Last Word 22
DAY 3
A good time to be small
T
he content business is at a fascinating Jordan Pinto looks at how the global streaming revolution is putting small point in its history. The rise of streaming companies with big ideas in pole position. has initiated a period of sweeping consolidation, as even the biggest In this seller’s market, production companies companies in the history of entertainment of all sizes are seizing the opportunity to sell are looking around and realising they need to shows to buyers that, until just a few years ago, get bigger if they are to survive this period of either didn’t exist or weren’t geographically In this seller’s market, prolonged disruption. accessible. production companies The ‘big’ media industry news has come thick It’s true that the situation around IP retention of all sizes are seizing and fast this year: the mega-merger between is contentious when it comes to working the opportunity to sell shows to Discovery and WarnerMedia; the ongoing row with the streamers, but as the coproduction buyers that, until just a few years over the privatisation of Channel 4 in the UK; market has evolved, producers have become ago, either didn’t exist or weren’t Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs’ acquisitionincreasingly deft at working within a mixed hungry media venture shelling out billions for economy of selling and retaining IP. geographically accessible. companies like Moonbug and Hello Sunshine; As the intensity of the streaming wars has Jordan Pinto Amazon buying MGM; CJ ENM buying picked up, so too has the opportunity to strike Endeavor Content. And, um, the metaverse. it big with career-defining projects, both for While these grab headlines and have a production companies and talent. tendency to suck some of the oxygen out of the Disney+, Peacock, Discovery+ and the rebranded Take Netflix’s South Korean drama hit Squid room, the race for scale is, conversely, creating Paramount+, to name a few) has significantly Game, which was reportedly made on a budget a dual reality where being small, nimble and enhanced the prospects for production of US$21.4m. The nine-episode show has gone independent is one of the biggest advantages companies looking to get their shows financed, some way towards redefining the phrase ‘highavailable to content producers and creators. greenlit, produced and beamed across the world. end drama’ – a term that has come to denote The TV business has always been about scale, Throw in all the local content quotas that many projects with budgets two, three or four times but the past five to seven years have seen a streamers now face and it starts to feel like boom higher than Squid Game’s. pronounced elevation of the stakes. This is only time for producers. In terms of viewership, it has also created a expected to increase in the years ahead, with Some have speculated that the streaming new tier for what is possible in the streaming many industry watchers forecasting further bubble will eventually burst. But based on era, if we are to believe Netflix’s viewing metrics. consolidation as media companies bulk up everything one hears and sees, that point seems Since launching in September, it has become to give themselves a fighting chance in the distant. If anything, the investment in content Netflix’s most-watched series to date and the streaming wars. only looks set to increase. most viewed programme in some 94 countries. But the monumental investment While not every company has a being ploughed into stocking dark and brutal survival drama on its streaming shelves is only a good thing development slate, many have a scripted for producers and content creators, property they believe can tap into the who now have the opportunity to sell zeitgeist, if given the right platform. content in their local markets and also Small to medium-sized production to the plethora of streamers setting up companies have never been closer to production hubs and commissioning achieving that goal amid this sea of teams in local markets around the globe. buyers and opportunities. The next allThe ability to sell to both local consuming streaming hit has got to come broadcasters and international SVoDs from somewhere. The chances are that has been around for several years, when it does emerge, you won’t have but the arrival of the second wave heard of the production company that Squid Game of streaming services (HBO Max, makes it.
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The official Content London Daily magazine is published by C21 Media Ltd (www.c21media.net). Editorial director: Ed Waller. Reporters: Jonathan Webdale, Clive Whittingham, Nico Franks, Jordan Pinto, Karolina Kaminska, Michael Pickard, Gün Akyuz, Ruth Lawes, Oli Hammett. Chief sub editor: Gary Smitherman. Senior sub editor: John Winfield. Photographer: Simon Wilkinson. Production: Eleanore Hayes, Courtney Brewster. Events: Gemma Burt, Chloe Hocking. Content London Daily client contacts (C21Media): Odiri Iwuji, Peter Treacher, Hayley Salt. Editor-in-chief & managing director, C21Media: David Jenkinson. Meet the Content London Daily editorial team in the Horsfall Room (Kings Place) or via press@c21media.net. © C21Media 2021
