While much of the coverage of President Donald Trump’s proposed 100% tariffs on imported films has focused on the theatrical industry, the levies on imported movies would also have a negative, though indirect, impact on TV production.

“While Trump has not commented on the television production business, tariffs on overseas production would have an equally chilling impact on TV production,” Lightshed Partners partner and media and technology analyst Richard Greenfield wrote in a research note.

Concerns over how the proposed tariffs might affect the Hollywood studios, streamers like Netflix and other media companies sent the share prices of Netflix, Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery down in early trading on Monday. Following the negative reaction from financial markets and some Hollywood studio executives, the White House seemed to walk back from the proposal.

“Although no final decisions on foreign film tariffs have been made,” a White House spokesman told The Hollywood Reporter, the “administration is exploring all options to deliver on President Trump’s directive to safeguard our country’s national and economic security while Making Hollywood Great Again.”

While Trump did not mention TV or streaming services in his Sunday social media post proposing the tariffs, the potential impact of such a move is worth considering. That’s because television is so important to the Hollywood studios.

Even if the proposal is not expanded to TV programming, it would likely cause foreign governments to implement tariffs on U.S. content exports, threatening the multibillion-dollar market for U.S. movies and TV.

In 2023, the U.S. movies racked up $22.6 billion in export revenue, creating a trade surplus of $15.3 billion. U.S. television exports are harder to track, but U.S. shows like “Grey’s Anatomy,“ “NCIS,” “Law & Order,” “The Simpsons“ and many others produce significant international revenue.

A 2013 study by the U.K. group Digital TV Research estimated that U.S. studios generated some $5.4 billion a year in selling drama series to European television, according to THR.

Because the Hollywood studios typically package their TV shows with their blockbuster films, any tariffs imposed on U.S. film exports by foreign governments might hurt revenue for TV shows, which in turn could decrease production.

If the administration expanded the movie tariffs to TV, which employs many more people in production, the levies would have a direct, major impact on the production of bigger-budget, high-profile dramas.

Like movies, a growing number of these big-budget series are at least partly produced outside the U.S. in the U.K., Canada and other locales. Amazon Prime’s “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” was, for example, produced in New Zealand in its first season and then moved production to the U.K.

Beyond that, high-profile TV productions have for decades relied on international sales. For example, by the early 2000s, first-season U.S. broadcast shows were covering around half of their budgets from international markets in pre-sales and output deals, a practice that has made international programming confabs like MIPCOM extremely important for U.S. studios and producers.

More recently, Netflix, Amazon’s Prime Video and other major streamers have been able to leverage their international footprint of subscribers to fund dramas like "Rings of Power", which reportedly had a record breaking $1 billion budget. That international presence has given these streaming companies a major competitive advantage over domestic U.S. broadcasters.

Even if the tariffs were not applied to TV production, any retaliatory tariffs by foreign countries could include TV programs.

Europe, for example, already has content quotes for European content that limit the amount of U.S. programming that can air on broadcasters in European countries. The retaliatory tariffs could harm sales, hurt co-production agreements with international broadcasters and disrupt the globalized production used on many high-profile dramas that now heavily rely on cloud-based editing and postproduction.

Such problems prompted Lightshed’s Greenfield to write: “Last night’s Truth Social post from President Trump has everyone in Hollywood scratching their heads. Movie production has been migrating overseas for decades, attracted by lower cost labor markets, sound stage availability and most importantly substantial foreign tax credits. If movie production was forced back into the US, the net result would be a dramatic reduction in the number of films made to absorb higher production costs. While Trump has not commented on the television production business, tariffs on overseas production would have an equally chilling impact on TV production.”

The note to investors also stressed that “it’s unclear how a movie tariff system would even work. Movies are often shot in multiple locations, with post-production in a different location. Given the substantial amount of digital enhancement to a film in 2025, if post-production occurs in the U.S., is it a U.S. film or does it only matter if some or all of the film was shot overseas? Would the tariff on movies be applied based on minutes of overseas footage that make it into the final film? Or would a tariff be based on raw minutes filmed, regardless of whether they made it into the ending film? Would studios have to submit their final production cost to the government for tariffs? … [W]ould streaming films be subject to the tariff as well? Would the tariff impact future windows of movie exploitation or only the first window?”

Greenfield concluded, “Nobody knows what the President’s Truth Social post means and we fear, neither does he.”

The procedural show on broadcast television isn’t a new concept, but, according to the team at CBS, audiences are craving the long-term investment in characters that a limited series on streaming services can’t compete with. This was the focus of the panel “ ‘Fire Country’ and the Boom of Broadcast Procedurals (Again!)” at NAB Show on Sunday.

Broadcast procedurals like “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “NCIS” have long focused on the satisfying formula of problem, investigation and solution, typically in a 42-minute fashion. But in the age of streaming giants pulling audiences away from linear television, procedural producers, like “Fire Country” co-creators and executive producers and panelists Joan Rater and Tony Phelan, have found that investing in character development is the best way to keep audiences drawn to shows.

“Everybody can relate to redemption stories and the need for second chances,” said Rater of her show, “Fire Country,” where a convicted felon fights fires to reduce his prison sentence in his small hometown — a notable break from the norm of big-city dramas.

“[The show] is aspirational in terms of family and community and that, I think, has really resonated with people,” Phelan added. Both creators agreed that, now more than ever, writing characters that audiences tune in to see every week, for upwards of 20 episodes a season, is the main focus of building out these shows.

The actual procedure of the procedural isn’t why audiences resonate with CBS shows. Rather, Bryan Seabury, executive vice president, head of content strategy and drama development at CBS Studios, asks himself if the show is built “to go the distance.”

“Other shows … they’re limited, they’re designed in a different way,” Seabury said. “Here, the questions we ask in a pilot are much more open-ended and hopefully, you’re planting seeds that go for seasons.”

Week after week, audiences can identify with these characters as they invite them into their homes, and in some ways, become part of the family, as Phelan put it. The writers can push the bounds of storytelling by allowing characters to grow, experience setbacks and change over a more authentic timeline, rather than in eight episodes, according to Rater.

Though differentiating themselves from streaming services, the CBS panelists couldn’t ignore platforms like Netflix, which offer viewers binge-able content at a clip. However, Yelena Chak, executive vice president, scripted development at CBS Entertainment, found that Netflix can be used as a promotional tool.

“The people who found it on Netflix, they watched the first season there, which then drove them to Paramount+ to watch season two, which then in turn drove them back to CBS broadcast network for season three,” Chak said. “So it brought people right back to our ecosystem.”

Seabury also noted that this era of television gives executives the ability to see ratings and viewership not only on premiere night but on delayed viewing, on the network’s streaming platform and then later, on a third-party streaming service like Netflix, which improves overall results. Case-in-point: In the month that season one of “Fire Country” was released on Netflix, 3 billion minutes of the show were viewed between Netflix and Paramount+.

The long-term strategy doesn’t stop there. In the coming months, the “Fire Country” spinoff “Sheriff Country,” which also focuses on the character development of a small-town sheriff dealing with personal and professional dilemmas, will premiere on CBS. The spinoff will not only serve as a marketing vehicle for the original show by way of crossover episodes, but panelists agreed that this spinoff is a testament to the deep character development of procedurals that keep audiences engaged with whatever universe is being created.

Copyright 2025 NAB

When it comes to current TV-viewing trends, viewers worldwide prefer scripted content to unscripted content, according to a new study from BB Media. But which part of the globe prefers one over the other? That’s evolving.

The number of scripted TV shows was more than double that of unscripted in 2024, with 430,000 total titles available vs. 172,000 unscripted titles, according to BB Media.

Within the unscripted universe, documentaries clearly dominate, representing 50% of the unscripted distributed titles globally. However, their share has gradually declined, dropping 13% since 2021.

Drama leads the scripted content with 28% of respondents preferring that genre, followed by comedy at 12%. However, in 2024, the three most popular series belonged to the action and science fiction genres: “Game of Thrones” and “The House of Dragon” (HBO/Max) and “The Boys” (Prime Video).

The most popular unscripted programs globally were: WWE “Monday Night Raw,” “American Nightmare” and “Are You Sure?”

In terms of title regional availability, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) leads with the largest volume of unscripted content, while the U.S., Canada and Australia/New Zealand (UCAN) stands out for its wide availability of scripted content. In terms of preferences, Asia Pacific (APAC) emerges as the region with the greatest affinity for unscripted content, reflecting a growing interest in authentic and dynamic formats. LATAM follows as the second region with the strongest preference.

During 2024, APAC was the region that launched the most unscripted titles, exceeding 5K releases and accounting for almost half of all the unscripted titles released that year. According to BB Media analysis, South Africa ranks highest in preference for unscripted content, while Sweden leads in preference for scripted content.

Both genres have been on opposing trendlines in recent years. The supply of unscripted content steadily increased from 2019 to 2022 (+9% annually) but saw declines in 2023 (-3%) and 2024 (-12%), indicating a slowdown in production, BB Media said.

Meanwhile, scripted content has shown significant growth, rebounding strongly after a dip in 2020, with record-breaking growth of 17% in 2024.

LONDON—As the streaming wars rage on, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu have enacted new strategies designed to entice older consumers (35+) by producing programming in genres that are of more interest to them—most notably, drama, documentary and crime & thrillers.

According to a new study from Ampere Analysis, younger SVOD subscribers are reaching a saturation point. However, 55% of consumers who don’t engage with VOD in a typical day are aged 45-64. Rather, many are keeping with their linear TV habits. A reported 50% of medium linear TV viewers (watching two to four hours per day) are over 45 years old, while 57% in the same age group are classified as high linear viewers (more than four hours a day).

This is inspiring the larger push in producing programs that are of more interest to those older consumers.

Documentaries, drama and crime & thrillers are among the most popular for consumers over the age of 35. And now, these genres are in the top five of commissioned projects by VOD players. For example, in March, Netflix ordered more documentary titles than any other genre, with more than half of those described as true crime.

Keeping up this investment into factual and crime & thriller content is one of the keys to persuade older viewers to make the switch to streaming, per Ampere. They should also work to expand their sports-related content (something Amazon Prime Video is already pushing with the NFL) and, on a global scale, more local language programming is needed in markets like France, Germany and Japan.

“The fastest growth in uptake of Video on Demand viewing is now in the 35-44-year-old age bracket,” said Minal Modha, principal analyst, consumer research lead at Ampere. “Nearly twice as many in this age group are now high VOD viewers compared to two years ago. The laser-like focus on matching commissioning strategies with the favorite genres of the older demographics in question is evident, but to more fully compete with linear TV players, local language content is going to be key, as will some sports content, be it live or ancillary.”

For more information, visit www.ampereanalysis.com.  

LONDON—Broadcast television networks are less likely to use “pilot” episodes to introduce new TV series, according to a report from Ampere, which compares the trend to OTT.

“The number of pilots ordered by U.S. broadcasters has decreased by one third (32%) over the last four years, dropping from 106 titles a year in 2015 to just 73 titles by 2019, despite the same number of new series being produced,” the research firm said. “Although the number of pilots has fallen, the proportion progressing to series has remained consistent, at 45%. U.S. networks seem to be adopting the strategies of the SVoD players where pilots are used far less, if at all.”

Although the trend has stabilized within the past year, Ampere researcher Fred Black thinks networks are adopting a variety of different strategies to make sure their programming can better compete with Netflix and Hulu.

“There’s no one model that the networks have adopted as they move away from pilots, rather they have opted for a range of development options, including reboots and spin-offs, co-production, remakes and straight to series,” he said.

In conclusion, it’s a combination of increasing production costs and the growing popularity of rebooted series—which don’t need pilots—that Ampere think are the overall reasons for the trend.

Drama series had the lowest number of pilots while comedies average the highest number of pilots, at 35 per season. The most successful genre in terms of pilots leading to series is crime and thriller; sci-fi is the worst performer in this category.

ABC is the leading proponent of using pilots, Ampere said.

LONDON—They say you have to spend money to make money, and Netflix and Amazon have been subscribers to that theory as of late. The online OTT platforms have poured a lot of money into original programming, spending a total $7.5 billion last year according to IHS Technology. That combined number is higher than individual spending of big name broadcasters like HBO, CBS and Turner.

Between 2013 and 2015, Netflix and Amazon more than doubled their annual expenditure on programming. Amazon has increased its spending from $1.22 billion to $2.67 billion, while Netflix has jumped from $2.38 billion to $4.91 billion. It’s not just Netflix and Amazon, though; IHS reports that Hulu and online platforms in China have increased their original programming investment. The only traditional broadcasters that top the likes of Netflix are Disney ($11.84 billion) and NBC ($10.27 billion).

Back in 2012, there were only three online scripted U.S. TV shows. So far in 2016 there have been 57.

“In what Netflix calls the era of internet TV, more and more consumers are watching content online, shaking the foundations of the traditional TV industry,” said Tim Westcott, senior principal analyst at IHS Technology. “However, it’s premature to declare that the era of linear TV is already over, and Netflix and Amazon have come hard on the heels of a boom in production of original drama and comedy by the likes of AMC and FX in the U.S.”

On the global market, the U.S. is the worldwide leader in programming, making up an estimated 33 percent of worldwide expenditure at $43 billion invested across free-to-air, pay TV and online, per IHS.

NEW YORK—The number of regular viewers for original digital video programming has increased by nearly 18 million since 2013, with the “2016 Original Digital Video Study” from the Interactive Advertising Bureau indicating that the current number of regular viewers is around 63 million. According to the study, those who regularly tune in to digital video content actually prefer it to more traditional TV programming, including primetime TV, which IAB says is a first.

This growth is being led by the 18-34 age group, particularly males in that age range, which are twice as likely as adults 35 and older to watch made-for-digital content, IAB says. Some of the top reasons cited for watching digital content were viewing flexibility and exclusive, original content. Consumers also maintain a positive perception of digital video, describing it is “innovative,” “younger,” “unique” and “new.”

Digital video viewers also say they remember ads more, with 38 percent claiming they do compared to 29 percent a year ago. Among 18-34 year olds, 48 percent say they are more like to remember an ad shown with original digital video content (more than the 27 percent in 2015). Of all respondents, 36 percent said they find ads shown during original digital video content to be “more interesting.”

In addition, IAB indicates that the audience for digital video programming has seen an increase in median household income; up 9 percent from 2015.

“This growing format not only attracts a valuable young demographic, but also appeals to the notoriously hard-to-reach audience of cord-cutters/nevers,” said Anna Bager, senior vice president and general manager, mobile and video, IAB. “So, it is no wonder that marketers and media buyers are crowding NewFronts presentations to see the latest in premium original digital video programming.”

To read the full report, visit iab.com/originalvideo.