Crystal ball gazing

While the analysts on previous pages have understandably focused on the turbulent economic headwinds the business looks to be facing in 2023, the industry’s executives are unsurprisingly more concerned about the personal cost of such turmoil.

For Kate Harrison, president of Stuff the British Stole producer Cream Productions in Canada, the negative knock-on effects of consolidation are set to bite even deeper into the business in 2023, meaning we could do with looking out for one another over the next 12 months.

“Partnerships with networks are going to be important this year, because their staff are getting shaken up on a human level. The TV community needs to be supportive of them because there’s been so much merger and acquisition activity, and nobody in the industry can deny that job cuts are

We’ve heard from the analysts, but what do leading content industry executives think and hope 2023 may bring and what are their priorities for the next 12 months?

By Nico Franks

happening all over the place – it’s just the nature of what’s going on right now. We all need each other,” says Harrison.

Another producer with concerns for the people who make up the industry in 2023 is Frank Spotnitz, founder and CEO at Big Light Productions: “In the industry at large, it’s really painful to watch all these smart, hardworking people lose their jobs because of all the consolidation arising as companies adjust to the streaming business model, which we now

Li peopl of all the consolidation ari busines know is not perfect. ov

“There’s been some over-investment on those platforms and that’s been bad news in the short term, which I’m sad about. This may sound like a weird thing for someone like me to say, but I think there’s just too much television right now.

Greenacre Films in the UK, meanwhile, believes the line between film and TV will continue to blur into 2023, especially in terms of their respective financial models.

“There’ll be more international coproductions due to the rising costs of production in 2023. When you consider financing production, television is becoming far more like film – it’s very hard to make anything in the UK for a tariff anymore, whether it’s for ITV, the BBC or the streamers.

“As a result of that, it’s our job to put those international relationships together, so even content that is made in the UK has to have an international partner if we’re going to achieve the kind of high-end quality we want to produce at Greenacre.”

“I hope 2023 will see a move to quality rather than quantity, because there’s just an awful lot of TV out there that is instantly forgettable. Shows aren’t being made for the right reasons –somebody’s algorithm has dictated what content to produce. I hope better decisions are made in the commissioning process. Less TV, but better, term, which I’m sad abou l telev a th of TV out there that i ha proce basically.” produ

Amanda Jenks, producer and co-founder at

Elsewhere, others agree with media research and insights company Ampere Analysis’s prediction that the year ahead will see the slowest growth in content spending in a decade, with the exception of the pandemic year of 2020. But many in the business still hope that some regions, such as Latin America, could fare better than others, as streaming services target markets where there is still room for growth.

Karni Ziv, head of drama and comedy, Keshet Broadcasting

Around the world, executives are waiting to see how 2023 will pan out because there has been a lot of movement and change in the TV industry. There have been many mergers, and companies are wondering whether the investments they’ve made are still the right agenda for them. We’re coming out of a hard economic year due to inflation and the war in Ukraine. Everyone is being cautious because money is not flowing freely out there. The questions people are asking are, ‘How much content can I buy?’ and/or, ‘How much can I produce?’

Kate Harrison, president, Cream

Productions

Commissioning budgets are tighter, non-scripted is cheaper and both broadcasters and streamers are recognising that some of the top-rated shows out there are non-scripted. Coproductions are going to be an opportunity as recession happens and advertisers are getting shaky. I also think non-scripted content will continue to be a priority for buyers, which is good news for Cream, as we produce a lot of shows in this space.

Frank Jastfelder, director of original production, scripted, Sky Deutschland

For 2023 and beyond, I’m curious about the rising popularity of shortform programming. Everyone seems to be talking about ‘snackable’ content, and shorts have become very popular on YouTube.

This could be a genre that opens new doors for producers in the future. When I look at my son and other kids his age, they have short attention spans and rarely watch anything that lasts longer than 45 minutes. We will see shows with even shorter durations, especially comedy, because it only takes seconds to tell jokes. With drama, it can take longer to establish characters and dig deeper into the story, but shortform might evolve to suit genres such as horror, fantasy and supernatural.

Amanda Jenks, producer and cofounder, Greenacre Films

Our key buzz phrase for 2023 is ‘local but global.’ The world is getting smaller and the commercial imperatives are changing. We made our drama Riches for ITVX and Amazon’s Prime Video, but even though it’s a show with the cultural specificity of being set in the black communities of London, it can travel much better to international markets because it has true authenticity.

Laura Fernández Espeso, CEO, The Mediapro Studio

What is happening with acquisitions did not happen before. Companies that were obsessed with original production are now opening up to new models. 2023 presents itself with many challenges, but also with many opportunities that I would not have thought I would have.

Pierluigi Gazzolo, president and chief transformation officer, TelevisaUnivision Wall Street’s attention to streamers has already changed. It’s no longer the top line, now it’s how close you’re going to get to breaking even. So if Latin America remains cost-efficient with great quality, we’re going to win. What you can do with the dollar in Mexico is unmatched in Hollywood, and it’s the same quality. Argentina, the same. Global streamers are going to do more and more things in Latin America just for that.

Emiliano Calemzuk, partner, Onza Américas

The days of streaming platforms spending like drunken sailors on new productions are ending. The OTTs can no longer continue spending at the same level to try to add new subscribers that may or may not arrive. In this type of ecosystem, what is interesting now is being able to offer top talent, along with coproductions, financial advantages such as tax incentives and programming that can work on multiple screens and territories.

Jerry Rodríguez, senior VP of fiction, Endemol Shine

Boomdog

Today the platforms are looking for two types of content: on the one hand, very large, important series that have the opportunity to be global hits, like [Netflix’s Mexican thriller series] Who Killed Sara?, and, on the other, productions with more moderate budgets. This allows them to release more content, such as comedies or romantic comedies. What is disappearing is that medium content, which has a significant cost but may not be global hits.