Markets

Main market-leading data and analytics firms such as Ampere Analysis; Glance – Médiamétrie; 3Vision, Parrot Analytics and K7 Media were a crucial part of the Content Budapest first edition agenda. Hannah Walsh from Ampere Analysis affirmed content spending is set to see the lowest growth in over a decade in 2023, but "Central and Eastern Europe will see the second-highest growth in spend across the globe, driven by global streaming services that invest in original local content." She also detailed that linear commissions produced in CEE are 67% unscripted and 33% scripted, while VoD commissions produced in CEE are Scripted 79% and Unscripted 21%. On the other hand, commissions produced by platforms represent 21%,". Regarding content trends and genres in the CEE region, Walsh expressed a high demand for dramas in linear channels, among romantic, crime, contemporary, and comedy genres. In the VoD sector, crime dramas are the top-demanded content, followed by comedy, romantic and modern dramas. "Due to their appeal among local and international audiences, 100 CEE-produced scripted TV shows were streamed or broadcasted internationally in April 2023. 25 % were crime dramas, 21% romantic drama; comedy-drama and romantic comedy took the 12%; the contemporary drama the 7% and the rest of the content the 24%," she detailed.
Siméon Mirzayantz, from Glance – Médiamétrie, asserted that "linear TV television in the CEE region is still alive, with SVOD growth slowing down and AVOD opportunities emerging". "European viewing remains one of the highest, and the time-shifted increases but remains limited," he said. In the CEE region, TV remains dominant "despite dynamic streaming growth in the Americas," he added. Mirzayantz also showed the FAST channels as a current trend. "They are still emerging," he said. "There is an increasing platform number like Tubi, Pluto, Xumo, Freeve, Roku, itvX, RokutenTV, and they are so popular because they are free, easy to use, they are related to well-known brands and starting to invest in content," he said. The Glance executive also affirmed that the key takes away for Easter Europe in the future is sustainable growth through optimum windowing. "The region is open to foreign content; the success of this content peaked at 20% of the top 10 best audiences in 2021," he explained. "To maximize the revenue, we have to consider further windows from current and canceled shows, co-windowing, and multiple windows between streaming and linear TV," he affirmed. "The foreign acquisitions represent 57% of all launches in the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, and Ukraine," he detailed. "The launch of Central and Eastern shows in the streaming platforms is very strong," he said. "The variety shows, the reality competition, and the game shows are also prevalent," Mirzayantz noted. He listed "Deal or no Deal,"; "Beat the Chasers," and "Who Knew?" as the more famous.
Jack Davison, from 3Vision, affirmed that US TV series distribution has significantly evolved over the last five years, with 86% for SVOD platforms, 3% for Free TV, and 10% for Pay TV in 2022/2023. "The distribution of US shows in CEE is changing like the rest of the world," he said. As an example, Davison mentioned that 78% of US shows premiering in Poland in 2023 were on Studio owned services. On the other hand, "Studio TV series distribution shifted from 2020 with the D2C revolution and the Studios slowed in 2022 and despite the returning to third party sales still pipeline," he mentioned. For Davison, the key to follow is how the flows adjust throughout 2023 and beyond. "The competition is intense, and there isn't one global blueprint," he said.
Besides, Alex Cameron from Parrot Analytics, mentioned that a 5-year look at the global share of demand by genre illustrates a shift of genre preferences over time. "There are increases in the share of demand since 2018 primarily from Animation (gains in Anime, losses in Animated Comedies), the Documentary and Children genres experience marginal gains, and Reality and Comedy are decreasing," he illustrated. At a regional level, Cameron said that Sci-Fi and Kids' content exhibits high demand levels, whereas Reality has hit saturation. Regarding the travel ability of the shows, the Parrot executive mentioned that content from Turkey and Israel shows both high local demand and high travel ability to other markets. Meanwhile, Romania and Czechia are showing potential room for growth and attracting international viewers. Cameron also highlighted that knowing a show's audience consumption affinities is critical to understanding its competitive and strategic value. He showed the revenue of Netflix shows 41 weeks after the season 1 premiere. Squid Game' is first on the list at $128, followed by 'Stranger Things at $106; 'Bridgerton' at $95; 'The Umbrella Academy' at $95; 'Money Heist' at $76; 'The Crown' at $43, and 'Ozark' at $40". "We can now assign a value to content and it can have a different value depending on the platform and the market," he detailed.
David Ciaramella from K7 Media provided a complete analysis of trends in the CEE region and beyond based on data from K7's annual Tracking the Giants reports, highlighting the most successful formats and genres of the moment and shedding light on what gives a concept or story the ability to translate across multiple territories. The report shows the 100 tracking scripted and unscripted giants formats aired in 2022 and 2023. David Ciaramella mentioned the top 9 most-adapted scripted formats, starting with the crime series "Your Honor" from Yes Studios with seven new versions aired, the thriller "Liar" from All3media with six adaptations, the comedy "No Activity" from WBITTVP/MassMedia Format also with six adaptations; the comedy-drama "Call my Agent" from France TV Distribution with five versions aired; the telenovela "Dear Daddies" from Paramount Global adapted in five territories, and the last titles have four adaptations, the comedy-drama "Der Lehrer (The Teacher)" from Sony Pictures Television; the series "Doctor Foster" from BBC Studios and the comedy "La Familia" from Armoza Formats. In terms of genres, comedy is the most adapted content between 2022 and 2023, followed by Crime; Thriller; Comedy, Drama, Romance; Family, Telenovela, and Relationship. Ciaramella also mentioned that the UK is at the top of the list of formats originators by adaptations, followed by Israel, South Korea, the USA, Turkey, Argentina, and Japan.