The Volume of the Global Format Market Has Doubled

At the international conference FORMAT SHOW, taking place today in frames of the 6th international media forum KYIV MEDIA WEEK, the editor of the British portal “C21 Media” Ed Waller noted that the global format market has doubled in the period from 2004 to the present time: if in 2004 its volume totaled $2.4 billion, now it has reached $5 billion. There are several reasons for this.

Firstly, many have moved away from the previously accepted model of licensing the finished formats. Channels started to make pre-sales deals directly with the creators of the formats, rather than ordering the production from local producers.

Secondly, the local format production is booming, because the demand for American formats is dwindling, while the world stage has been entered by such countries as Israel, South Korea and Japan. In particular, Turkey started attracting more and more interest, not least thanks to TV series.

Thirdly, OTT platforms and video-on-demand platforms, like Netflix, are increasing production of original formats. And their presence in various countries only stimulates adaptation and orders of new projects for local markets.

Notably, most of the experts are of the opinion that in 2016 the cost of licensing formats will increase compared to last year. But at the same time, they tend to believe that their number will also increase.

As Waller said, in recent years, many had expected a “next big idea” will appear that would become a real breakthrough, as it happened with “The Voice” and “Big Brother”. But there was no shows like that, and, as a result, having a number of decently popular projects turned out to be more profitable than having one extremely popular project. This has increased the income of individual productions and distributors, and stimulated the production and creation of new formats. The growth continues.

VI International media forum KYIV MEDIA WEEK will be held from 19 to 23 of September 2016 at the Hyatt Regency Kyiv (Kyiv, Ukraine). The full program can be found on the forum’s official website, and on Facebook.