Who Is Spending the Most on Content?
There’s a lot of money changing hands in the content market at present, but the data on how many firms are behind that spending may surprise you. With new data in-hand from Ampere Analysis, it’s clear that 6 key companies are driving most of the global content spend. Brandon Blake, entertainment lawyer at Blake & Wang P.A., walks us through these revelations.
6 Companies Dominate
In 2024 alone, we saw $126B in content spending originating from only six companies: Comcast, Disney, Warner Bros Discovery, Google, Paramount, and Netflix. This represents about 51% of the overall spend in this market, and about a third of it is invested in streaming. Disney alone accounts for 14% of the total global market. Surprisingly, Netflix only takes the No. 5 spot on the list, averaging $14.5B annually.
Among the Top 6, about 45% is spent on original content, with acquired film/TV programming and live sports content also strongly represented. Perhaps it is worth noting that Netflix and Paramount+ invest heavily in international content, accounting for 52% of Netflix’s content spending and 40% of Paramount+’s spending.
A Potential Plateau
While an Ampere spokesperson was quick to note that this sort of ongoing investment in new programming is critical for audience growth and engagement, it also noted that it expects lower growth numbers for 2024, as production schedules are still recovering from last year's production strikes. They expect the investments from these key 6 companies to plateau in coming years, including more limited commissioning volume and further focus on strategic investments to better adapt to the shifts in the current media market.
It’s always interesting to see the hard data on aspects of the industry like this. However, with such a market-dominant position for these 6 streaming entities, it is also clear that they have some chokehold on content spending, which also translates to a lot of control over what gets made and for what markets. It will be interesting to see how this shifts in the coming years, especially as even more market consolidation is expected.
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