From global pay TV to a real-life television drama to the icy wilderness of of Finland’s Ivalo (oh yes), TV is an industry that just can’t stop moving. So, without further ado…
$183 billion in 2023 is what Digital TV Research stats say is going to equal the global revenues from TV subscribers that year. If that sounds like good news for the industry, well, not so fast. The new stats also tell us that pay TV revenues peaked in 2016 at $205 billion USD and are in a slow but steady decline now, even though by 2023 overall subscribers are projected to have increased by 9% from 2016. Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research, says, “North American revenues will fall by a huge US $22 billion between 2017 and 2023.”
29 percent of all upcoming original TV movies and series on Netflix are science fiction or fantasy. Sci-fi and fantasy have now become the most preferred genres among Netflix subscribers, moving past comedy (12% to 11%). It looks like sci-fi and fantasy are becoming more important in the minds of the service’s original TV viewers, if the staggering success of series like Stranger Things may be taken as any indication.
80 percent of Netflix’s US TV viewing is from licensed content, however, with just 20% from its original shows and series. And over on Hulu, licensed content makes up 97% of everything watched by subscribers. “Licensed content is the engagement engine that drives SVOD viewership, retention and revenue,” according to Christopher Coby of 7Park Data, which came up with the stats.
$69.3 million USD for fiscal year 2017 was the total pay for Leslie Moonves, Chairman and CEO of the CBS Corporation. But, some complicated and heated friction between CBS and rival Viacom, who are trying to negotiate a merger, could see Moonves move on. The thoughts of those in the know say that the powerful and highly respected Moonves wants to hand-pick his own team for the new company, but CBS’ Vice Chair Shari Redstone seems to want Viacom CEO Bob Bakish to take the reins. Talk about TV drama…
$6.9 billion USD in operating profit was what Disney Media Networks division reported from ESPN revenues at the close of its 2017 fiscal year. Disney is the owner of ESPN, although the latter, nearing 40 years old, has a lot of independence. Earlier this month, the TV sports giant launched an app for its new streaming service, “ESPN+.” Recently elected ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro states that the company’s deeper foray into streaming is is “an opportunity for us to serve sports fans in a way that no one else really can and at the same time expand our audience”.
Negative 35 degrees C is how cold it can get in Finland. But enduring those temperatures along with very long periods of light and darkness is what it takes to make the forthcoming part-crime drama, part-medical TV thriller series Arctic Circle. Finland’s Yellow Film & TV and Germany’s Bavaria Fiction are co-producing the series. They anticipate it to be perceived as set apart and unique within the crime drama genre.
So there you have it.
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