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MIPCOM Cannes 2026 officially starts today until October 15th at the Palais des Festivals. And while attending it is a bit out of my budget (unless I add a lot of paid subscribers), it is something I’m watching very closely.
I'm especially interested in following a couple of discussions that smack in my sweet spot. Including “Redefining Broadcast: The RTL + YouTube Partnership,” which features Stephan Schmitter (CEO of RTL Deutschland) and Pedro Pina (VP of YouTube EMEA), and moderated by media cartographer Evan Shapiro, which will dissect the economics of hyperdistribution and co-monetization.
And CSI franchise creator Anthony E. Zuiker will be there introducing Cinemalistics and "its AI-enabled approach to transforming breaking true-crime stories into cinematic and documentary experiences."
I’m sure I will be writing a bit about these sessions this week, both in the newsletter and on TooMuchTV.com. In the meantime, here are a couple of MIPCOM pieces I’ve already written:
For Forbes, here is an overview of what to expect this week.
And Globo is using MIPCOM 2026 to strengthen its international distribution business with the announcement of a number of licensing and production deals.
There Are Layoffs… And Then There Are Layoffs
Reporters tend to treat all rounds of layoffs as being equal. Layoffs are a reflection of a weakened company and an admission that the company is struggling.
But it’s important to understand that while a big round of layoffs does reflect financial pressures, it’s who gets let go that provides clarity on the direction of the company and the strategy moving forward.
When I reported on October 1st that Netflix was getting set to announce a round of layoffs of as much as 5 percent (the same news Puck’s Matt Belloni “exclusively” reported last week), I wrote that while the people I spoke with didn’t have knowledge of the specifics, they were being told the layoffs were focusing on parts of the streamer’s business that were either under-performing or seen internally as being revenue dead-ends.
And now we are beginning to get a sense of what those layoffs will like.
Greg Lombardo, who spearheaded Netflix’s move into retail, including “Netflix House” mall locations in Philadelphia and Dallas, is leaving the streamer after seven years. The departure follows the earlier exit of Pam Levine, VP of marketing and publicity for the U.S. and Canada, after 18 months.
I’m told that while company executives think the move into retail and experiential popups holds promise, the streamer hasn’t cracked the code. And those efforts are nowhere near being worth it when measuring the costs of the experiences or the engagement. I’m told that business is being reworked and sources I’ve spoken to expect some job cuts to come from that division.
Levine’s exit is a bit harder to parse. People inside Netflix I spoke with talked highly of her efforts. But I think there is a growing realization inside the company that the direction of marketing and PR efforts are more suited to an era when the streamer relied on the algorithm to drive content discovery. And while that is still Netflix’s primary focus, there seems to be a growing recognition among executives that some changes are necessary.
“I don’t expect there to be deep cuts, but there is going to be some adjustments in strategy. And that means it’s going to be felt,” one executive told me this morning. “I also think you’re going to see some changes at Tudum. It’s not going away, but there are concerns that it isn’t as effective as we need it to be.”
On a side note, I’ll point out that I have making these exact points for awhile.
There are several other areas that will see a bit of a staff reset. Netflix’s movie business isn’t going away, but I’ve been told that group will be impacted. “I don’t think we’ve been as effective with originals as we would like. There have already been some shifts behind the scenes,” one source told me. “We’ve made a couple of deals that previously would have been cost-plus (which is when Netflix buys out all the rights by paying a premium). That both saves money and makes it easier to order some projects that aren’t the most reliably successful.”
I was also told some of the film layoffs are due to the continuing shift of mid-level projects internationally. As well as the need to get rid of some staff that was originally added in anticipation of a successful bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.
One of the big questions is whether or not there will be more changes in the company’s games division.
In August, the company closed its Hollywood-based gaming studio Night School and also revealed it was in the process of closing its Helsinki-based gaming studio Moonloot. That comes on top of other cutbacks as the streamer continues to struggle to gain attraction in a very competitive entertainment segment. “It’s not lost on anyone that for all of the money spent on expensive technology, one of our biggest successes has been with Daily Star, a game which is essentially a fancy five question trivia competition,” said one executive familiar with the thinking of the division.
As for when the layoffs will be announced, the best answer I have as I write this is what I said in my original report on October 1st:
As for when that happens, sources I spoke with expected it to happen ahead of Netflix’s Q3 earnings call on Tuesday, October 20th. “It’s the chance to announce the reset in a way that will be bad, but hopefully will allow the company to take the hit and set out the future for investor,” my source continued.
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Odds & Sods
If you would like to better understand the global television universe, a new massive global television production map from Broadcast is an essential resource. I have printed off a version and have it over my desk. You can download it for free at this link.
The Disney Channel and Disney+ have given the greenlight to an animated series based on bestselling book franchise from author Eoin Colfer. The action-adventure fantasy series follows 13-year-old genius Artemis Fowl as he uncovers an underground world of armed and dangerous — and surprisingly high-tech — fairies as he launches a plan to capture one and steal its magic to heal his dying mom and save his family.
A new survey from YouGov found that the median household in America owns two televisions. 14 percent of respondents said that there was no television in their home, 22 percent said there was one and 25 percent said there were two. On the upper end, four percent of respondents indicated there were six or more televisions in their home.
The Halloween special Carla’s Hall-Oween Spooktacular premieres Saturday, October 17th on the Chewed Up FAST channel.
Confessions Of A Bad Texter
My friends and colleagues will tell you that I am not great when it comes to responding to texts. I am not part of group chats not because I am disliked. It’s because friends see little point to adding me to something that I am going to inevitably forget to answer.
So I found this piece by Julie Beck in The Atlantic painfully on point:
Whenever I receive a text, this is what happens. I pick up my phone. So far, so good. I experience whatever emotion the message elicits—the pleasant warmth of being reached out to, possibly the annoyance of being interrupted. Then, if conditions are right, if I’m not too busy or in the middle of talking with someone else, if my mind is at peace, if my anxiety is at no more than a low hum, if Mercury is not in retrograde, I will respond right then and there. If conditions are not right, it will be as though the text never existed at all.
My problems with texts are an issue. Because not only are texts the preferred way for friends and family to communicate, it’s such a common method that being bad at it is seen by most people as indifference and/or rejection.
Like Julie, I have tried a number of different ways to try and correct my behavior. And honestly, I think we’re both failing the task:
I know my haphazard approach to texting risks fanning just such insecurities. And I’ve tried to be better. I put responding to texts on my to-do list. I’ve tried not opening any texts until I’m ready to write back, letting the notifications pile up and remind me every time I open my phone. I made a calendar reminder for every day at 4 p.m. that says “RESPOND TO TEXTS!!!,” following the advice of several experts who suggested setting aside time to deal with all my texts at once, rather than taking them as they come. This helps, although it also makes me feel like I’m treating my loved ones like a productivity problem instead of a source of joy. And there’s nothing to stop me from ignoring the reminder the same way I would a text.
I’m sorry. But when it comes to texts, I am a work in progress.
ICYMI: Just Posted On TooMuchTV And Forbes
Here is a rundown of other stories of mine that were recently posted on TooMuchTV.com and Forbes:
HBO's three-part true-crime series The Pet Cemetery Murders: A Louisiana Nightmare digs into a grisly murder, a swamp full of ghosts, and the ugly American habit of letting certain people die twice: once in the flesh, then again in the public imagination.
There are few pleasures quite as comforting as settling into a good British murder mystery, preferably with a cup of tea, a suspiciously well-appointed country house and a collection of people who seem to have spent their entire lives cultivating motives for murder. The Marble Hill Murders finale aired on Sunday and you should definitely catch up on PBS.com and the PBS app.
What’s Coming Tonight And Tomorrow
MONDAY, OCTOBER 12TH:
Below Deck Season Premiere (Bravo)
Clown Panic (Hulu)
Contraband: Seized At The Border Season Premiere (Discovery)
Free Leonard Peltier (Netflix)
Instadocs: AI Gone Wild (Netflix)
This Is Not A Murder Mystery Series Premiere (Acorn TV)
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13TH:
Chitose Is In The Ramune Bottle (Crunchyroll)
Dark Machine The Animation Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
Frontline: American Voices 2026 (PBS)
Ludwig Season Two Premiere (BritBox)
Michael Che: Shot In Minnesota (Netflix)
The Trap Series Premiere (Netflix)
Tyson (Netflix)