European public broadcasters’ future investment in original content challenged
Publicly-funded TV broadcasters are the biggest spenders on original content across the big five European TV markets (UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy), spending a combined €5.65bn in 2018, but changes in the sector and increased competition mean broadcaster original content investment is under threat.
The influence of public broadcasters in content commissioning is threatened as other groups begin to spend more on content. With traditional TV groups facing stiff competition from deep-pocketed global SVoD players and pay TV platforms and an increased focus on local content among those players, the proportion of original content spend accounted for by public broadcasters in Europe is falling. While public broadcasters in the big five European countries contributed 53% of the spend on originated content in 2013, they only accounted for 46% of this expenditure in 2018 (-13%). At the same time, the proportion of originated spend originating from commercial broadcasters increased from 32% to 35% (+9%) and the spend from pay TV groups increased from 16% to 19% (+19%).
Public funding of TV has stagnated in recent years and finding new streams of income is becoming crucial for public broadcasters. Some are making a foray into the subscription streaming world: BBC announced the UK launch of its BritBox platform in partnership with ITV for the last quarter of 2019, and France Télévisions’ Salto platform, developed along with commercial broadcasters TF1 and M6, is expected to launch in Q1 2020 after being delayed by regulators.
Despite market pressures, in 2018, the expenditure of Germany’s public broadcasters ARD and ZDF was €2.58bn, while the UK’s BBC spent €1.59bn on original programming. The BBC is also Europe’s current biggest commissioner of content, with 225 upcoming TV programmes in development or production, consisting of 140 unscripted and 85 scripted shows. To expand their premium drama slates, European public broadcasters are also developing partnerships, such as The Alliance announced in 2018 by France Télévisions, RAI and ZDF, which aims to produce high-profile TV series dedicated to local and international audiences. Other European partners could join going forward, with Spain’s RTVE in talks to co-produce a series.
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