Although the $238 billion spent on content in 2022 was double the amount ten years earlier, the boom time is definitely over.
This, according to Daniel Winner, former EVP digital initiatives at BBC Studios, speaking in a Q&A at OTT Question Time Live in London, is despite $60 billion of last year’s spend being from SVOD streamers that did not exist a decade ago.
Winner predicted that we will see less money coming in and more consolidation in the SVOD sector. However, this will amount to a healthy and needed correction. Although Netflix and Amazon will continue to spend around $17 billion and $15 billion a year respectively on content, there will be fewer studio streamers in the next 2-3 years.
The key focus will be on efficiency and this will have an impact on where spend goes. Unscripted will benefit as it is less risky and has a faster time to market. Netflix has already significantly increased its spend on it and the trend will spread.
Winner said that if one thinks about the last 5-10 years as being the golden age of TV then there are parallels with the 1970s, the golden age of movies. The latter was followed by the 80s, when Hollywood changed and the industry became obsessed with sequels.
There will now be greater aversion to risk in the TV industry and commercially a greater shift to coproductions.
