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The UK Film & TV Market: Insights into Content Demand and Supply (2021-2024)
In this article, we explore the UK Film & TV market, specifically focusing on content demand and supply.
Regardless of your connection to the UK Film and TV industry, this report offers valuable insights to guide your business decisions throughout the rest of 2024.
In summary, the report indicates a decline in the purchasing power of commissioners in the UK over the past four years, with this year presenting particularly tough challenges. As commissioners strive to meet audience expectations, consider how you can collaborate with them to offer cost-effective solutions for delivering high-quality content at competitive prices. This is the key takeaway from the findings presented in the report.
Methodology Overview:
Company Selection: We have identified and chosen the leading 60 broadcasters and streamers headquartered in the UK. This selection encompasses a range of media entities including Public Sector Broadcasters like BBC, Channel 4, and ITV; BVOD platforms such as ITVX and BBC iPlayer; as well as SVOD services like MUBI, Lionsgate+, NOW TV, and DAZN.
Content Analysis: Our focus is on content originating from the UK, either produced or commissioned by UK-based companies. We analyze releases from 2021 onwards and scrutinize projects at various stages of production since 2019, including unreleased content.
Deal Activity Examination: We delve into the deal-making activities of these top 60 broadcasters and streamers, particularly highlighting international acquisitions. Our analysis spans the last four years (2021-2024), aiming to discern emerging patterns in the content supply chain. These insights reveal expected trend for the remainder of 2024, in order to meet audience demand for content, whether sourced domestically or from international markets.
What Buyers Want: UK Film & TV Market
Live Session: UK Film & TV Market -Content Demand, Supply gaps and Opportunities
Join us for a live session to explore further insights into the UK Film & TV market. We’ll discuss upcoming opportunities for producing and licensing new content in the region.
Local UK Productions - Released Projects
The chart above shows annual content supply (released titles) in UK. These are titles with UK as one of the countries of origin – meaning, they have at least one or more production studios headquartered in the UK. They also include commissioners such as PSB’s like BBC, ITV and Channel 4
Averaging first-run releases and season renewals over the past three years, we find that by May 2024, local UK productions have achieved 40% of their annual target for 2024.
Full list of titles – UK releases for 2021 ,UK releases for 2022 , UK releases for 2023, UK releases for 2024
Release Radar
Unreleased Projects (Top Genres)
Next, we examine content in various stages of production to understand the release outlook for the rest of 2024. These stages include “In Production,” “Post-Production,” “Development,” “Planned,” “Pilots,” and “2024 Season Renewals/Returning Series.” Analyzing this list also reveals the top genres, giving us an idea of the types of new content we can expect in the near future.
Local UK productions could achieve approximately 60% of their annual average for UK-originated content during the remainder of 2024.
Full list of unreleased titles : Not yet released UK Films and TV shows (First-Run’s), Season Renewals for 2024
We examined the local UK release radar and its domestic capacity to meet consumer demands, focusing on projects either in production or already released. A closer examination of the deal-making patterns among buyers provides further insights into new productions likely to be announced, as well as potential international acquisitions aimed at meeting the demand for 2024. This information informs us about the additional supply of new local and international content entering the UK market.
UK Buyer Deal Intel
UK Buyer Deal Intel : IP/Development, Productions, Acquisitions
In the chart above, we examine the deal-making patterns of the top 60 UK-based broadcasters and streamers. (See full list of companies considered)
- New production transactions show a steady decline year on year
- Acquisition teams could look to acquire more content to compensate for the fall in home grown productions
See all deals here: 2021 Deal Intel , 2022 Deal Intel, 2023 Deal Intel, 2024 Deal Intel (Jan’24 – May’24)
Licensing Deal Intel [Acquisitions]
Commissioning Deal Intel [Productions]
The two charts above display commissioning and licensing deal-making trends among the top 60 broadcasters and streamers in the UK, categorized by top genres to discern emerging patterns.
- Top emerging genres for productions and acquisitions include Drama, Documentaries, Comedy, Reality, and Crime.
- Commissioning transactions are projected to increase by 50% throughout the remainder of the year.
- Acquisitions are expected to rise by up to 45% in the latter half of 2024 compared to the period from January 2024 to May 2024.
- Pre-buy opportunities involve forming partnerships with entertainment investment firms or exploring co-production opportunities to secure gap funding.
This data also corroborates an observation made in a report published by O&O. “Whilst fully funded production will continue for core programming, there will be an increase in the demand for more complex funding models to gap-fund in the future. The notion that a broadcaster will be able to sustain a fully funded slate is becoming less realistic due to growing economic pressures.”
See all deals here : Acquisition Deals: 2024 Acquisition Transactions, 2023 Acquisition Transactions, 2022 Acquisition Transactions, 2021 Acquisition Transactions . Production Deals : 2024 Production Transactions, 2023 Production Transactions, 2022 Production Transactions, 2021 Production Transactions
Based on the analysis, 80% of the anticipated content demand in the UK market will be met, suggesting that another 20% will need to be fulfilled by other sources.
SVOD Vs PSB deal activity in UK
While deal-making trends suggest a gradual decline for both PSBs and SVOD platforms, PSBs demonstrate notably stronger performance compared to streaming networks. SVOD platforms, relying on subscriber revenues, face tough competition from government-funded PSBs. However, there seems to be an opportunity for SVODs to address the content gap for 2024. How the year pans out remains to be seen, but in today’s data-driven environment, critical insights revealed in this analysis are pivotal for strategizing the paths forward for both SVODs and PSBs in balancing the supply and demand of content in the UK.
Opportunities
- Distributors – Cost-optimised deals such short-term licenses for new releases with favourable get out clauses for the UK market. Distributors can also explore providing curated content packages for reality titles and reserving secondary rights. Cheaper topical international documentaries with english subs and dubs could also be worth exploring.
- Producers – Pre-Buy partnerships, Co-Pro opportunities providing gap funding to recently announced projects
- Investors/Financiers – Gap financing nearly complete projects
- SVOD/PSB’s – curated and cost-effective acquisitions of international titles for UK.
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