Fox Entertainment Global is bringing a diverse programming slate featuring digital creators, vertical microdramas, and a Christie Brinkley documentary to the annual Mipcom market in Cannes. Led by Prentiss Fraser, the international distributor is highlighting content built for modern digital platforms alongside traditional television formats.
Prentiss Fraser and the Fox Global Mipcom Slate
As the annual Cannes programming bazaar gets underway, Fox Entertainment Global is presenting an international catalogue that looks markedly different from past years at the Croisette. Prentiss Fraser, president of Fox Entertainment Global, pointed to how much the event’s scheduling has evolved over the past decade and a half.
“The schedule for this Mipcom just looks inherently different than it would have 15 years ago,” Fraser tells Variety. “We’ve got a creator cocktail event happening on our stand. It feels really exciting.”
Prentiss Fraser, Variety
The company’s presence at the October 12–15 market highlights ongoing initiatives back home, including work with digital content creators, vertical media apps, and third-party distribution deals for outside producers. Fraser noted that the distributor is hosting a creator cocktail event at its stand while bringing in partnered talent alongside major entertainment companies like NBC, Lionsgate, Fremantle.
Fox Creator Studios Formats Digital Projects for International Buyers
A core pillar of the Fox slate involves creator-made content produced through Fox Creator Studios, headed by Billy Parks. The studio works with digital natives originating on platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, formatting their digital projects into episodes designed for international buyers.
Among the offerings making its way to the market is Read the Room
, a sketch comedy series starring Canadian creator Josh Richards. Fraser praised the slate assembled by Billy Parks for spanning multiple formats, including traditional lifestyle shows, cooking series, stand-up comedy, and sketch comedy through his new studio.
Fox Entertainment has set out on a quest to bring scale to the production and monetization of creator-made content — working with digital natives in their natural realms of YouTube, TikTok, Instagram et al. through the Fox Creator Studios arm, headed by Billy Parks.
Prentiss Fraser, Variety
Richards has reportedly drawn other prominent figures from the creator economy into the project, including a cameo appearance by Curry Barker.
Fox Entertainment Produces Microdramas for Vertical Media Marketplaces
Under Fox Entertainment president Rob Wade, the company has also established a foothold in the vertical media marketplace. A deal struck last October with Holywater—the parent company of the MyDrama and MyMuse apps—committed the partners to producing 200 microdramas over two years. An additional January deal partnered the company with YouTube star Dhar Mann for 40 scripted microdramas.
To monetize these vertical productions on traditional screens, Fox Global is formatting the short-form episodes for conventional television buyers.
“We’re looking at them as a TV movie,” Fraser says. “You’ve got 70 to 90 minutes’ worth of programming, and then obviously it has the chapters embedded in.”
Prentiss Fraser, Variety
Fraser explained that the structure provides roughly 70 to 90 minutes of programming while retaining the original episodic chapters embedded within the vertical media apps. Fox Global and the Fox Nation streamer acquired key rights to the docuseries produced by Lionsgate Studios.
Rebuilding the International Sales Team
The current push follows the 2022 relaunch of Fox’s international sales operation, which took place in the wake of Disney’s 2019 acquisition of 21st Century Fox.
“We have a brand-new, highly skilled and energetic sales team who are rip-raring to go,” Fraser says of the Fox Global sales corps. “They are excited about building a studio for the future, and they are excited about getting out there and working to build this division. That kind of opportunity to work at a distribution company within an established organization just doesn’t exist anywhere.”
Prentiss Fraser, Variety
Fraser emphasized that the newly assembled sales corps is eager to build an established distribution division for the future.