MIP’s Lucy Smith Shares Updated Preview of MIP LONDON

With MIP LONDON right around the corner, World Screen catches up with Lucy Smith, the director of MIP LONDON and MIPCOM CANNES, to get an updated preview of what attendees can expect from the 2026 edition of the event.

WS: What is MIP London’s mission this year? What are you hearing from the market, and what do you want to provide to attendees?
SMITH: We are completely complementary. This is London’s biggest annual content week, and the London TV Screenings will always be the main focus. Whereas the Screenings are organized as private, by-invitation studio events, MIP LONDON is a multi-genre three-day market from February 22 to 24 with a rich program of networking, conferences and showcases open and accessible to all. I am especially delighted this year that the London TV Screenings has included MIP LONDON on the official schedule.

As the week has grown, there are now so many more international studios, distributors and producers coming to town, not to mention the presence of London’s vast community of creators, brands and agencies. What MIP LONDON provides is a stellar venue and program for this growing international community to come together under one roof to network, screen, learn and do business while being complementary and close to all the other events. Over 1,500 industry professionals from 74 countries have already registered for MIP LONDON, including some 650 buyers.

MIP LONDON is held at the IET London conference center and the world-famous Savoy Hotel in the West End and kicks off on Sunday, February 22, with a dedicated program for buyers to get a head start on the busy week ahead. The week includes screenings from Talpa Studios and Global Agency, of environmentalist Chris Packham’s Greenwashed and a first look at Aegean Entertainment’s Constantinople. Plus, there will be country focuses from China and Korea, as well as a killer conference program, with hugely consequential business focuses including brand entertainment, the digital creator economy, micro-dramas, AI, formats, factual and kids.

In terms of what we’re hearing, the feedback we get all the time is that getting a deeper understanding and finding opportunities in today’s industry is key; that people need to meet each other, hear the latest of what’s going on, the market intelligence and analysis.

As anyone who came last year to London or MIPCOM in Cannes will have experienced, our program is 100 percent geared to this, and this month’s MIP LONDON program takes it to another step.

WS: Tell us about this year’s MIP LONDON program—what does it include?
SMITH: Our key focus is to help producers, distributors, platforms, buyers and creators from across the industry find each other and find the value.

It’s a signature MIP quality conference programme, with key international players and featuring transformational areas such as microdramas, podcasting, the creator economy, brand entertainment, AI and streaming alongside factual and kids and teens screenings, sessions and showcases.

We’ve built it around where the market is genuinely recalibrating—how IP is financed, discovered and scaled across television, streaming and the creator economy—and how those worlds are increasingly overlapping.

It’s broad in scope and detailed by area, with sessions and screenings staged in the IET and an increased emphasis on structured networking in the Savoy’s Lancaster Ballroom, with a succession of roundtable summits in areas like brand entertainment, micro-dramas, the creator economy and AI.

In other words, there’s a lot! But let me break it down with a few highlights:

We’ve adjusted the market days to be three full days early in the week (Sunday, Monday and Tuesday), which works better for scheduling in the week and means we can kick off with a Buyers’ Day on Sunday. This will have market intel, data and trends to help with their acquisition strategies for the week, including exclusive presentations from Glance, Ampere Analysis, Luminate, 3Vision and the London edition of MIPCOM favorite Fresh TV from The WIT.

The creator economy is again front and center on the main stage, with keynotes on how podcast and creator-led businesses are rapidly evolving their strategies and reach from YouTube and Goalhanger, as well as the newly launched Sidemen Productions. There is new research from Evan Shapiro and platform-led panels with Snap, Spotify and We Are Era digging into tactics for audience growth, and the impact of creator-led content in sport with Tubi, Pluto and DAZN, and we explore the next-gen distribution models emerging in a session with Merzigo, 3Vision, Viaplay, Channel 4 and Zoo 55.

Some of the highest profile and most active players in the podcasting space are speaking, including PodX, Podimo, Patreon, Little Dot Studios and Acast in panels spanning commissioning, creator partnerships and monetization. And we are hosting a market-first Attention Economy Leadership Lunch at The Savoy, opening with an exclusive presentation from Adam Cunningham, chief strategy officer at Allied Global Marketing.

We have international executives from COL Group, GammaTime and HOLYWATER in a micro-dramas panel moderated by Maria Rua Aguete from Omdia, who will also be presenting new exclusive data on this exploding sector. And we have an increased focus on AI with presentations from Deepdub and Versos AI and a market-first roundtables event in partnership with Luma AI.

Plus, we have doubled down on brand entertainment, with roundtables on Monday morning featuring brands, agencies and studios involved in the growing brand-funded content industry and opening with a keynote from brand expert Doug Scott, founder of UNXNOWN. A series of case studies on Sunday afternoon will feature speakers from Expedia and BBC Studios, Leonine and Brabus, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and a showcase of the award-winning short film The Final Copy of Ilon Specht, a collaboration between L’Oréal Paris, McCann Worldgroup and TRAVERSE32, and directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Ben Proudfoot.

The formats strand includes exclusive screenings from Talpa Studios and Global Agency and a spotlight on Korea with presentations from KOCCA, CJ ENM, SLL and MBC—and there are deeper dives into trends in panels worked up with FRAPA and the new co-chairs, Nick Smith and Andre Renaud, and format expert Nathalie Wogue.

And documentary and factual highlights include a showcase of environmental feature Greenwashed with campaigner Chris Packham, an expanded dedicated co-production summit, an exploration of new funding models with Ben Zand, Zandland and Zinc Media amongst others. And in what’s always a highlight, we are delighted to be presenting a new edition of the MIP documentary and factual content pitch, which will present 4 incredible projects from the U.S., Czech Republic, Ireland and the U.K. on subjects ranging from The Great Wall of China, the history of Greenland, John Lennon’s lost Irish island and first dances at weddings.

Finally, on Tuesday, we will hold our second Kids & Teens Summit bringing together senior international leaders from across production, distribution, platforms, gaming and geographies with the likes of BBC, YouTube and Roblox expert Twin Atlas speaking.

WS: How many buyers have signed up to attend?
SMITH: As we speak, more than 650 international buyers are registered, and the makeup mirrors both a wide international spread and the increasingly diverse range of funding in the industry.

Buyers from Prime Video, the BBC, Globo and HBO Max will be there, alongside representatives from telecoms such as Movistar Plus+, Orange and Vodafone; manufacturing with Huawei, LG Electronics, and Xiaomi TV+; and publishing with Bloomsbury and Penguin Random House.

And, just as a reminder, MIP LONDON is free to attend for qualified buyers, so they have access to all of it, and, again, our goal is to bring more into the city that week.

WS: How many companies will be participating as exhibitors?
There are 62 companies in all taking space, including studios, distributors and tech-led firms, including AI and seven country pavilions. Remember, the set-up is different from Cannes and the Palais, so think more meeting tables than stands.

WS: How have you updated MIP LONDON’s layout?
SMITH: We have integrated meeting spaces on every floor and have doubled the size of our seating for matchmaking and roundtable summits.

We have the same two adjacent venues, the IET London and The Savoy on the Thames, just off The Strand. This year, the market’s main center will be the IET. That’s where we’ll use the theaters to host the main program, the keynotes, screenings and showcases, with spaces for companies to host meetings, interspersed with networking lounges on every floor. It will be open daily from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The Savoy will be the destination for matchmaking and mixer events, including the happy hours. The beautiful and spacious Lancaster Ballroom will host all the roundtable summits, the creator economy, micro-dramas, brand entertainment, factual co-production and AI.

I really believe that anyone looking for new business opportunities can find some great new connections in an easy-to-use format. If you are already engaged in or simply curious about any of those sectors, go to the website and sign up!