The gross cash spend on the global production and licensing of new content for streaming platforms reached a new high last year, rising by 16.4% in 2020 to reach $220bn, as per the research from UK-based firm Purely.
Demand for the newer and unique content is on rise. The Walt Disney Company emerged as the biggest single global spender on content in 2020, with a gross total of $28.6bn last year, which is more than the $27.7bn spent across the whole of Asia in the same period.
Despite a year of uncertainty and production hiatuses due to the global pandemic, Purely Streamonomics reckons streaming platforms have set the global film and TV industry on a trajectory of accelerated growth with no imminent ceiling in sight.
The Purely report further says, the new milestone will likely be surpassed this year as well, with Purely anticipating a total spend of more than $250bn in 2021.
The single spender in this universe on content remains The Walt Disney Company with a grossed-up total of $28.6 billion for 2020 – which is more than spend across the whole of Asia ($27.7 billion) last year.
The recent announcement that Warner Media and Discovery are being combined into a unified media empire whose content spending totalled $20.8 billion means that Netflix has now been pushed into third place on the Hollywood spending charts with its $15.1 billion outlay last year.
Once Amazon completes its own acquisition of MGM, that combined entity would rank as the fourth largest North American production force with a content spend of $11.8 billion.
On that basis these top four companies alone, with combined spending of $76.3 billion, almost equates to the entire worldwide spending outside of North America ($77.3 billion).
Purely Streamonomics’ global research found that indie content spending jumped by 25.3% year-on-year in 2020 and now accounts for 65.5% of the world’s film and TV production activity.
