Ampere Analysis, a U.K.-based research company reported in first quarter 2024 Netflix and Amazon commissioned 53% of all new original content. Furthermore, the report said Netflix had ordered their highest number of new originals since third quarter 2021. With Amazon setting an all-time quarterly high in the amount of content commissioned. According to Ampere, Netflix had commissioned 200+ shows and movies during the quarter while Amazon had 140.
Lagging behind were the traditional studios Disney, Paramount, Comcast and Warner Bros. Discovery. While all have launched rival streaming services over the past five years, many continue to face financial challenges impacting their programming budgets. By comparison, in their first quarter earnings report, both Netflix and Amazon had exceeded Wall Street’s expectations.
The report found most of the content ordered came from outside the United States. For Netflix, there was a focus on ordering new content from the U.K, Germany and Spain with an emphasis on lower-cost unscripted originals. During the first three months of 2024, documentaries represented 30% of all programming orders in the region, compared to 23% from the previous year. As a result, the number of originals ordered from western Europe nearly equaled the North American market.
Netflix also increased the number of orders from South Korea. During the quarter, Amazon ordered 37 titles from India, the most of any market and more than the total number ordered in the six previous quarters combined.
In a statement, Mariana Enriquez Denton Bustinza, senior researcher at Ampere Analysis, said, “The market saturation in North America, the growing cost of production, and the lingering impact of the Hollywood strikes have pushed Netflix and Amazon to increase investment in international productions to stimulate subscriber growth.”
Bustinza adds, “While several studio-backed SVODs have made cutbacks internationally, these two streaming giants are doubling down on their localized global strategy.”
Ampere notes both Netflix and Amazon, have, in recent years, ramped up their program investments globally. The research company projects continued interest in global markets to help boost subscriber counts as the North American market matures.
Ampere’s Bustinza pointed out that while both Netflix and Amazon have been increasing the global commitment, their strategies differ. “For Netflix, this means catering to a broad subscriber base while leaning on markets whose productions offer the greatest potential for crossover appeal. Amazon’s approach remains more heavily targeted towards key markets such as India, while it leverages its global position to expand further into the theatrical market to generate downstream revenues from its platforms.”
In addition to their interest globally, Netflix and Amazon have been active domestically. Ampere reports both streamers had purchased more originals in the U.S. in first quarter 2024 than they had at the end of 2023. Although the increases were not as robust. Combined Amazon and Netflix accounted for roughly one-third of scripted television content ordered among prominent studios. (In 2021 Amazon acquired MGM Studios.)
With two Hollywood strikes, rising production costs, budgetary concerns and an uncertain economic forecast, Ampere Analysis reported in 2023 there were 481 U.S. scripted series released, a decline of 24% from the 633 U.S. series released in both 2021 and 2022. The figure was even below the 510 U.S. series released during the COVID-year of 2020.
Ampere also found the number of U.S. scripted series ordered in 2023 totaled 418, a decline of 37% from 2022 when 661 scripted series were ordered in the U.S. Amazon was the only major SVOD that ordered the same number of shows in 2023 as they did in 2022.
Alice Thorpe, a research manager at Ampere said, “We were in this post-strike environment where things were still a little uncertain, Netflix and Amazon are really the first movers here.”
