Profitability is the star concept with which the platforms will work this year: fewer series, less budget and new financing models will be established in 2023.
2022 will be remembered, perhaps, as the year we saw ‘The House of the Dragon’, ‘Wednesday’, ‘The Rings of Power’ or ‘Andor’. These titles are a minimal sample of all annual production: in the United States a total of 849 produced have been recorded, 99 more than in 2021. And many analysts suggest that this very high figure will not be repeated in this year that we have just started, despite the fact that there are many of the most anticipated series of 2023. The end of Peak TV -as that production peak that has not yet finished falling is called- is one of the most repeated omens among television analysts (we will see if fulfilled or not), but there are many other keys that will mark this year and that can turn the television industry around.
The fruits of the merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery
The cancellations and departures from the HBO Max catalog that made so much noise in December are just one more step on the winding path that the platform must travel to the finish line. Since it was announced in April last year that WarnerMedia (owner of HBO Max) was going to merge with Discovery, creating the Warner Bros. Discovery group, its new CEO, David Zaslav, has shown an iron hand, announcing cuts everywhere. . It seems clear that HBO Max has lifted its foot of the accelerator in terms of production, but it is not yet known what will result from the merger and if the existing platform will finally be mixed with the other Discovery platform or, as is believed, they will give rise to a new one. And above all, what sector of the market do they intend to reach? Will they continue trying to compete against Netflix, Amazon and Disney or will they retire to a lower profile?
Bob Iger’s return to Disney will bring consequences
November of last year left us with news whose consequences remain to be seen: Bob Chapek was fired as CEO of Disney and, to replace him, the legendary Bob Iger returned, who will have the mission of bringing the company to heel and regaining favor with the investors. Iger assured that his intention regarding Disney + was to eliminate “offensive marketing and aggressive content spending” and bet on profitability. What will this translate to for viewers? A priori, it seems that there will be less production of series and, perhaps, less powerful releases direct to the platform without going through theaters. Will it also reduce the number of Marvel and Star Wars blockbusters going forward?
Winds of Change on Netflix
Cuts or, rather, the search for profitability, will be the key for all platforms in 2023 and Netflix is not left out of this issue. The time of fat cows and of producing like crazy without looking at the cost is over. Netflix now seeks either big hits or series that work well but have a moderate budget: we will no longer see so many expensive series on the platform. From now on, the company is going to look in more detail at what it spends the money on and also how to get more, apart from subscriptions. Hence, the ads on their platform are already a reality or they are considering persecuting those who share an account. Definitely, fewer series, cheaper and search for other sources of income.
Mergers and closures
The closure of Lionsgate+ in most of the countries in which it operated, as a result of enormous economic losses, could only be the preamble to what happens this year. It would not be unusual for more small platforms to close or seek to merge or be absorbed by other larger companies. The market is saturated, we just have to wait for natural selection to do its thing. What can happen? Do not rule out that Apple TV + or Amazon acquire a company in 2023.
SkyShowtime arrives in Spain
And while some platforms die, others are born. SkyShowtime, the joint venture between Comcast and Paramount Global, has yet to be released in Spain and other European countries. It will be the priority platform for the contents of their respective in the United States, Peacock and Paramount +, which will not arrive here separately. Nevertheless, It is not yet known when it will arrive (supposed to be in the first half of the year) or what it will bring. And, above all, if it will be able to resist in such a disputed market.
The rise of FAST platforms?
As we mentioned in October, more and more free platforms are making their way in the streaming war. Although in Spain it is still a poorly established model, with Pluto TV at the helm, in the United States they also have Tubi, Freevee and Roku Channel, which are gaining more and more monthly users. And it is that in a panorama where the viewer begins to become saturated by having to maintain the subscription of many platforms, it sounds tempting to have others free in exchange for seeing some adsJust like on traditional television. In 2023, we will see how the FAST platforms (free ad-supported streaming television) are gaining ground; the big question is how much.
The decline of cable television
The great victim of streaming in the United States has been cable television, which little by little is being replaced by a newer and less expensive form of consumption. It is difficult to imagine that in 2023 the entire North American cable TV system will collapse, but it is true that its channels are finding it increasingly difficult to remain relevant and profitable, so the original output on these is going to decay. The debacle that AMC is suffering in recent weeks already shows this.
Sports: workhorse
The idyll between sport and streaming is also a palpable reality that can still grow in intensity. While here Dazn has the rights to sports such as LaLiga, Formula 1 or MotoGP, in the United States Amazon reached an agreement with the NFL to broadcast Thursday Night Football, the Thursday game traditionally broadcast by NBC, and Apple TV+ has broadcast baseball matches . They are small big steps towards a greater future: that the platforms battle for the great sports rights, not only locally, but internationally. Can you imagine a platform acquiring a World Cup or an Olympic Games to broadcast them all over the planet? Will Netflix enter this war as it has been speculating for years?
And in Spain too…
In our country, the industry can also experience great changes in 2023. Spain has starred in its own Peak TV with 43 series launched last year, a figure that is difficult to repeat. Televisión Española faces a change of leadership, after an annus horriblis in which it threw its fiction overboard; it remains to be seen if, at last, they will find a more solid strategy. Meanwhile, Atresmedia continues with its policy of premiering its series on Atresplayer Premium (whose user data is still modest) to later make them profitable in other windows (openly or by selling them to other platforms), and Mediaset does not have a clear commitment to MiTele Plus (and we can’t expect them to do much, now that they have bigger problems to solve on their live grid). Besides, Movistar+ should try to recover the relevance it had in its first years of original production and Amazon getting its first big hit and, as we said, Netflix has a serious problem with its Spanish series: it produces a lot, but it doesn’t get global hits like ‘Elite’ and ‘La casa de papel’; Will you do it this year?
Source: Fotogramas
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
