Entertainment Without Boundaries: What MIPCOM Taught Us About the Next Screen Economy

Beyond the Living Room

The next big screen isn’t in your home, it’s in your car, or at least that was the clearest outcome or message we got during this year’s MIPCOM.

As automotive UX becomes a new frontier for content engagement, conversations with global IP owners and broadcasters, including key players like Disney, Mattel, Bloomberg, ZEE, and France 24, amongst many others, revealed a collective shift.

The world’s biggest content brands are no longer asking if they should enter the car but how.
‍

A New Distribution Medium Demands a New Business Model

Traditional distribution models don’t fit the car. In-car entertainment is context-driven, fragmented, and hyper-personalized, demanding flexible business approaches.

The conversations in Cannes shed light upon a major industry transition: the FAST gold rush is finally maturing. The focus has shifted from launching hundreds of channels to curating fewer, smarter, and better-performing ones, and this in parallel is exactly what in-car environments require.

Executives are realizing that success now depends on collaboration and intelligent curation, not channel volume. Yet recurring questions came up to our discussion table around ways to monetize content when there’s no subscription login or classic ad model? Or how FAST could look like inside the vehicle? Or even possibilities to measure engagement in a car.

These topics for us are like our daily bread and butter as we have built 3Ready Content Bundle, a solution enabling OEMs and content providers to collaborate through a unified, ready-to-launch ecosystem. One that can bring together linear, FAST, short-form, and branded content. all optimized for automotive environments, respecting bandwidth, UX, and rights constraints.

However, what we noticed during MIPCOM 2025 is that this is not such a familiar topic for many and although willingness is there, education is still very much needed.

1️⃣ Content Providers Are Ready, Are the Business Cases though?

Many providers are eager to explore automotive but need transparency on monetization and audience reach. The conversation has moved from “why” to “how” and “how soon.”

But this also reflects one of the key discussion trends at the event about licensing fatigue and the desire for a more effective way to manage multi-vendor deals, so there’s more time to focus on realising value from data and feedback.

2️⃣ Automotive Brands Want Curation, Not Chaos

OEMs on the other hand don’t want an “EPG of 30,000 FAST channels.” They want curated experiences, safe, engaging, and brand aligned.  

Throughout the event, this same idea of quality over quantity resonated with participants.

The era of “content everywhere” and endless FAST channels is coming to an end. In cars, the key is not to replicate the Smart TV experience by overloading screens with thousands of channels, but to deliver curated, contextual, and short-form IP-based content, from toy brands to news clips, at the right moment.

3️⃣ Collaboration Beats Transactions

At least for now, revenue-sharing, data insights, and co-marketing often matter more than traditional license fees. This was echoed widely at MIPCOM, where the conversation shifted from content ownership to experience co-creation, a necessary first step before content providers can fully monetize through licensing in the long term.

On this point, we see that in-car entertainment isn’t just another distribution window; it’s becoming a mutual growth platform where all parties benefit, content providers through reach and data, and OEMs through differentiation and loyalty.
‍

The Third Screen Economy: Content as a Differentiator

For OEMs, in-car entertainment is evolving from “nice-to-have” to brand-defining.
Drivers are starting to choose cars not just by horsepower, but by how seamlessly their digital lives connect inside them.

For content providers, cars unlock new audiences and data-driven monetization opportunities, reaching a highly valuable and well-defined user base, segmented by factors such as region, car model, and more.

This convergence of content, data, and mobility creates the next growth horizon for both industries. And as MIPCOM 2025 made clear, the lines between connected TV, mobile, and automotive are already blurring, the “third screen economy” is on the move, or on wheels shall we say.
‍

The Road Ahead: Will CES 2026 Be the Turning Point?

We believe so, and that’s why we are getting ready to unveil how this ecosystem comes to life and how 3SS is focused on transforming in cabin experiences into personalized and meaningful entertainment destinations.  

If you are curious why not meet us at CES 2026 (P3’s booth – West Hall, Level 1, Booth 6719). There you can see how entertainment, technology, and mobility converge in the driver’s seat.

👉 Contact us or book a meeting with us and explore how we can bring your brand into the next entertainment destination the car.