
And smartphones turned the screen vertically.
The entire evolution can almost be read through the meetings taking place inside one building in Cannes.
What You Actually See in Cannes During MIPCOM
The event changes not only the Palais des Festivals, but the atmosphere of the entire centre of Cannes.
You do not need professional accreditation to notice that something important is happening.
Walk between the Palais, the Croisette and the luxury hotels and you will see temporary company headquarters, branded terraces, private receptions and business meetings taking place from breakfast until late evening.
Hotel lobbies become informal offices.
Restaurants fill with conversations about series, rights and territories.
People who may have exchanged dozens of emails during the year finally sit together at a table overlooking the Mediterranean.
Many visitors are surprised when they learn how much international business happens within this tiny geographical area.
From the Palais des Festivals to the major Croisette hotels takes only a few minutes on foot.
That compactness is one reason Cannes works so well for events of this scale.
Why Cannes?
Because the city learned long ago how to turn geography, prestige and human proximity into an international business machine.
Cannes has something that a conventional exhibition centre can never manufacture.
History.
Reputation.
The Mediterranean.
Walk out of a meeting at the Palais and within seconds you are standing beside the sea.
Take another few steps and you reach the streets of the old Suquet district, reminders of the fishing village that existed long before international festivals transformed Cannes.
October reveals a Cannes that summer visitors rarely see.
MIPCOM 2026 runs from Monday 12 October to Thursday 15 October at the Palais des Festivals, 1 Boulevard de la Croisette.
If you enjoy observing the atmosphere of major international events, these days are particularly interesting.
But October has another advantage.
The intense summer crowds have largely disappeared. The light is softer, temperatures are usually more comfortable for walking, and Cannes becomes easier to explore slowly.
You can observe the international business world around the Palais and, only minutes later, climb into Le Suquet and encounter a completely different chapter of the city’s history.
Many guests are surprised when they discover how many different versions of Cannes exist within such a small territory.
And that is exactly why I like telling this story during excursions.
The city famous for showing films is also one of the places where the world quietly decides which stories will reach our screens next.
Perhaps that is the most interesting way to look at MIPCOM.
Not simply as a professional exhibition.
But as four October days when thousands of people arrive on the French Riviera carrying ideas, characters, formats and unfinished stories — hoping that somewhere between a meeting inside the Palais and a conversation on the Croisette, one of them will become the next global success.
Discover the French Riviera Beyond the Obvious
The most memorable places are often the ones whose stories are hidden in plain sight.
If you would like to discover even more unexpected stories of Nice and the French Riviera, visit places that are rarely included in standard itineraries, and connect them into a richer historical picture, we invite you to join one of our private tours.