LONDON—Disney remains the world’s largest media company in a market where six companies now make more than half of the world’s TV and film content, according to a new report from Ampere Analysis. An estimated $126 billion will be spent on film and TV production this year, with Disney’s spending comprising 14% of that figure, fueled by its full acquisition of Hulu earlier this year, which added $9 billion to its total budget.

Since 2022, these six global media companies—Disney, Comcast, Google (YouTube), Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix and Paramount Global—have spent more than $56 billion in original TV and film content over the past three years, Ampere said, comprising 51% of the total content spend landscape, up from 47% in 2020.

In total, $40 billion of the $126 billion is currently spent on these six operators’ subscription streaming services (including Disney+, Peacock and Paramount+). Netflix is the top spender in streaming content, averaging $14.5 billion in annual investment in original and acquired content since the pandemic four years ago. Ampere expects the company to further grow its investment in 2025 through the acquisition of NFL and WWE rights.

Although it doesn’t fit the traditional studio model of the other five, Google’s YouTube is the third-most-popular streaming destination, according to Ampere, which attributed part of its continued success to partnership deals with major content owners.

Despite production shutdowns caused by the U.S. writers and actors strikes, streamers have continued to support the production landscape by pivoting towards more global strategies, Ampere said. International (non-U.S. originating) programming accounts for 40% of Paramount+’s and 52% of Netflix’s spend in 2024. Such content is typically cheaper to produce and effective in motivating new and niche audiences to subscribe to a platform, supporting revenues, Ampere said.

“Ongoing investment by major studios and streaming platforms into new programming will continue to be key to keeping audiences engaged and entertained,” Ampere Research Manager Peter Ingram said. “We can expect that the content landscape will see low-level growth in 2024 as production schedules recover from disruptions caused by the pandemic and the writers’ and actors’ union strikes. Looking forward, however, while these top six providers will continue to account for the majority of spend, overall growth will plateau as companies look to refocus their output. This will include limiting commissioning volumes and prioritising strategic investments and profitability to counter the current challenges of the media market.”

LONDON—Spending on content worldwide will climb 2% in 2024, reaching $247 billion. That marks a return to growth following the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike, says Ampere Analysis.

The media analysis firm attributes the growth to the revival of postponed productions by broadcasters and streaming services.

“2023 was a worse than expected year for content spend due almost entirely to the Hollywood strikes. The good news is we can look forward to a small recovery of 2% as production resumes and the U.S. election approaches,” said Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis. “Global streaming services are forecast to increase total content investment by 7% in 2024 and thus remain key for content spend growth. However, it’s not all rosy as many studios look to cut back on theatrical releases, and broadcasters cut spending due to ongoing declines in TV advertising.” 

Helping to buoy production during the strike, which brought production in the United States to a near-complete halt, were global streaming services that continued steady delivery of new original content last year with the help of non-U.S. productions, Ampere Analysis said.

Greater spending on original shows and movies from markets like Germany, India and South Korea pushed up spending of global streaming services to more that $27 billion, an increase of 13% year-on-year. This year global streaming services are expected to increase their total content spend by 7% to $46 billion, it said.

While broadcasters were hardest hit by last year’s strike, the 2024 presidential election is expected to bolster ad revenue and content spending, preventing a further decline this year, it said.

Theatrical studios in the United States will see a 14% year-on-year decline in content investment in 2024 due to the lingering effects of the strike and a focus on cost efficiencies in the cinema market, which remains depressed following COVID, it said.

However, Amazon and Apple are expected to buck this trend. Apple plans to leverage content to raise brand awareness of Apple TV+, and Amazon plans to take advantage of its 2022 MBM acquisition, it said.

More information is available on the company’s website. 

LONDON—Spending on content around the world jumped by 14% in 2021 to more than $220 billion according to new forecasts and data from Ampere Analysis. They also predict that the trend will continue into 2022 when the global content spent will top $230 billion. 

The increase was driven by increased spending on original programming by SVOD players, who spent nearly $50 billion on content in 2021, up by more than 50% from their spending in 2019, according to Ampere

Hannah Walsh, research manager at Ampere Analysis explained that in “2022, we expect content investment to exceed $230 billion, primarily driven by subscription streaming services, as the battle in the original content arena intensifies – both in the US, but also in the global markets which are increasingly key for growth.”

The research group found that Netflix continues to dominate SVOD content investment, contributing 30% of total SVOD content spend and 6% of total global content investment in 2021. Netflix is the third largest investor in professional video content at a group level ($14 billion), behind Comcast and its subsidiaries ($22.7 billion), and Disney ($18.6 billion).

“Comcast and Disney invest heavily in sports rights, which —alongside their hefty investments in original content — contributed to their leading positions in the table,” said Walsh. “Sports rights made up over a third of both Comcast and Disney’s spend in 2021.”

Content expenditure by commercial and public service broadcasters also bounded back in 2021, after being damaged in the prior year by ad spend cut-backs and production halts during the earlier phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ampere reported. 

Despite this recovery, content spend from these groups still remains below 2019 levels, largely due to ongoing pressures on revenue (primarily TV advertising revenue)—a consequence of a mixture of viewing shifts to online video, and lingering economic effects influencing advertiser expenditure.

Ampere noted that all spend data is on a P&L basis and excludes theatrical production and exploitation costs. Disney+, Apple+, HBO Max, Peacock & Paramount+ content spend is for original content only and does not include the back catalogue of content acquired from their studio parent groups.

LONDON—The bill to broadcast the NFL, NBA, MLB and other popular sports leagues around the world represented more than a quarter of the content spending in 2018, according to a new study from Ampere Analysis. Specifically, $38 billion was spent on sports rights acquisitions last year, making up 26% of all content spending and nearly doubling from the $20 billion spent in 2012.

Most of the spending on sports rights in the U.S. is made up of deals with the NFL, NBA and MLB. These deals have led to the U.S. spending more on sports rights than any other global market, despite a smaller portion of TV revenue (11%) devoted to sports rights than compared to the major Western European markets (17%). Ampere expects this to change over the next six years as rights deals for the three major leagues will expire and are estimated to generate another $4 billion per year.

While major sports leagues like Ligue 1, Bundesliga and La Liga also help drive the sports rights spending in Europe’s top markets, those countries also have invested more in secondary events and competitions, which are maintaining the same pace of growth as major leagues, according to Ampere.

Ampere also pointed out while OTT players are starting to break into sports rights, they are still considered minority players based on their overall spend.

Overall, Ampere believes that there is still room for growth in spending on sports rights in both emerging markets and established ones like Europe and the U.S.

“Even as major leagues turn their attention to international markets outside of Western Europe and the U.S., our analysis shows that there is still opportunity for many of the major competitions in their domestic markets,” said Alexios Dimitropoulos, senior analyst at Ampere Analysis. “Although there are significant competitive pressures on TV revenues due to the rise of new online competitors, the impending direct-to-consumer fragmentation of the market may also open up opportunities for sports rights bodies—who will increasingly hold some of the few premium rights that money can still buy.”