Formats Everything about content
Fall 2026
Japan unveils a Treasure Box of formats
Don’t lose hold of your IP urges Bassetti
‘Business as usual’ at ITV as merger looms
PLU help
WHO
RE YOU WHEN YOU THINK NO ONE IS W
TCHING?
Channel21 International | Fall 2026
Banijay’s Marco Bassetti is urging European industry leaders to join him in pushing back against global streamers, warning USstyle work-for-hire deals are eroding the region’s formats industry. By Taco Rijssemus
M
arco Bassetti is CEO of media and entertainment powerhouse Banijay Entertainment, which recently merged with UK-based All3Media to create one of the world’s biggest independent content businesses, worth US$8bn. The behemoth has more than 170 production labels in 25 countries and more than 265,000 hours of content in its library, including major formats Big Brother, Survivor, Gogglebox, Race Across the World, The Traitors and MasterChef. But does size kill creativity? The conventional wisdom says large companies stop taking risks. A big catalogue means you always have something to sell, so why invest in the uncertain business of developing something genuinely new? Bassetti disagrees. Completely. “It is totally the other way around. You can really create new stuff if you are a big company. Otherwise, it could be very challenging,” he says. His argument is simple: money. Banijay invests between €15m (US$17m) and €20m per year in new creative development. Banijay also has a global network of 30 to 40 people supporting new programme launches. And it has an internal system where formats developed in one country are shared across its labels, giving ideas second chances they might never get within a smaller company. High-stakes culinary format 100 Knives, for example, was co-developed with Bunim/Murray Productions, part of Banijay Americas, and Smart Dog Media, before being made for Sweden’s TV4 by Mastiff Sweden. It has since been commissioned by TV2 in Denmark, with another Banijay Nordic label, Metronome, producing. “The next Big Brother could come
Let’s Play Ball emerged from Banijay’s YouTube strategy
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP: Marco Bassetti
Hold on to your IP… or else from a small production company in the Czech Republic. But you have to create all the opportunity for that format to be found,” he says. This cross-border network, which gives a format developed in one market access to others it would never reach alone, is a genuine structural advantage that consolidation creates, he argues. Bassetti’s view is consistent with what the industry has learned: creativity lives closest to the local market, the local broadcaster and the local audience. Banijay has no central creative team at its headquarters; every show comes from a local label. “Central creativity does not exist,” Bassetti says. “I strongly believe that creativity is always decentralised. We have 170 Marco Bassetti companies in the group. A show is going to come from one of those companies, not from anybody sitting here in the centre.” The Traitors illustrates this directly. The hit
format was developed by two Dutch production companies, IDTV and PosVideo, not by any grouplevel creative function. When the format connected to Stephen Lambert and the BBC version followed, it was the scale and distribution infrastructure of the wider group that amplified what local creativity had produced. The creative origin was local. The amplification was global. Bassetti’s decentralised model is an attempt to preserve the conditions that produce original formats, such as small teams, local knowledge and direct accountability, while providing the infrastructure that individual labels cannot build alone: distribution, marketing and IP protection. Asked where he sees the most creative energy in the format industry today, Bassetti is clear about the UK being a strong contender. But his most analytically interesting observation is about small markets. “It is difficult for countries like the Netherlands to capture significant growth. So if they have to make a choice, their choice is to create new shows and have more money from formats that can travel internationally. They understand creativity is one of the few paths where they can grow,” he says. He adds a geopolitical dimension that goes beyond the standard market-size argument. The Netherlands and the UK share something that France, Germany and Italy do not:
149
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP: Marco Bassetti
Channel21 International | Fall 2026
Banijay formats (from top): Race Across the World, Celebrity Big Brother and The Traitors India
a centuries-long trading culture that has instilled an instinct to look outward. Religion plays a role too, in Bassetti’s reading. He argues that predominantly Catholic cultures such as France, Italy and Spain carry an implicit social conservatism about what can be shown on screen, which applies less in Protestant Northern Europe. This shapes what gets developed and commissioned. Bassetti’s thoughts about small markets confirm what 3Rivers research consistently shows. The Netherlands, Denmark and Flanders do not produce disproportionately successful formats because their people are more creative. They produce them because their market size means international exploitation is a necessity rather than a bonus. Meanwhile, the relationship between producers and streaming platforms has fundamentally changed the power dynamic in the format business. Platforms want global rights and they want them upfront. And for small and medium-sized producers, the choice is simple. “If you are a small company, the streamers say, ‘Give me everything; I’ll leave you with nothing.’ With us, we had the opportunity to say no. To be a small company today is very difficult,” Bassetti says. A local Banijay company, for example, can push back on streamer demands because it is backed by a major group. Smaller producers, unfortunately, cannot. And it is not just the smallest companies that are in danger, Bassetti believes. “The first ones that are at risk of disappearing are the mediumsized companies. They still have significant costs, but they don’t have enough leverage,” says Bassetti. For decades, the European model ran in a virtuous circle: creatives developed formats, producers retained rights, hit shows travelled, and the resulting revenue funded the next generation of IP and the growth of businesses like Banijay, Fremantle, ITV Studios, BBC Studios and Talpa Studios. But when the role of a producer is purely work for hire, budgets continue to be cut, format fees diminish and rights are lost. This not only disincentivises the industry at large, given producers no longer participate in the success of a title, but has a serious knock-on impact in terms of the global content market and economy. While the increase in forced streamer quotas – which will likely be reached – is a good opportunity for larger indies, IP retention remains a critical priority for smaller producers reliant on royalties to aid reinvestment in creativity.
Bassetti is clear about the limits of the platform as a business model for premium content. “YouTube’s programmatic advertising is definitely not enough to cover the cost of premium content today. That’s why you need a hybrid model with different platforms and different revenue streams. And if possible, a window in a linear or paid platform as well,” he argues. The ambition is to launch shows directly without depending on a single commissioner and to retain the IP that broadcaster or platform commissioning would otherwise capture. This hybrid model, combining YouTube, brand partnerships and platform windows, attempts to diversify revenue streams without surrendering IP. But as Bassetti himself acknowledges, nobody yet knows exactly what that model looks like in practice. Bassetti ends our conversation with something close to a warning. The industry, he says, is failing to defend the structural conditions that make hits like The Traitors possible. “Too often, the focus is on short-term gains rather than building long-term value,” he states. “For me, the real opportunity lies in owning and “It’s crucial for streamers to commit to recognising and rewarding the act of creation developing IP that can evolve, through travel and itself,” says Bassetti, “whether through format fees, exploitation, into a brand, creating lasting value royalties or other mechanisms that reflect the value and generating royalties that can be reinvested of the underlying idea rather than simply the cost in new creativity. Historically, this has been the difference between Europe and the US, and why the of producing it.” The European model is ultimately now under European model has proven so successful.” He connects this to the political dimension pressure from multiple directions, with streamers expecting global rights upfront, no format fee that most industry leaders avoid. The UK’s Communications Act of 2003, the legislation that gave independent The real opportunity lies in owning and producers the right to retain developing IP that can evolve, through IP through the Terms of Trade and created the conditions for travel and exploitation, into a brand, creating lasting value and generating royalties that can a generation of global format hits, was the result of deliberate be reinvested. political pressure. A comparable collective Marco Bassetti response to the streaming era is Banijay Entertainment needed, but nobody in a position to act is treating it as the crisis it payouts and the reduction in production costs may become, argues Bassetti. “If I look at my fellow through AI. Meanwhile, the industry is being leaders in this industry, I don’t see them pushing to encouraged to put its content on YouTube, a retain IP,” he says. platform that provides zero financing upfront. Banijay is working extensively on YouTube, This article is part of a series of interviews in which monetising its catalogue, experimenting Taco Rijssemus of 3Rivers talks with leaders from with hybrid content and developing creator the TV industry, drawing on an ongoing research partnerships, activities that have led to formats programme conducted in collaboration with Utrecht such as Let’s Play Ball entering its catalogue. But University.
“
151
NEXT BIG THINGS: Treasure Box Japan
Channel21 International | Fall 2026
Japan’s leading broadcasters have once again come together to show off their wildest and most promising formats at Mipcom. TV Asahi’s Trade Room
Here be treasure By Nico Franks
A
hit unscripted format is big business and Japan’s reputation as a hotbed for these has been backed up considerably of late thanks to the success of Yoshimoto Kogyo’s Hitoshi Matsumoto Presents Documental, which has been adapted by Amazonowned Prime Video as Last One Laughing in more than 25 territories around the world. Those interested in finding out what’s next from the Land of the Rising Sun would do well to stop by Mipcom’s annual Japanese format showcase Treasure Box Japan, which will see 10 Japanese broadcasters present their latest titles, many making their world premiere. Sponsored by the Broadcast Program Export Association of Japan (BEAJ) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and held at 16.00 on Monday October 12, the session is set to feature plenty of formats with bold concepts, strong visual hooks and characteristic quirkiness. Makito Sugiyama, executive director at BEAJ, says the long tradition of experimentation in Japan’s unscripted sector comes down to Japanese variety TV historically producing an enormous number of individual segments and ideas. This means creators are constantly testing mechanisms, rules and visual concepts. “Sometimes a small segment becomes the seed of an
internationally scalable format,” Sugiyama says. A potential example is Nippon TV’s Ultra Mission, a segment from Ultraman DASH that puts the legendary skills of world-class specialists, from famous footballers and Olympic archers to golfers and crane operators, to absurd tests in the real world. Other broadcasters have taken inspiration from classic playground games, with Fuji Television bringing a rock paper scissors-themed threeway game called RPS Tag and TBS Television showing off Fort Frenzy
Nippon TV’s Ultra Mission
formats experts joining the conversation. This year will see the return of Virginia Mouseler, CEO of The Wit; Tim Crescenti, CEO of Small World IFT; and Vasha Wallace, who recently left Fremantle after over 20 years. “For BEAJ, Treasure Box Japan is both a showcase and a gateway. Our mission is not simply to export finished Japanese television programmes. We want Japanese IP to travel in multiple ways — through format sales, remakes, codevelopment, coproduction and longer-term creative partnerships,”
“
There is little value in Japan producing a slightly different version of something that already exists elsewhere. Makito Sugiyama, BEAJ (working title), a supersized version of capture the flag. Yomiuri TV has Cash Stash, which combines elements of a treasure hunt with hidden-identity social deduction games like Mafia or Werewolf. Meanwhile, TV Asahi will introduce Trade Room, a high-stakes psychological competition in which contestants’ alliances are constantly put under pressure. Crucially, Treasure Box Japan has evolved since its launch in 2012 to move beyond simply format sales to become a space for analysis and discussion, with international
says Sugiyama. So what qualities does Sugiyama look for when selecting the formats he believes have the greatest international potential? “Originality is obviously important, but originality alone is not enough. The first question I ask is very simple: can I understand the core idea immediately? Many of the best formats have a premise that can be explained in one or two sentences. If it takes 10 minutes to explain what makes the idea interesting, it becomes much harder to sell internationally. “Secondly, I look for a strong visual
hook. Buyers at Mipcom see an enormous number of programmes in just a few days. A format therefore needs a moment, an image, a rule or a situation that makes someone stop and think: ‘I haven’t seen that before.’ “Thirdly, the format has to be adaptable. Something may work brilliantly in Japan because of a particular celebrity, cultural reference or broadcasting convention, but the underlying format engine has to work with different talent, budgets and audiences. “And finally, I look for what I would call ‘Japanese DNA.’ There is little value in Japan producing a slightly different version of something that already exists elsewhere. The strongest Japanese formats often contain an unexpected point of view — a simple idea pushed surprisingly far, unusual rules, physicality, craftsmanship, humour or a distinctive way of observing human behaviour. “If you look at earlier international successes such as Takeshi’s Castle, Iron Chef, Hole in the Wall, Money Tigers or Sasuke [Ninja Warrior], they are very different programmes, but they share that quality: the central idea is immediately understandable, visually distinctive and recognisably Japanese. “Ideally, a Treasure Box Japan title should make an international buyer think two things: ‘Only Japan would have thought of this’ and ‘I could make this in my country.’”
153
CONTENT STRATEGIES: ITV
Channel21 International | Fall 2026
ITV has adapted crazy-golf format Holey Moley
Sky’s no limit for ITV The forthcoming mega merger between Sky and ITV is making its way through regulatory approval, but in the meantime the latter’s long-serving controller Kevin Lygo says it’s business as usual for commissioning. By Clive Whittingham
I
n July, it was announced that Sky intended to buy commercial broadcaster ITV’s Media & Entertainment (M&E) business for a total of up to £1.6bn (US$2.16bn), in a deal that will see ITV Studios emerge as a standalone content business listed in London. Pay outfit Sky, part of US media giant Comcast, will acquire free-to-air ITV M&E in a deal expected to complete in the second half of 2027, subject to regulatory approval. Not great news, on the face of it, for a UK production sector already wearied by the many protracted consolidations of Discovery/Warner Bros/Paramount. In the long-term, mergers tend to mean job losses and cuts framed as ‘efficiencies.’ For producers, that usually means fewer commissions and fewer people to pitch to. In the short term, the uncertainty while the merger works its way through can mean spending frozen and commissioning put on hiatus. This is not what the UK industry needs 70 Up right now. Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival in August, ITV’s long-serving M&E MD, Kevin Lygo, acknowledged the “uncertainty” and “worry” created by the £1.6bn (US$2.16bn) deal but sought to reassure the industry that it will largely be business as usual in the short, medium and perhaps even long term. “Everyone understands the logic of it and why it’s a good idea and good deal, but there is uncertainty
and everyone gets worried about uncertainty,” said Lygo. “For people in this room, we will continue as we are now to run the business completely separate from Sky until transaction day happens, which at best estimates is a year away. For our 2027 commissioning, and most of 2028, it will be as if we’re on our own and not in any way second-
guessing what might be good if we merge with Sky or not. For the immediate future, we just carry on.” Lygo was at pains to point out that legally Sky and ITV must continue to operate independently and as they are doing now until the
deal closes. But even after that point, he doesn’t foresee sweeping changes to the ITV output. He also said the merger is more about scale and safety in numbers in a challenging ad market than changing the content mission. “Sky wouldn’t be buying us for all that money to destroy us and change what we are,” Lygo said. “There will be more cooperation, but the deal is basically to maintain the funding. If you’re a business dependent on advertiser revenue, it’s risky out there. It is going down because there are so many new places for advertisers to go – streamers said they wouldn’t have ad tiers, but they do now. It’s slow but it’s growing, and it’s another option for advertisers, as well as YouTube, TikTok and all the rest of it. The landscape is difficult to navigate for traditional broadcasters.
“
Sky wouldn’t be buying us for all that money to destroy us and change what we are are. There will be more cooperation, but the deal is basically to maintain the funding. Kevin Lygo ITV
155
CONTENT STRATEGIES: ITV
Channel21 International | Fall 2026
Jo Clinton-Davis and Joe Mace joined Kevin Lygo in speaking at August’s Edinburgh TV Festival
“We have been thinking about what’s best for ITV for a few years. The broadcasting and TV world has so dramatically changed just in the last few years that scale is really important; you need to be bigger and funded in a significant and continuing manner. The deal with Sky will underpin what we need to continue doing, what we do that really matters and what really matters to everybody with a stake in ITV. For the viewer, what matters to ITV will continue. Properly funded UK storytelling, lots of drama, entertainment, live stuff; very importantly, news and regional news… all that will continue.” The deal will result in Sky, in effect, buying ITV’s licence to broadcast, meaning it will adhere to all the regulatory obligations that come with it: the amount of national and local news in peak, the 25% spend on independent production and commissions outside of London. These will continue post-merger until at least 2034, when that licence comes up for renewal. ITV Studios will operate as a separate business and be listed on the London Stock Exchange but will enter into a long-term content supply agreement with ITV M&E and Sky, covering programmes and formats including Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Love Island, I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! and its daytime slate. The agreement includes a minimum spend commitment of £2.1bn, running to at least 2032, and Lygo said he “suspects longer.” “Viewers won’t notice much difference. For independent producers, it will continue; we won’t be doing any less than we have for the last few
years,” Lygo added. “We’re very dependent on indie producers coming to us with great ideas. We will continue to spend at our current rate. I did have a little chortle at the mention of YouTube investing £3m in the UK creative economy; we do £1.2bn every year. It’s important for us to be able to continue to invest that kind of money on the range and quality of programming that we have for years.” Last year ITV announced more than 220 job losses and changes to the scheduling and production of its daytime shows, with savings set to fund additional investment in genres such as drama, entertainment and reality. Shows like Lorraine, This Morning and Loose Women are now produced by one team sharing resources and operations in Central London. “It was necessary and it’s worked - all power to the teams who have had a reduced budget,” Lygo said. “The great success of ITV over the past few years has been the growth of [streamer] ITVX; we don’t shout about it enough but it is incredibly important to us because one day the linear channels probably will be switched off and we’ll watch in a different way. ITVX will be the way you access ITV. “What we’ve found is what drives viewers to ITVX more than anything else is drama. We have increased the drama we commission and what we spend on it. They’re UK-based, UK-shot, properly funded, and that’s a good thing. There will be more of that as we move forward.” So what is ITV looking for in unscripted? ITV’s entertainment roster includes some of TV’s biggest formats – Britain’s Got Talent, Love Island, Big Brother and I’m a Celebrity. A local adaptation of Norwegian format The Box, with the omnipresent Gary Lineker as host, launched in September. Also speaking in Edinburgh, Joe Mace, commissioning editor for entertainment and reality, described The Box as a classic ITV show in that it asks a broad question like, “How do you deal with the unexpected?” ITV’s recent unscripted slate has produced mixed results. A big swing at social experiment The Neighbourhood did not land – the show was bumped in the schedule and will not be returning for a second season. “We talk about taking risks and like to put it into action,” Mace said. “It was a paper format; people loved the idea of creating a neighbourhood where you’re judging people in a competition setting. It had a lot of really good ITV ingredients. “One of the lessons we learned was people come to ITV for fast-turnaround, live, reality first and foremost. They’ve been served the best of those shows in I’m a Celebrity, Love Island and Big Brother, and we should probably stick to that. It’s good news for producers, that’s our ambition now, so if you’ve got a reality show that fits those categories…” A UK adaptation of crazy-golf format Holey Moley, hosted by channel mainstays Ant & Dec, feels like safer ground. “It has
the potential to be a super broad, family favourite,” Mace said of the Fremantle format. “We’re not the biggest team but we’re super collaborative and we’ve got development money to spend,” he continued. “We’ve done everything from funding run-throughs to full primetime pilots in the last six months. We will work hard with you to find ideas we think will land on ITV. The doors are open and we’re looking forward to working with anybody on what could be the next The Box.” Elsewhere in unscripted, head of factual Jo Clinton-Davis also has open opportunities for lowcost formats in the early evening schedule, where How to Clean Up for Cash has been a surprise breakout hit for the network. In documentary, ITV recently aired 70 Up, the final instalment of groundbreaking doc film series 7 Up, which has tracked the lives of a group of Brits from the age of seven. “70 Up comes along once in a blue moon, but you should think about the values in it – a really distinct proposition, a fundamental question, it’s about something at its heart,” Clinton-Davis said. “We can all connect with it, we can cry and laugh, and that’s the mark of great television. I’m very privileged to look after that show and it’s a benchmark of what we’re looking for. That hunt for a factual or fact-ent franchise is really important.”
Gary Lineker is fronting The Box
157
158
PRESENT IMPERFECT FUTURE TENSE: Malak Aldean
Social media is destroying the creative industries
A
t a TV industry showcase last year, I Producer and was speaking to an agent about a onejournalist Malak person show that had sold out at the Aldean on how the Edinburgh Fringe. “I really want to sign the pursuit of virality has performer,” they said. I hadn’t managed to see the show, so I asked the agent what they liked led us into a cultural black hole about it so much. “Oh, I haven’t actually seen and why she fears most of us it, but everyone online is raving about it. I think won’t be able to crawl our way they’re going to blow up and I want to get them back out. before they do!” It’s an anecdote that sums up today’s cultural landscape. The promise of something when I’ve been told, “They’re not really a good or someone “blowing up” trumps all. It trumps writer, but they’re such a big name!” I’ve read scripts that are so dire and yet are actually watching the show, even watching it and not liking it. It trumps having an opinion at somehow in development with broadcasters. I’ve fought tooth and nail for the most all. Virality = cultural relevance. Success. It would be ignorant to assert that social beautifully written pieces of work but been met media should have no seat at the table that with, “They just aren’t meaningful enough.” moves the cultural dial. Of course it should; it’s Meaningful for who? And what insidious fast become a breeding ground for some of the systemic patterns are we perpetuating? We’re living at a time of such social most exciting talent on our screens. But should it have all the seats? I don’t think so. Because fragmentation that we need storytelling more what does it mean to go viral? By and large it than ever. We need it to feel truthful and means enough people have engaged with the well-observed and full of depth; nuanced content for the algorithm to wake up and go, and thoughtful; at times calming and at other times totally mind-blowing and perspective“This is clearly worth pushing.” My problem isn’t with the algorithm itself, shattering – things my algorithm rarely feels by the way, it’s with a world that values like. Too much time spent on social media the algorithm above all. It’s with cultural almost always leaves me depleted and disorientated. If I do feel gatekeepers who scramble ‘seen’ on there, it’s fleeting. to tell a story, not because Anything precious If I read or watch something they think that story is is sucked in by that does interest me, it’s worth telling, but because social media and spat usually a regurgitation of a “everyone online” says it out into a thousand regurgitation of a trend that is. But based on what? already feels exhausted. Good PR? Social media- tiny fragments. Those Anything precious forward marketing? Hooky fragments are shattered music and a bold typeface? until they cease to mean is sucked in by social media and spat out into a Getting AI to do all of the much at all. thousand tiny fragments. above? Those fragments are Has the person on your feed who’s reshared their friend’s post shattered until they cease to mean much at about their housemate’s cousin’s boyfriend’s all. Everything becomes a meme or a trend. play even seen the play? Has their friend’s Everyone is scrambling for views and followers housemate’s cousin seen it? What about the above all else. I overheard a conversation on the London Underground where a woman housemate? Does the play even exist? If we can’t distinguish between genuine shared how she bought her 200,000 followers. emotional resonance and artificial engagement Her friend responded saying she’d done the we shouldn’t be using virality to decide whose same thing. Are these the people we should stories get told, because let’s also not forget be chomping at the bit to give a platform and a our social media feeds are echo chambers. So voice to? I don’t think so. Sometimes online engagement is “everyone” online for one person looks very different to “everyone” for another. And we meaningful and virality does indicate a level already know TV has a problem with diversity, of resonance and importance. Sometimes particularly when it comes to those in positions we should take it into account. But not all of power, with the latest Creative Diversity the time. And definitely not at the expense of Network Diamond report finding the proportion voices, perspectives and experiences that the of non-white people in senior roles has fallen algorithm wants to silence. since 2022 to 12% and remains at 2019 levels. As a producer, I sit in rooms where, “How This article first appeared on Malak’s Substack, many followers do they have?” has taken over Culture & Comedy with Malak Aldean, and is from, “What is the story?” I’ve pushed back re-published with the permission of the author.
“
Channel21 International | Fall 2026
2nd Floor, 148 Curtain Road, London EC2A 3AT Tel: +44 (0) 20 7729 7460 Fax: + 44 (0) 20 7729 7461 Email: post@c21media.net EDITORIAL
ADVERTISING
Editorial director Ed Waller ed@c21media.net
Founding partner and commercial director Odiri Iwuji odiri@c21media.net
Editor of C21Media.net Jonathan Webdale jonathan@c21media.net Chief sub-editor Gary Smitherman gary@c21media.net Head of design John Winfield john@c21media.net News editor Clive Whittingham clive@c21media.net Channel21 International editor Nico Franks nico@c21media.net DQ editor Michael Pickard michael@c21media.net C21Kids editor Karolina Kaminska karolina@c21media.net
Sales director Peter Treacher peter@c21media.net Business development director Patricia Arescy patricia@c21media.net Senior sales executives Richard Segal richard@c21media.net Yasmin Connolly yasmin@c21media.net C21TV Head of television Jason Olive jason@c21media.net Video editor/motion designer Adrian Ruiz Martin adrian@c21media.net FINANCE
North American editor Jordan Pinto jordan@c21media.net
Finance director Susan Dean susan@c21media.net
Senior reporter Neil Batey neil@c21media.net
Finance assistant Marianne Peng marianne@c21media.net
Special projects editor Louise Bateman louise.bateman@c21media.net
PRODUCTION
EVENTS
Head of digital Laura Stevens laura@c21media.net
Event programming director Adam Webb adam@c21media.net
Production manager Courtney Brewster courtney@c21media.net
Event programming manager Stephanie Boffa stephanie@c21media.net
Team assistants Gema Angulo gema@c21media.net
Event programming assistant Amber Jackson amber@c21media.net
Emma Murphy emma@c21media.net
Head of events Gemma Duke gemma@c21media.net Events manager Lily Miller lily@c21media.net
Production assistant Rory Mullan Wilkinson rory@c21media.net Office manager Katie Reilly katie@c21media.net
Events coordinator Adele Faldeta adele@c21media.net
Operations director Lucy Scott lucy@c21media.net
Executive director Mark Rowland mark@c21media.net
Group CFO (consultant) Ravi Ruparel ravi@c21media.net
Editor-in-chief & managing director David Jenkinson david@c21media.net
You can read C21 every day on www.C21media.net – the world’s leading International Entertainment Business website. Also on C21Media.net you can find a number of channel brands and services including C21Kids, C21FormatsLab, C21Factual and Content Strategies and an extensive industry MediaBase which is constantly updated and features more than 25,000 contacts worldwide. Subscribers to C21Media.net have access to the most respected information source in entertainment. This issue of Channel21 International was printed by Riccobono in Cannes. Channel21 International is registered as a newspaper. No part of this publication may be copied, stored or copied on to any electronic system or broadcast via any other medium without prior consent of the publisher. All rights reserved. All trademarks acknowledged. © Channel21 International 2026 ISSN number: 1460-0668
The world’s largest rights transaction platform for all content
Move into the new era of content icensing There is no greater power on Earth than a story and how it moves people. We have a mission to close the distance between a story and the audiences waiting for it, clearing the friction that slows down the licensing process.
Your own branded website Automate your sales by creating your own, always-on, rights transaction platform using Vuulr technology. Your brand, your content, your buyers, and no maintenance.
THE GLOBAL ACCELERATOR FOR KIDS AND FAMILY CONTENT.
10 -11 October Palais des Festivals, Cannes. More information www.mipjunior.com