Report: Thanks to HBO Max, Other U.S. Streaming Services, British TV Exports Rebound to Pre-Pandemic Levels
The U.K. has a tradition of exporting the very finest in entertainment it has to offer. From “Monty Python” to the Beatles, America has been taken by storm time and again by British entertainment sensations. Great Britain is still an important provider of content around the world, and its TV exports have once again reached pre-pandemic levels thanks in part to American streaming services, according to a report from Pact and 3Vision.
The report found that, although British TV exports to the U.S. fell 11% in 2021-22, that decline is not the fault of streaming services. Nearly every major streaming service in the U.S. increased its purchase of content from British distributors in the last year. HBO Max saw the biggest increase in purchases from the U.K. with 77% of British distributors saying they had sold a show to that service, up from 44% the year before.
The high level of increase for HBO Max can be accounted for by examining parent company Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming strategy over the last year. Ever since David Zaslav took over as CEO when WarnerMedia and Discovery merged in April, the company has been on a cost-cutting crusade, looking for $3 billion in total savings. But if the company is so interested in saving money, why is it buying so many shows from U.K. production companies?
The answer is that it’s much cheaper for HBO Max to buy the rights to finished shows than it is to pay the costs of producing shows from scratch. Series like “His Dark Materials” with large casts and fantasy elements can carry bloated production budgets, but by simply buying them from their production studios already-made, WBD sidesteps those production pitfalls.
As content budgets fall and more streaming services begin to focus on finally attempting to turn a profit instead of singularly focusing on increasing subscriber numbers, it would not be surprising to see the number of British series on domestic streamers increase. More streaming companies are already partnering with British production houses to share the load of production costs. This year, 23% of British distributors said they had helped produce shows with Netflix, Prime Video, discovery+, and Peacock. Interestingly only 15% said they had partnered with HBO Max, indicating that streamer’s preference for buying already-finished shows.
The numbers do not exactly indicate another British Invasion, but they do signify the importance of streaming in a global media landscape. U.S.-based streaming services are a powerful tool for foreign content distributors, who can either sell the rights to fully-formed shows or partner with American studios to share costs and increase profits.
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