Good afternoon Insiders, welcome back to another edition of the international newsletter with Max Goldbart steering things before heading to the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Read on, and sign up here.

Deep BBC Cuts

Development spend slashed: It’s been a rough week for staff at the embattled BBC. Folks at the British broadcaster already knew deep cuts and thousands of layoffs were coming, but it was all made to feel rather real when more information was revealed by new Director General Matt Brittin, who is clearly rolling his sleeves up just a month into the top job. In an all-staffer setting out that “the scale of savings requires tough choices,” the former Google executive announced plans to slash commissioning spend across the BBC’s TV, radio and news divisions by £80M ($107M) over the next two years. The reality of this is programs including 50-year-old institution The World Tonight being cut, top presenters leaving and, as Jake revealed Wednesday, a depressing plan to cut TV development spend by 15% per year. BBC content chief Kate Phillips told suppliers about the latter in an email that revealed up to 150 hours of original network TV content will vanish. Some producers have unsurprisingly reacted with dismay, with industry insiders who we spoke with feeling that small, bold and risky ideas could lose out by the development cull and that it will be harder to bring through the next generation of talent. But Brittin clearly isn’t messing around. The broadcaster has repeatedly communicated the stat that 94% of the UK population use the BBC every month, yet fewer than 80% pay the £180 annual licence fee, and so it needs to bridge the gap. A tough period lies ahead for the new BBC boss. They sure make baptisms fiery at the BBC.

Animation Nation

Off to Annecy: The Annecy International Animation Festival kicks off Sunday in one of the most gorgeous parts of France, and U.S. studios and streamers will be descending in droves. Annecy is relatively unique in the fest being just as much about the fans as it is the industry and with huge favorites like the new Minions movie and age-old hits like King of the Hill on show, it’s easy to see why. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty industry talking points. Myself and Melanie, who will both be on the ground, had a think about what’s getting the animation industry chatting and our analysis can be found here, with AI, China and the next generation of IP all among our pointers. The likes of Netflix, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Universal will be out in full force in France, with fare including the new Ghostbusters series, Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie, Forgotten Island and Minions & Monsters on show. Netflix also hosted an Annecy do in L.A. for those who can’t make it to Europe and is clearly looking to make a splash with some buzzy content. Eyes peeled on the site all next week for reporting from the biggest few days in the animation calendar.

APOS Takeaways

Second screening: The APOS Asian TV Summit in Bali is a perfect opportunity to keep fingers on the pulse of a continent that always provides a gleam into the next big global trend. In 2026, it was microdramas – those shlocky short-form quick bites that have got Hollywood talking – that were dominating chatter. Our Asia expert Liz Shackleton was in town for the bringing together of the great and the good of the industry – including Andy Serkis – and she reported on an intriguing content deal between microdrama platform ReelShort and Korean studio Showbox, alongside a talk from ReelShort boss Joey Jia. The APOS crowd are always thinking into the future and one of the more blue sky sessions questioned how second screens are rewiring Southeast Asia’s attention span, a topic that has certainly been occupying Hollywood of late. “This is not a story about decline, and it is not disruption. It is a story about reallocation,” said Media Partners Asia CEO Vivek Couto. All APOS coverage can be found here.

The Insider Interview:  Léon Marchand

What do you do after winning five medals and becoming the face of your home Olympic Games? That’s the question we find Léon Marchand grappling with at the start of a three-part doc about the swimming prodigy.

Stewart sat down with the French swimming icon at the Monte-Carlo TV Festival to chat about the doc and how he went about re-discovering motivation and purpose. “After Paris, a lot of people probably thought I had reached a destination. In reality, I found myself asking new questions: who am I when I’m not racing, when I’m not in the pool, and what remains when everything slows down?,” Léon told Deadline. >>>Read The Interview

The Essentials

🌶️ Hot One: The unlikely pair of Cher and Bob Geldof are in talks to join animated feature Fly Squad – First Strike!

🌶️  Another Hot One: Dermot O’Leary’s Toto the Ninja Cat books are being made into an animated series by Studiocanal and Superprod.

🌶️ A third: Darick Robertson, co-creator of The Boys comic books and exec producer on the TV series, is joining new superhero universe Crestar and the Knight Stallion.

📖 Analysis: TF1 is officially on Netflix, marking the start of a watershed deal between a U.S. streamer and one of Europe’s biggest commercial broadcasters.

⚽ World Cup latest: Plenty of drama on the pitch and some off it, with the Iran team forced to leave the U.S. immediately after their game with New Zealand.

❌ Banned: Social media in the UK for teens… big tech firms reacted with dismay, but agents are more measured.

🏕️ Fest latest: For all of Stewart’s Monte-Carlo coverage, including Kurt Russell on Taylor Sheridan, click here.

🏕️ More fests: The Edinburgh International Film Festival has launched a conference for the first time.

🍿 Box office: Christoper Nolan’s The Odyssey broke BFI IMAX records within 24 hours.

🍴 Journos who lunch: Controversial CBS News chief Bari Weiss had a cheeky sandwich with BBC Today host Justin Webb during a recent trip to London.

🕯️ And finally: Thoughts out to the family of Roger Cook, the legendary journalist credited with creating the ‘doorstep’ interview technique.

International Insider was written by Max Goldbart and edited by Jesse Whittock. Send any tips, comments or ideas for international coverage to jwhittock@deadline.com and mgoldbart@deadline.com