By Tim Peterson

This week’s Future of TV Briefing recaps the conversations from last week’s Digiday Future of TV Programming Forum, during which production and development executives discussed the state of the programming market amid the economic downturn.

• Market watch
The push-pull of panel-based measurement
Election Night at NBC News
Disney’s cost-cutting, Netflix’s live debut, Hollywood’s potential writers strike and more

Market watch

The key hits:

• TV and streaming show buyers are cutting their programming budgets.
• Production budgets have become an earlier part of the development process.
• Buyers are prioritizing buzzy shows with big-name talent attached.

The pendulum of the TV and streaming programming market has swung wildly over the past few years. There was the frenzy of the early streaming wars followed by the pandemic-induced production hiatus, the race back to set and the resulting production backlog.

Now the pendulum is in a downswing as show buyers and show makers seek to rein in costs and safeguard programming bets amid the economic downturn.

TV and streaming show buyers including Disney, Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery are pulling back their programming budgets. Meanwhile, production costs have risen with inflation, interest rates, supply-chain challenges and increased demand for cast and crew members.

During the Digiday Future of TV Programming Forum on Nov. 10, production and development executives from Magical Elves, Project X Entertainment and Telemundo assessed the state of the programming market and discussed how they are contending with the economic conditions.

“I do believe it’s a correction in the market,” said Paul Neinstein, co-CEO of production company Project X Entertainment, which has a portfolio that include movie “Scream” and upcoming Netflix show “The Night Agent.” “But I do think it’ll come back. That’s my two cents.”

“The market is definitely very tight right now. A lot of decisions are being driven by costs. There’s consolidation happening across the board in our business. So we’re definitely seeing less buys,” said Jo Sharon, co-CEO of production company Magical Elves, which produces “Nailed It!” for Netflix and “Top Chef” for NBCUniversal’s Bravo.

Speaking from the buying perspective as head of development and production for NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises’s Hispanic streaming group, Danny Villa acknowledged the “belt-tightening happening across the board.”

But he also pointed out that show buyers’ wallets remain open. For example, Telemundo’s Tplus streaming service plans to premiere the first original shows this week as a part of a four-series original programming slate that will double to eight or nine series next year with per-episode budgets ranging from the six to seven figures akin to the budgets of shows NBCUniversal airs on its traditional TV networks and Peacock streaming service, according to Villa.

“I wouldn’t say that our budgets are being affected in a way that concerns me on the creative side,” he said.

Nonetheless, budgets are a concern in the general market. Typically, setting one for a show would be a secondary step in its production process, but now it’s an early part of the development process. 

“We very much are talking about money and cost and what the budget is as part of the development …read more

Source:: Digiday

Author: Aaron