Boom of Serial Content at the Global Market

At the conference FORMAT SHOW, which opened the 6th annual forum KYIV MEDIA WEEK, head of the analytical department of Media Resources Management Artem Vakalyuk presented a report on the current trends of the global market of series production. In particular, he noted that there is a significant increase in the number of TV series produced in the world. For example, in 2010 the US produced 217 series, and at the end of the last year that number rose to 409.

The main contributor to this growth was the increase in American cable TV channels (e.g. HBO, Showtime, AMC, Starz, SyFy, Cinemax, etc) and video-on-demand platforms (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon) producing their own content. The average production budget is also increasing. Thus, the production of one episode of the TV series “The Pacific” and “Band of Brothers” cost $20 and $12.5 million respectively.

It is important to note that the markets of series production in the US and Europe are developing rapidly not only because of the growing popularity of TV shows and higher budgets, which can improve the quality of the content, but also because of the policy of the states in the US and the countries in Europe on the financial support of the industry. For example, last year, there were about a dozen feature films and television series of American and European production companies filmed in Croatia, the most notable of which is the series “Game of Thrones” (2011-2015). Producers of the latter had the opportunity to return 20% of the costs.

In Ukraine, the national support of television production is just in its infancy.

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.