Fewer New Shows Commissioned in December - How That Will Impact Streaming Services in 2022
Despite an enormous expected content spend in 2022, is the pipeline actually slowing down a bit? Ampere Analysis recently released its December 2021: Commissioning Analytics tear sheet, showing a downward trend for newly commissioned shows, with the lowest activity of new TV series across all markets since a year prior in January 2021.
There were just 614 new titles announced across all markets. This decrease was notably higher among linear networks. Additionally, December was also a slow month for renewals, with 52 fewer series renewed for another season than in November 2021.
In the upward trends, December’s top commissioned genre was documentaries; scripted series and video-on-demand were in high demand as well. In terms of the top commissioned themes, Drama was the highest, and the runner-up was Comedy with Crime & Thriller close behind.
Drama was in first place in Ampere's March 2020 study as well, with 500 projects in the works. Documentaries had 350 titles in development for that month period.
In the larger scheme of things, December’s most active non-U.S. market by commissions was Japan, with 62 titles. In second place was the UK with 52, China commissioned 40 titles, and India had 31.
According to FX Networks researchers, the number of English-language scripted original series for adults rose 13% in 2021 to a new height of 559 titles airing across broadcast, cable, and streaming services. In 2019, the peak number was 532 series, which substantially dipped to 493 in 2020.
Overall, the number of adult original scripted series has increased over the last 20 years. Ampere also found that between December 2018 and December 2019, unscripted projects in development across 160 streaming services increased from 24% to 51%, whereas the number dropped among 650 linear players, decreasing from 44% to 41%.
All of that to say, there are a lot of companies with their eyes on scripted series, especially drama and comedy.
Netflix Had a Slow Month as Well
Which streaming service is the main focus of Ampere’s study? Not surprisingly, it’s Netflix.
This month, in particular, was also the slowest month of commissioning for Netflix since April 2020. The company announced 31 fewer titles than in December 2020. However, Netflix ordered an increasing amount of scripted titles, especially for Brazil. The streamer’s overall top commission had scripted titles (71%) as the winner, with the top genre in Comedy (35%).
And despite the low volume, it won by a landslide compared to services like discovery+, HBO Max, Disney+, Paramount+, Apple TV+, Peacock, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and Viaplay.
Brazilian television series represented the highest proportion of non-USA Netflix commissions, which was 12%. In January 2021, Netflix was reported to accumulate 19 million household accounts in Brazil, almost as many as its 25.49 million for Asia.
Speaking of Asia, in April of 2021, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video had pledged to finance about 16 Japanese anime projects. Experts from Ampere Analysis estimate content spend will reach around $240 billion by the end of 2022.
Also, the company has previously reported that 100+ million households globally viewed at least one anime title on Netflix between October 2019 and September 2020, which is a 50% increase from 2018.
Now that we are in 2022, the motive is clear. Netflix has plans to release the most massive slate of Korean shows in the streamer’s history to date, with 25+ Korean shows.
According to Richard Cooper, research director at Ampere Analysis, “Between Q4 2019 and Q3 2021, Netflix increased the volume of original titles being commissioned, with international now the focus of activity.” Although this study was back in August 2021, the same focus remains.
Netflix
Netflix is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 3,000+ movies, 2,000+ TV Shows, and Netflix Originals like Stranger Things, Squid Game, The Crown, Tiger King, and Bridgerton. They are constantly adding new shows and movies. Some of their Academy Award-winning exclusives include Roma, Marriage Story, Mank, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.