Ten, CBS, Wilkinson, Weinstein the hot topics in Cannes

But in a curious twist, those two topics of conversation have also dominated beachside conversation in the French tourist town of Cannes this week.

With more than 13,000 of the world's television executives, program makers and program buyers passing through the annual Mipcom market, the traditional topics of conversation - what's hot, what's not - have surrendered to more newsworthy events.

The scandal which has engulfed US studio boss Harvey Weinstein is one of the hot topics among the industry's major players, as business blends with lively lunchtime debate in a raft of restaurants dotting the Boulevard de la Croisette.

The influential trade publication The Hollywood Reporter went so far as to say that Weinstein was "the elephant in every room" at Mipcom this year.

Weinstein was also debated publicly on stage inside the town's iconic Palais des Festivals, during a women in entertainment panel discussion that brought together high-profile figures including actress Catherine Zeta-Jones and CanneSeries festival president (and former French culture minister) Fleur Pellerin.

Zeta-Jones, who won a best supporting actress Oscar for the film Chicago, which Weinstein produced, said she was "shocked and disgusted" at what had emerged.

"That big old dinosaur of people who think a man is able to get away with that behaviour and has been getting away with it for years, is extinct as of now," the 48-year-old Welsh-born actress said.

The Weinstein scandal was also called out by high profile male personalities in the industry as well: actor Jeremy Sisto said the unprecedented reaction to it was "a great thing and a needed thing", while former Sony chief Howard Stringer said it was a "watershed moment" for the entertainment industry.

But the other major topic of discussion this week has been the CBS acquisition of Ten in Australia, in particular the stunning manner of the coup, its displacement of the ambitions of would-be buyers Lachlan Murdoch and Bruce Gordon, and the impact longer term of a CBS-backed, debt-free Ten versus its debt-loaded older rivals Seven and Nine.

Even the signing of Nine personality Lisa Wilkinson - who is, with respect, not a household name in France quite yet - surfaced with one 'splaining it to Fairfax Media as "Australia's CBS stealing Diane Sawyer from Australia's ABC".

Aside from the slightly off-target American metaphors for Australia's networks - in truth Nine is more like CBS than the US ABC, while Ten would be better billed as Fox or CW-like network - that perspective was not wholly off the mark.

What matters is that within the global television business there is awareness of the recent shifts in the Australian broadcast landscape.

It is also reflective of the fact that despite Australia's relatively modest size, its television industry - broadcasters, producers and buyers - enjoy a fairly high profile at the key market.

"We think the connection between CBS and Ten will be great," CBS Studios president Armando Nunez told the trade publication Variety. "We look forward to connecting those dots."

Divining trends out of the market is difficult, though it would be fair to say that in 2017 unscripted content has edged back a little of the ground it has ceded to scripted drama in the last half-dozen years.

Historically the Mipcom market was dominated wholly by unscripted content: the search for the next "shiny floor show" was high on the to-do list of program buyers who sought a ratings-related absolution by acquiring the number one show in Greenland and localising it.

Then, in large part due to the emergence of the "Scandi noir" genre, scripted drama almost overtook the market.

Even now - as unscripted and scripted content jockey for dominance each year - the major program premieres at Mipcom are all scripted hours and in past years shows such as The X Files and Midnight Sun have made their international debut here.

Among this year's new scripted series were ITV's The City & The City, BBC Worldwide's McMafia, Fremantle's reboot of Picnic at Hanging Rock and the new Stan reboot, Romper Stomper, which is distributed at the market by the UK-based DCD Rights.

In contrast, the hit UK reality format Love Island proved to have staying power at the market, with its winning couple Kem Cetinay and Amber Davies - or #kember - among the most magnetic arrivals on the week's crowded red carpets.

Other stars in attendance included British actress Juliet Rylance, US actor Jeremy Sisto and Canadian actress Kristin Kreuk. Australia's Claire van de Boom and Pallavi Sharda were also in attendance, promoting the medical drama Pulse.

"I feel a little stunned in the lights," van de Boom told Fairfax Media.

"But I can see why they have brought us out to help sell it to different markets," she said. "We're having meetings with program buyers [and] I can see why they're interested in hearing why we want to tell Australian stories."

Sharda, who was first exposed to the global distribution business as an Australian actress working in Bollywood, said she was heading into Mipcom with a clearer sense of the scale and pace of the business side of the industry.

"I had the strange jump of going straight from drama school in Melbourne to Mumbai [so] I had my first stunned moment when I realised the business of cinema was bigger than the process of acting in film."

Every major studio and production house in global broadcasting is represented at the four-day market, including the US studios Warner Bros, CBS, Disney-ABC, Fox and Sony, and other majors including Fremantle, BBC Worldwide, ITV Studios, Endemol Shine, Lionsgate, Studiocanal and Entertainment One.

Mipcom's parent company, Reed Midem, also took the opportunity to launch CanneSeries, a new television festival, which will be held in tandem with the TV calendar's other major market, April's MipTV.

CanneSeries joins a handful of key TV festivals worldwide, including the Monte Carlo Television Festival, the Paris-based SeriesMania, which is moving to the northern French city of Lille from next year, and the Banff Media Festival.

Those events, which have historically lived in the shadow of film-focused festivals in Cannes, Toronto and Venice, are surfing the wave of "golden age" television and emerging to become major fixtures on the pop culture calendar.