Back in Cannes. Back for MIPCOM. Back for business. But above all back to find out what’s next, and most likely after the market we will be all asking that question even more than before.

Not even giants like Netflix and the newly created Skydance will know the answer any time soon as the streaming market seems to have reached a stagnation point, the audiences are shifting from platform to platform and the biggest issue - maximizing monetization – still remains a mystery for the industry because we see microdramas with tens of millions of views still make considerably less money than a regular TV show with a few hundred thousand linear viewers.

This was clearly expressed recently by Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos during the Bloomberg‘s 2026 Screentime event: “Overall, we’re not growing as fast as I want us to, and we’re working on making that move faster.” In the meantime, the company’s stock value has dropped by 42% year-over-year to around $70, while last October it traded at around $125. The same counts for Paramount: down 25% yoy to $9.50.

In the meantime, YouTube seems to have the best position but faces competition from other players for the creators generating the biggest traffic with their original shows, meaning YouTube must also find new ways to maximize their monetization because rivals like Netflix are reportedly going as far as offering fixed upfront fees while also covering the cost of production and adding a profit margin on top.

Various reports tracking global usage or individual markets indicate that the streaming market has reached a point where user growth is flat and now the main battle is keeping the subscription base engaged and paying, even when prices are increasing and premium packages are turning into Premium + Ads. One good example of this: in March 2027 Netflix will expand its ad tier to nine more European markets on the back of declining subscription numbers in most of them due to the rising cost of the service. At the same time, Skydance will almost certainly merge HBO Max and Paramount+ but that transformation will not translate into immediate success and big cash.

These are some of the things we know now, but that is not enough to get the answer to: “What’s next?”