U.S. SVOD Operators Gaining Ground in Europe as Public Broadcasting Funding Declines

variety.com:

Ed Meza @edmezavarDespite expectations to the contrary, the share of Europe’s audiovisual market controlled by U.S. players grew by only four percentage points from 1996 to 2020, reaching 31%, according to the European Audiovisual Observatory’s 2022 Key Trends report.It’s one of a number of surprising results identified by the study, which the Observatory presented on Thursday at a special event at Series Mania in Lille, France.When excluding European public broadcasting rivals, the share held by U.S.-owned companies climbs to 44%, with heavyweights Sky, Netflix, Amazon and Dazn accounting for two-thirds of that figure.Looking specifically at all SVOD subscriptions in Europe, however, Netflix, Amazon, Apple and Disney dominate, accounting for 72% in 2020, with 40 other players making up the remaining 28%.

U.S.-backed services and their large portfolios of thematic channels also hold 19% of all TV licenses in Europe. The report also found that while SVOD services are increasingly investing in original European productions: 2020 saw the release of 45% more TV fiction titles despite the COVID-19 crisis.

Netflix was second only to BBC that year in the commissioning of TV series released. Yet when considering all players across Europe, global streamers in 2020 delivered only about 10% of all TV series produced, with legacy broadcasters and their SVOD services accounting for 90%.Another surprising find: The relationship between cinema and SVOD appears to be more complementary than competitive.Subscription services continued to grow in 2020 and 2021, while cinemas were forced to close.