Global content spend has increased by 65 per cent over the last 10 years, Ampere Analysis has found.
As the streaming wars heat up, TV, film and sports content spend has grown from $100 billion in 2008 to $165 billion in 2018, climbing by $50 billion in the last five years alone.
The report cited the emergence of streaming services as the cause for broadcasters to increase the proportion of revenue devoted to content and rights expenditure.
In 2013, a broadcaster would spend an average 41 per cent of its revenue on content rights; by the end of 2019 this will have increased to 50 per cent, according to Ampere’s forecast.
The content spending boom is spearheaded by leading US networks, with Disney increasing its outlay from $10 billion in 2013 to $13 billion in 2018; NBCUniversal’s content expenditure has risen by over $4 billion in the last five years.
“Where SVoD has led in content spend, others have followed and this has resulted in a positive feedback loop, stoking the fires of competition for content and driving up spending,” said Daniel Gadher, research manager at Ampere Analysis. “But the nature of competition is soon set to change as the big studio groups pursue their own services. This will create opportunities for local and global indie producers as Netflix and other streaming services seek to replace the content retracted by existing content partners.”
