Decline in European fiction production

A new report from the European Audiovisual Observatory has found the boom in high-end TV series in Europe has come to an end with the number of series (13 episodes or fewer) declining by 2% on the previous year.

The number of fiction titles in production fell by 6% across all formats.

Over half of fiction titles produced in Europe in 2023 were commissioned by public service broadcasters (55%), followed by private broadcasters (31%) and global streamers (14%).

The falls follow a brief period of growth in the years following the pandemic.

On average, over 1,200 titles, 23,000 episodes and 14,000 hours are produced in Europe each year (countries covered: EU27, the United Kingdom, Norway, and Switzerland).

Over 2000 production companies/groups produced at least one fiction title between 2015 and 2023, but only 3% of them did so for each of the last nine years.

Despite the downturn, some of the fundamental characteristics of TV fiction production in Europe remained unchanged. Telenovelas/soaps accounted for the bulk (61%) of hours produced. And more than half (58%) of all titles produced were series with 13-episodes-or-less-per-season.

The UK with 159 titles in 2023 was eminently the main producer of high-end series, ahead of Germany (119), France (92), Italy (58) and Spain (58).

BBC, Netflix, Amazon, ZDF and ARD were the five main commissioners of series with 13-episodes-or-less-per-season.Public broadcasters commissioned 55% of titles and 39% of hours.

Global streamers accounted for 5% of hours, as they do not invest in long-running TV series.

Sources: www.broadbandtvnews.com