Surging spend takes global streaming to ‘escape velocity’
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Joseph O'Halloran
| 28 June 2021
Data from Purely Streamonomics has found that amidst a year of uncertainty and production hiatuses due to the global pandemic, streaming platforms have set the global film and TV industry on a trajectory of accelerated growth with no imminent ceiling in sight.
Pureley production survey 28JUne2021
In addition the study, An Industry Transformed, found that The Walt Disney Company alone now spends more on content than all of Asia and that with average production budgets on the rise there are now huge new opportunities for Indies, including co-production and acquisition.

Purely calculated that the gross cash amount spent producing and licensing new entertainment content, excluding sports, soared by 16.4% in 2020 to reach $220.2 billion. This new milestone will likely be surpassed this year as well, with Purely anticipating a total spend of more than $250 billion in 2021. Indeed, the analyst predicts that even more spending growth is on the short-term horizon as a new wave of ad-supported platforms start gaining a stronger foothold around the world, alongside the subscription-funded services that have been driving the streaming marketplace until now.

Looking at the key territories, production spend from companies based in North America was up 16.1% on an annual basis, in line with the overall figure, while the analyst said that “dramatic” uplifts could be seen from regional business spend in the smaller markets of Africa and the Middle East (+46.3%), Latin America (+32.9%) and Oceania (+32.5%), fuelled by rapidly growing local streamers such as Shahid VIP in the Middle East, which has recently committed to spending an additional $100 million per year on original content. By clear contrast, European company spend, which is currently less than a quarter of that in the US and Canada, failed to keep pace, rising by 11.8%. As local streamers such as Viaplay in the Nordics and Movistar+ in Spain expand their offering, this figure would be expected to rise in Europe.

Twice as much money was spent around the globe co-financing and acquiring the rights to independently made feature films and television programming. Purely Streamonomics’ global research found that indie content spending jumped by 25.3% year-on-year in 2020 and now accounts for 65.5% of the world’s film and TV production activity.

An Industry Transformed also observed that the cost of introducing and monitoring Covid protocols in 2020 also added 20%-30% to production budgets. These costs look to set to stay for a while but, even if they do subside, industry talk of introducing “green production initiatives” could see a further 5%-10% added over time.

This is the element of the research that perhaps surprised most, said Purely’s founder and CEO, Wayne Marc Godfrey. “Every producer I talk to tells me that it’s constantly challenging to get shows financed and commissioned and that budgets are always under pressure,” he said.

“I think the time has come for them to ‘follow the money’ and take their biggest and best ideas – whether scripted or unscripted - to the streamers. Now that the tables have well and truly turned, a domestic public service broadcaster or local linear network should no longer be the main goal for an ambitious production business. The streamers are also co-producing and acquiring more ready-made content than ever before too – so it’s no longer just about producing an original for them. This provides indies and distributors with a range of options for their content and as these options evolve, so are conversations around rights, with streamers more willing to enter into regional-only deals for example.”