Happy Monday War & Peaceniks. Ready for kickoff?
Over the last few years, television production of entertainment series and feature films, in the US and around the world, has plummeted. There are many in the television production business, who look at their world through rose-colored glasses, that tell me “production was way up in 2024!” And they’re right. But that comparison is against the strike year of 2023. That is akin to comparing your child’s height in 9th grade to when they were in kindergarten.
The facts, however, tell a very different story.
According to ProdPro, since the end of Peak TV (in 2022), active television and film production in the US is down 40% - down 20% around the rest of the world. I’m sorry to be the one tell you this: Your kid may be taller than when he was six, but he’s way still shorter than all the other freshmen.
During the Hollywood strikes, I posited a theory that the entertainment C-Suites would use the strike to reboot their businesses, reduce overhead and cut way back on overall production – to effectively end Peak TV. What I did not see coming was what Big Media would do with the leftover content investment they saved from cutting back on film and TV series.
Now we know: Welcome to the Peak Sports era.
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