Netflix tops European scripted content list

Global streamer Netflix has become the largest single commissioner of new European scripted content, according to research by UK-based Ampere Analysis.

Guy Bisson

Among the top five commissioners of European scripted TV shows in 2019, Netflix was placed fourth with 43 new commissions across western and central Europe, behind the UK’s BBC with 71, France TV with 59 and Germany’s ZDF with 50. In fifth place was Germany’s ARD with 41 new commissions.

In 2020, however, Netflix soared to the top of the list with 72 new commissions, in front of ZDF with 55, the BBC with 54, France TV with 38 and ARD with 33.

While European public service broadcasters will remain major commissioners of scripted content in Europe, Ampere said Netflix’s “local approach to global scale” means it will increasingly ascend to become the most important single commissioner at a regional level.

Guy Bisson, executive director at Ampere Analysis, said: “As a marker of the wider changes in the entertainment industry, the ascent of Netflix to become the largest single commissioner of new European scripted content is pivotal.

“To date, Europe’s major public service broadcasters have driven the European content creation industry and local drama production. However, the ever-increasing importance of international markets to Netflix’s growth, its wide investment in locally relevant drama across the region and the shift to pan-regional or global content as the basis for value, means that today global streamers like Netflix drive even local markets.

“With the newer studio direct streaming platforms already beginning to emulate Netflix’s strategy of commissioning new scripted content outside the US, there could not be a better time to be a European content creator.”