Broadcasters and streamers invested almost €21 billion in European original content in 2022.
According to the findings of a new report by the European Audiovisual Observatory, global streamers’ spending increased sharply in 2022 and accounted for 24% of all investment on European original content. However, global streamer spending has not been a substitute for broadcaster spending. On the contrary, broadcasters increased their spending, at least until the pandemic, faster than before the entry of the global streamers into the European market.
Other key findings of the report include:
Spending on original content has increased faster than European audiovisual sector revenues, and at the same time sports rights spending is increasing sharply.
Original content accounts for 35% of broadcaster spending, followed by sports rights and acquired programming, almost at the same level (28% and 26%, respectively). But sports rights are number one in terms of content spending for private broadcasters, and they grew significantly faster than any other category of programming.
The share of scripted programming (excluding news) in streamers’ spending on original content has slightly decreased over time but scripted programming still accounts for the lion’s share (83%).
The UK and Spain accounted together for 37% of global streamers’ spending on original European content. The share of global streamers in original content spending is particularly high in Spain (over 50%) and, to a lesser extent, in the United Kingdom, Italy, Denmark and Sweden.