Streamers’ Evolving Acquisition Strategy Brings New Opportunities and Challenges for Broadcasters, Indie Producers

variety.com:

Variety, the U.S. streamers are starting to move away from aggressive rights grabs, in part because, as Blum pointed out, it is a “fundamentally unsustainable” strategy. “Back in 2020, 60% of the top 10 shows on Netflix were originals, and now, 60% of the top 10 shows are acquisitions, licensed in from AMC and others,” says Guy Bisson, executive director and co-founder of Ampere Analysis.

The change reflects the “fundamental shift in attitudes towards licensing.” Now the streamers’ goal is to get the message out. “Most people don’t know this, but we own less than 25% of the IP in our U.K.

catalog,” Sarandos said pointedly in his RTS speech. Meanwhile, Kelly Day, Prime Video’s VP for international, tells Variety: “We prefer to keep the rights globally where we can but we have been much more flexible, in particular in Europe.” New models include partnering with local public service broadcasters on co-productions, such as “The Outlaws” (a BBC/Prime Video co-commission) and upcoming drama “Lockerbie” from Netflix and the BBC, and even making deals for single territories, such as Prime Video’s upcoming drama “Fear,” which it has picked up for the U.K.

only. Banijay Rights will be at Mipcom this month to sell the three-part series, which stars “Line of Duty’s” Martin Compston, to international buyers. “They’re much more open to taking a single territory or a handful of territories and allowing the others to be sold off, especially if the content is quite [country] specific,” says Fulwell 73 co-founder Leo Pearlman.