Unspooling over May 25-28 in the Meliá Calvià Beach Hotel at Magaluf, Mallorca, the 10th anniversary of edition Conecta afforded extraordinary vistas of Magaluf Bay, its turquoise Mediterranean waters worthy of laptop wallpaper. 

Bowing an all-in-one boutique model, Conecta Magaluf Mallorca was attended by 400 delegates, including executives from HBO Max, Prime Video, YouTube, France TV, RAI, RTVE, SkyShowtime, TVI, Atresmedia, Telemundo Studios, Mediaset Italia, Movistar Plus, 3Cat and Balearic Islands pubcaster IB3.

“Our new, more compact and all-in-one format is focused on facilitating connections and maximising the value of time spent together, which we believe is far more efficient for everyone,” Conecta Magaluf-Mallorca director Géraldine Gonard said at a closing session.

Beyond classic sea vistas, Conecta Magaluf-Mallorca’s conference strand also allowed delegates a rapid, often incisive catch-up on the state of the international TV business, as well as how cutting edge tourist concerns have become a new driver for part of the film-TV industry. 

Also often stage center was Mallorca’s emerging film industry. That needs to be taken seriously. In 2025, according to Cannes Marché du Film’s Focus report, Spain produced 426 feature films, up 30% on 2024 and nearly twice the volume of France (228). One driver, the report says, is not only national but regional support schemes.  

Takeaways from Conecta Magaluf-Mallorca:   

The Long Tail Wags the Dog: Global Streamer Viewing

Conecta Fiction began with a bang: Jonathan Broughton at Plum Research drilling down on key global streamer metrics. SVOD began as DTC, for instance, accounting for 98% of business in 2014. It is now becoming increasingly BTC with DTC set to rep 76% of turnover in 2029 and BTC – led by advertising – up to 24%. Most important of all, however, a stunning 90% of views and 75% of titles viewed takes place on the long tail: Think “Star Trek,” “Dark,” “Archer” and “Primal,· not first run-hits such as “Squid Game.” That has given rise to a new superclass, which Broughton dubs Neo-Evergreens.

Mallorca Reigns

Conecta’s May 27 Pitch sessions prized multiple local titles, such as “Mallorca Things to Do,” an RTVE Play Award winner, produced by Palma de Mallorca-based Bastera Films, behind 2025 Toronto Fipresci prize winner “Forastera.” Other winners linked Mallorcan companies with prime players on Catalonia’s film-TV scene, which is surely one way to go for the island’s industry. One case in point: “Naked,” a Triodos Bank Award laureate, is co-produced by Empatic Films (“Favàritz,” “Rock Bottom”) and Barcelona’s Corte y Confección de Películas, behind Canneseries winner “Perfect Life” and Cannes Festival laureate “Sirāt.”

Buzz Titles

One buzz Conecta project, “To Catch an Old Lady,” captures the emotional indigence of advanced age, turning on an elderly woman who attempts to commit a crime serious enough to get locked up with the only friend left to her. Others impressed by their ingenious use to narrate effect of a Mallorcan setting.  In Germany’s “Idyllic,” from Brains Narrative Studio, a Mallorca-set cozy crime series which won Tallinn’s TV Beats Forum Award, a retired British-German couple investigate murders before discovering they live inside a VR retirement simulation. Its creators were inspired by their vision of Mallorca as “an idyllic place to end your days, but almost too good to be true,” they told Variety.

Latin America: Microdrama Leader

No line was longer for any session at Conecta Magaluf Mallorca than the May 27 Focus on Microdrama: The Game Is On – When to Make Your Move. The game is most certainly on, Omdía’s Maria Rua Aguete said at Conecta Magaluf Mallorca, noting that Brazil reached 24 million monthly active microdrama users in 2025 and Mexico 20 million. “Brazil and Mexico are already demonstrating the scale that this format can achieve outside China,” Rua Aguete said. “What we are seeing is not simply the growth of a new content category but a fundamental shift in how audiences consume entertainment on mobile devices,” she added, noting 75% of video consumption now takes place on smartphones. Via Variety, Brazilian media giant Globo announced a new microdrama just before last week’s Rio2C, the soccer-themed “Quando o Coração Entra em Campo.” Globo’s catalog of 25 microdrama titles takes in five original productions, nine spinoffs of telenovela characters, and 11 internationally licensed titles. That, however, may just be the beginning.

The Rise and Rise of Spain

All major categories have Neo-Evergreens: Serials (“Breaking Bad”), anime (“One Piece”), kids (“Victorious”) and procedurals (“Seinfeld”). So do countries. In 2018, for example, “Money Heist” (“La Casa de Papel”) broke out as Netflix’s first true global non-English blockbuster. So 2018 was one of Netflix’s best years ever for Spain? Not at all. Hours watched of Spanish content on Netflix top 40 markets has increased 73% from 2018 to now, according to Plum Research. Two factors look to be at work. While it still has new hits, Netflix Spain now has a long tail.  And diversity of consumption has never been higher. Other territories outside export markets (the U.S. Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and France) for Spanish-language content repped 35% of total viewing hours in 2018. That number had climbed to 45% by 2024.  

Spain’s Comedy Surge

Announced May 27, over half Conecta’s Pitch prizes went to comedies, including José Luis Rugeles’ “Rookies,” from Colombia’s Rhayuela Films and “Breakdowns,” from Argentina’s Lab Producciones. RTPA’s Lucía Herrera, head of programming at RTPA, the state TV of Spain’s Asturias, drilled down on at Conecta on rural sitcom “Coworkinaos,” its first co-production with neighbor Galicia’s RTVG. RTVE executive producer Mar Díaz said Spain’s nationwide pubcaster was looking for comedies. Comedy is on the rise. Reasons? “Spain has seen some surprising hits in the comedy genre, like Netflix’s ‘Animal’ and ‘Macho Alphas,’ which reinvent comedy to a large format sale potential,” The Wit’s Caroline Servy said earlier this year. Also, they offer a lighter way into contemporary concerns.

A TV Talent to Track: Victoria Martín 

It was no coincidence that Conecta Magaluf Mallorca climaxed May 27 with a special screening of “Many People Need to Die,” Few comedies have tackled Millennial angst with such withering realism, nailing how its members’ searing frustration at living lives imposed by older generations prompt acts of outrageous LOL egotism, such as when the hoity-toity Elena, married to a 60-year-old millionaire, passes off benzo-popping Bárbara, her lifelong friend, as a junkie she’s offered to accompany for a day. A Canneseries world premiere, the Movistar Plus original, co-produced again by Corte y Confección de Películas, certainly marks out YouTube-podcast comedian Martín as a talent to track. 

The Pain in Spain

That said, Spain and especially public broadcaster RTVE, is hurting. Spain stands out in non-fiction as the second biggest importing territory in the world for formats, after the U.S., suggested The Wit’s Caroline Servy at a keynote on the formats business. Over 2025-26, Spain has launched 19 new adaptations, led by RTVE with 12, and six a piece by Atresmedia and Mediaset, she announced. Format adaptation can be highly cost-efficient, of course. It is sad, however, when a public broadcaster has to count so much the cost. 

Tourism: an Ever Bigger AV Driver

Brazil’s Tourist Board Embratur has launched eight film-TV-gaming-YouTube initiatives to support sustainable development for its tourist industry. Conecta Magaluf-Mallorca hosted the world premiere of “Mallorca Confidential,” a noirish gypsy drug queenpin thriller produced by Mallorca’s Cinética. Equally, held in association with the Calviá Town Council, Conecta this year was financed via the Balearic island’s  Sustainable Tourism Tax (ITS). “Investing ITS funding in Conecta is perfect exemplifies our tourist strategy, supporting quality and deseasonalized tourism which generates year-round returns at nil territory consumption cost,” Jaume Bauzá, the Balearic Islands’ Councillor for Tourism, Culture and Sports said at Conecta’s closing ceremony. 

Artificial Intelligence  

Conecta’s AI focus was organized not as a panel but debate with speakers aligned in practitioner and concerned camps. Some of them called for larger protocols. The European Union already has one via its AI Act, in force from August 2024. On May 26, Spain’s government approved a bill for its enforcement in Spanish law. Meanwhile, on May 29, “The Book of Life” director Jorge Gutiérrez pulled out of Amazon’s genAI animation initiative, just days after announcing his involvement. Expect the backlash, posing risks of fandom ostracism for any significant animator seemingly endorsing AI, to play out at late June’s Annecy Festival.  

What’s Shocked in the Last 10 Years, or May Shock in the Future

Conecta Magaluf-Mallorca’s conference strand closed with a panel in which analysts and journalists confessed what had amazed them during the last 10 years, as well as suggesting some of the next big calls. 

“We talk about globalization but I’ve met with more local companies that are more important than ever. The shocking thing now is that actually there is less U.S. dominance of shows of original content, but more local and regional content going around in the world,” said Omdia’s Rua Aguete. 

Brazil, Flanders and Indonesia are current hot spots, said another speaker who voiced their concern for the future of state-backed TV operators which accounted in 2024 for 56% of all TV fiction titles produced in Europe, compared to 14% for global streamers. 

As long as regulation ensures that big events – sports, Eurovision – are reserved for public broadcasters, they will bring people together in front of TV screens, said Laure Steinville at Glance.

What’s most shocking, often, is what hasn’t happened. Spanish companies still labor under fiscal pressures, noted Irene Jiménez at Audiovisual 451. “Many things have happened [in Spain], but in some ways it’s as if nothing has changed at the same time.”

“I have access to something like 45 billion data points on audiences and what they’re watching across the world. It actually doesn’t do that much in terms of designing a show,” said Plum Broughton. “What is still very true is that they can help people understand what’s done well. But still a machine can’t yet produce something which is authentic and credible and creative.”

What has happened with the emergence of global platforms, at least for Latin America, is “a cross-pollination of storytelling, between more plot-driven Anglo storytelling and in the Latino case, more character-driven storytelling,” Manuel Martí, at Cohn-Duprat, told Variety during Conecta Magaluz-Mallorca. We are still living that reality now.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that it carried out “self-defense strikes” against Iran over the weekend.

“U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) conducted self-defense strikes on Iranian radar and command and control sites for drones in Goruk, Iran and Qeshm Island this weekend,” a press release noted.

“The measured and deliberate strikes occurred on Saturday and Sunday in response to aggressive Iranian actions that included the shootdown of a U.S. MQ-1 drone that was operating over international waters. U.S. fighter aircraft swiftly responded by eliminating Iranian air defenses, a ground control station, and two one-way attack drones that posed clear threats to ships transiting regional waters,” CENTCOM continued.

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“No American service members were harmed. CENTCOM will continue to protect U.S. assets and interests in response to unwarranted Iranian aggression during the ongoing ceasefire,” the release added.

The Associated Press reported that Kuwait noted its air defenses opened fire on Monday to intercept drone and missile attacks. Around the same time, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said it responded to an American attack without saying where, likely referring to the attack on Kuwait. The Guard, via a statement reported by the state-run IRNA news agency, indicated that America targeted a telecommunications tower, according to the AP.

Asserting that Iran “really wants” to strike an agreement, President Donald Trump declared in a Monday morning Truth Social post that chattering critics are making it more difficult for him to negotiate. 

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He urged people to “sit back and relax,” claiming that the issue will ultimately turn out “well.”

“Iran really wants to make a deal, and it will be a good one for the U.S.A. and those that are with us. But don’t the Dumocrats, and various seemingly unpatriotic Republicans, understand that it is MUCH tougher for me to properly do my job and negotiate, when political hacks keep negatively ‘chirping,’ at levels never seen before, over and over again, that I should move faster, or move slower, or go to war, or not go to war, or whatever,” he declared in a Truth Social post early on Monday.

“Just sit back and relax, it will all work out well in the end – It always does!” he declared.

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The U.S. is continuing to conduct a blockade against Iran.

“U.S. forces operating in the Gulf of Oman enforced blockade measures by disabling a Gambia-flagged maritime vessel attempting to sail toward an Iranian port, May 29,” CENTCOM announced in a Saturday press release.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) ⁠says it launched a retaliatory strike on a base used by US forces that it claims was used for an attack on an Iranian communications tower, with Kuwait saying it intercepted air attacks.

“Following the aggression of the US army on a communication tower on Sirik Island in Hormozgan Province an hour ago, the IRGC Aerospace Force fighters targeted the airbase where the aggression originated, and the predicted targets were destroyed,” the IRGC said in a statement cited by the semi-official Fars news agency on Monday.

Air defences in Kuwait, where the US base is located, intercepted missiles and drones as sirens sounded across the country, the state news agency KUNA reported.

In a statement, Kuwait’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned Iranian attacks on its territory.

“The Ministry affirms that the continuation and repetition of these aggressions undermine efforts aimed at de-escalating tensions and threaten security and stability in the region,” the statement said.

The attacks come after the United States said it carried out strikes on Iran this weekend in response to “aggressive Iranian actions that included the shootdown of a US MQ-1 drone that was operating over international waters”.

“US fighter aircraft swiftly responded by eliminating Iranian air defences, a ground control station, and two one-way attack drones that posed clear threats to ships transiting regional waters,” the Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a post on X, adding it will continue to protect US assets and interests during the ongoing ‌ceasefire.

CENTCOM said no US troops were hurt in the attacks.

Fragile ceasefire

The attacks, the latest in several exchanges of fire in recent days, come as indirect negotiations between the US and Iran to formalise a fragile ceasefire that took effect in April continue.

There have been mixed signals about whether the two sides are close to an agreement to extend the fragile truce.

The two sides have reportedly been reviewing a potential memorandum of understanding (MoU) that would extend the ceasefire for a further 60 days and begin negotiations to end the war permanently.

According to US media reports, the MoU will state that shipping through the Strait of Hormuz is to be “unrestricted”, meaning there will be no tolls, no “harassment”, and that Iran will have 30 days to remove all sea mines.

The MoU will also reportedly include a commitment from Iran not to work towards building nuclear weapons.

During the 60-day window following the start of the new agreement, the first issue to be discussed in peace talks will be Iran’s uranium enrichment programme, and how to dispose of its stock of highly enriched uranium.

The New York Times newspaper reported that Trump has since “toughened the terms” of the potential framework, while media outlet Axios said the president asked for “several amendments” to the preliminary agreement his envoys reached with Iran.

Iranian state media reported on Saturday that the proposed MoU with the US included an agreement to release $12bn in frozen assets.

The report cited an “unofficial” draft of the memorandum, and a similar item carried by state TV earlier this week was dismissed by the White House as a “fabrication”.

Tehran warns of ‘mistrust’

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil ‌Baghaei said on Monday that any delay ⁠in ⁠the diplomatic process to end the war can ⁠be explained by a lack of trust, ⁠Washington’s contradictory positions and Israel’s attacks on Lebanon.

“Negotiations have started amid severe suspicion and mistrust, and the exchange of messages is taking place in ⁠this atmosphere,” Baghaei said.

“The other ⁠party is constantly changing its views and putting forward new ⁠or contradictory demands … it is ⁠natural that this ⁠situation will prolong negotiations,” he said, adding that Tehran viewed Israeli ‌actions in the region, including in Lebanon, as inseparable ‌from the US.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Iran’s IRNA news agency on Sunday that “dialogue and an exchange of messages are ongoing” with the US.

“It is not possible to judge until a clear conclusion is reached,” Araghchi said amid the recent speculation about the negotiations. “Everything that is being said now is speculation and should not be taken seriously until it is certain.”

Trump claims Iran ‘really wants to make a deal’

US President Donald Trump said in a statement on his Truth Social platform late on Sunday, Tehran “really wants to make a deal” and that whatever deal is reached will “be a good one” for the US “and those that are with us”.

He lashed out at domestic critics for “negatively ‘chirping’” about his handling of the war but made no mention of the US strikes on Iran.

“Just sit back and relax, it will all work out well in the end – It always does!” he said.