Most Active Film Commissions in Year 2025 (Till Sep’25)

Film commissions have become increasingly strategic players in the entertainment industry, stepping up efforts to attract productions, nurture local talent, and secure investments across filming, production, post-production, and animation. Their proactive initiatives have fueled regional economic growth, strengthened creative ecosystems, and fostered high-impact industry collaborations.

Several film commissions—along with national entertainment bodies and ministries of culture, communication, and commerce—have intensified their activities to support production. Governments worldwide are deploying aggressive measures to drive employment, support early-stage projects, and empower emerging content creators. To remain competitive and attract international productions, they have revamped tax incentive structures, introduced cash grants, expanded cashback schemes, and rolled out new tax breaks. Additionally, major trade events and strategic partnerships have been leveraged to position their markets as premier global production hubs.

Impact Deals – September 2025

High-Impact Deals are a spotlight on significant deals and partnerships shaping the global entertainment ecosystem. This section focuses on a range of unique signals Vitrina has picked up in the last month, including innovative financing, new distribution models, and cross-industry collaborations that offer a glimpse into the evolving business of content.

1. PBS KIDS Commissions Full Series of 39 half-hour episodes of Super Why’s Comic Book Adventures from 9 Story Media Group
   
   PBS KIDS has commissioned a full, 39-episode series of Super Why’s Comic Book Adventures from 9 Story Media Group, with animation by Brown Bag Films, for an exclusive Fall 2026 U.S. premiere. This greenlight is a low-risk strategic move, justified by the original short-form content’s massive success (over 159 million streams), which helps de-risk the large investment in this proven literacy franchise. For PBS KIDS, the deal secures vital content for its digital platform strategy. For 9 Story, it provides a stable production pipeline for its studio while allowing them to keep global rights for distribution and merchandise, ensuring long-term revenue. This deal highlights a growing industry trend where platforms use the performance of short digital content as a required test before approving expensive, full-series commissions.

2. ReelShort Commissions First Canadian Microdrama, Adapting 1980s Bollywood Film

ReelShort is making a strategic investment by commissioning “The Billionaire’s Fake Wife,” a microdrama adapted from the 1980s Bollywood film Kissi Se Na Kehna. This move establishes a new production base in Vancouver with Service Street Pictures to achieve three goals: diversify its content supply by leveraging Canada’s incentives, reduce creative risk by adapting proven, well-known Bollywood content for romance viewers, and guarantee the continuous high-volume output needed for its mobile-first, freemium model. This deal validates the growing professionalism of the vertical drama sector, mirroring investments by competitors like Caracol Televisión and setting a clear precedent for traditional studios such as Lionsgate.

3. ITV Studios’ Zoo 55 Licenses Celebrity Talk and Docuseries Video Content to Spotify

The video licensing deal between ITV Studios’ Zoo 55 and Spotify is a strategic move that confirms the “vodcast” format is a profitable way to distribute premium, unscripted library content, such as The Graham Norton Show. This partnership allows ITV Studios to earn extra revenue and gain global reach by licensing specific video compilations to Spotify’s unique, non-traditional TV audience. This is a key example of how companies are now selling digital rights separately from standard TV or streaming deals. For Spotify, getting this well-known content is a cheap way to attract and keep subscribers by adding appealing video to its main audio platform. For the content owners, this deal shows that library assets are a reliable way to maintain digital engagement.

4. Sony Pictures Partners with Little Dot Studios to Launch Six German-Language YouTube Channels
Sony Pictures Entertainment Germany and Little Dot Studios have partnered for a Content Licensing and Channel Management deal to monetize the over 3,000 hours of library content (like Dawson’s Creek) in the DACH region. They are launching six genre-specific, ad-supported (AVOD) channels on YouTube. This move gives Sony a new revenue stream and hands over operations to a third party, while Little Dot gets access to valuable, premium digital ad space. This model is a reliable way to maintain audience engagement using stable library content. The deal shows a larger market trend where studios now rely on specialist vendors to quickly launch many local AVOD/FAST channels, forcing competitors to organize their catalogs and rapidly fill content gaps internationally.

5. ProSiebenSat.1/Disney+ Licensing Deal: Die Cooking Academy

The partnership for the 120-episode German daily series, Die Cooking Academy, is a Licensing/Cooperation agreement between ProSiebenSat.1 (Seller) and Disney+ (Buyer). The deal disrupts traditional release rules by giving Disney+ a co-exclusive premium streaming window that begins four days before the series airs for free on ProSieben. This approach allows ProSiebenSat.1 to monetize the most valuable window first to secure its investment, while Disney+ gains fresh, high-volume local content to boost subscriptions and ad-tier growth in the DACH region.

6. Delta Air Lines / YouTube In-Flight Entertainment Partnership
The deal between Delta and YouTube is a strategic partnership that turns in-flight entertainment (IFE) into a tool for customer loyalty. Delta licenses a specially curated, ad-free selection of YouTube creator content to meet the demand for contemporary short-form media. A crucial part of the deal is offering U.S. SkyMiles members a 14-day free trial of YouTube Premium. This directly links watching content with collecting valuable customer data and boosting loyalty program sign-ups. The move positions the Creator Economy as a core premium content option for airlines, changing IFE spending from a passive cost to an active strategy for acquiring high-value subscriber data.

7. Amazon Prime Video Solidifies 2026 French Slate with New Local Originals Commissions
Amazon Prime Video is accelerating its production of French original content for its 2026 slate, a move that goes beyond simply meeting local quotas. The core strategy is to secure market leadership through exclusive content. This aggressive, preemptive investment gives Prime Video a crucial competitive advantage, especially with the rival Netflix-TF1 content partnership set to begin in 2026. By building its own content pipeline, Prime Video creates a strong defense against market volatility and ensures it has the exclusive shows needed for both attracting and keeping subscribers in France’s highly competitive streaming market.

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