Rome’s MIA Market closed its 12th edition with a number that should reset how buyers and producers plan for Italy: total Italian content investment for film, television and streaming fell 7.4% to €2 billion ($2.24 billion) in 2025. The decline, reported by producers’ association APA, is the first since 2018. Scripted was the hardest hit.
A market opens under a cloud
The event was the first major international confab since Netflix removed roughly 1,000 roles — about 6% of its workforce — including chief content officer Bela Bajaria and head of film Dan Lin. The announcement landed just hours before MIA’s opening reception.
Consolidation framed much of the hallway talk. Paramount Skydance has absorbed Warner Bros. Discovery into Skydance Corp., and European players such as Banijay and Canal+ continue to buy. Some executives pitched that contraction as a buying opportunity. CAA media finance co-head Roeg Sutherland said financiers read mergers as “a moment where people will be opportunistic.” Studiocanal CEO Anna Marsh argued that M&A is essential for survival.
What the Italian data shows
The APA tied the spending drop to uncertainty over Italy’s domestic tax-credit changes and the continued shift from linear to streaming. International production rebates were not affected. The more important signal is that audience demand has not collapsed.
- Linear still works: Lux Vide’s “Sandokan” and BiBiFilm’s “La Preside” each averaged more than 4.6 million viewers per episode.
- Streaming can scale: Netflix’s “The Monster of Florence” opened with 9.7 million global views in its first week in October 2025.
- The squeeze is financial: producers report lower distribution advances, harder-to-close gaps and rising costs.
Ownership, financing and the next format
Banijay Entertainment CEO Marco Bassetti said European producers still have “no ownership” over most IP, even as the continent debates quotas and compensation. But capital is finding new routes. MIA launched a European Investment Hub, and a €100 million fund backed by Media Capital Technologies and RP1 Holding debuted to finance Italian production and distribution. Sutherland said there is “more money in the marketplace than there ever has been” in his 25 years.
Vertical content was another growth theme, projected to generate $150 billion outside China this year. Former Netflix executive Kelly Luegenbiehl called it “the Wild West” with no clear path to profitability — which is also why early movers see room to experiment. Italian horror earned attention too, with Paolo Strippoli’s “The Spiral” representing Italy in the Oscar race.
The ScreenStat read
For planners and marketers, the MIA data separates two risks that are easy to blur. Audience interest in Italian content is not the problem; production finance is. Treat the 2025 spend drop as a leading indicator for a thinner slate in 2026-27, and watch whether the new funds and tax-credit clarity restore greenlighting. Producers, meanwhile, need one unmistakable selling point and investor-ready books before they walk into a market.
Source: Variety
