EU chief tells MIA Rome: back companies, not just shows
Europe must back its production companies, not only the individual films and series they make. That was the call from Giuseppe Abbamonte, the European Commission's director for media policy, as the MIA Market opened in Rome on October 19. The Hollywood Reporter reported his remarks from the opening session.
The opening panel looked at how European producers can collaborate under an EU-wide audiovisual policy, the shared rules and funding that cover cinema, television and streaming. It set the agenda for the week. MIA 2026 runs in Rome on October 19–23, according to MIA Market listings.
Abbamonte said the aim is financial strength. European companies should be more robust. That means balance sheets that can handle risk. It also means scale to compete with international rivals.
He drew a line between two kinds of help. One supports a single project from script to screen. The other builds the company behind the slate, its staff, its development work and its ability to try again. A project ends, a company continues.
Alessandro Usai, president of ANICA, the National Association of Cinema, Audiovisual and Digital Industries representing Italian cinemas and audiovisual industries, gave the producers' view. He told delegates that European production firms are small compared with the rest of the world. The point was scale, not talent.
Small size brings two dangers, he said. The first is acquisition, where a larger foreign player buys the company. The second is loss of IP rights. IP, or intellectual property, is the ownership that decides who controls an original story, who can remake or continue it and who gets paid.
MIA has added a practical element to that debate. Organisers list a European Investment Hub as a new initiative for the 2026 edition. It is presented as a meeting point around finance and competitiveness. The focus is competitiveness across Europe.
For people watching at home, none of this shows up in the credits. It decides who owns a favourite series and who can pay for the next one. What makes this stand out is the focus: not one show or one deal, but the whole company behind them, from writers' room to crew.
