The current upfronts had a lot of huge questions swirling round them pertaining to current mergers, new streaming providers and Netflix’s first foray into the annual occasion. However the loudest questions had been concerning the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike—and the quantity has solely elevated because the upfronts wrapped.
We’re at a degree within the yr the place many companies and types normally have an thought of what their upcoming TV plans will appear like, however that’s not the case proper now. The continued WGA strike is having an instantaneous affect on the TV advert market, slowing down an upfront course of that was already going to face financial headwinds. With the studios’ intent to easily journey it out till the writers run out of funds, and with actors now on strike as properly, there may be a number of uncertainty swirling across the TV advert market.
Right here’s a take a look at what patrons have to know concerning the present panorama, and the way they will gameplan to execute sensible TV buys amid the uncertainty.
The fast programming affect
To be clear, the strikes are impacting the programming that main manufacturers and companies are already negotiating round. Disney has just lately paused filming on Blade and Thunderbolts, whereas there’s an extended record of streaming sequence reportedly experiencing manufacturing delays, together with Stranger Issues, Emily in Paris, Hacks, Yellowjackets, Cobra Kai, Unstable, Massive Mouth, The Final of Us and Yellowstone. With these giant marquee titles pausing manufacturing, many reveals that had been set to premiere in This autumn will now premiere in Q1 2024 or scattered later within the yr. Giant-scale films from Disney will even transfer into 2025.
Whereas the above record is lengthy, it’s a drop within the bucket. Scripted content material accounted for 64% of TV and film content material on the key streaming platforms in 2022—almost two-thirds of all new content material for the yr.
Networks are constructing their backup plans and making ready to pivot into completely different programming—very similar to when manufacturing stopped on the peak of the pandemic and networks pivoted into information, actuality, sport reveals and animation to fill airtime. Anticipate main streamers to lean into programming from different nations as properly: Netflix has a profitable monitor document of doing this with reveals like Squid Video games and Cash Heist.
