Strategy could help Canadian creators gain deeper access to U.S. market
NEW YORK – Amazon and Netflix have both boosted their original video content production since launching internationally, a move that has enabled them to both adapt and thrive in countries beyond the U.S., says new data from research firm IHS Markit.
Offering content that is locally made, but which plays worldwide, is just one of the methods that Netflix, in particular, has used to revolutionize the TV programming business. Both streaming video giants also employ other strategies, such as local currency pricing, local-language websites, dubbing and subtitling.
Netflix launched 1,257 hours of original first-run content in 2017, well ahead of Amazon Prime Video’s 285 hours, plus dramatically increased its origination outside the U.S., with 402 hours launching last year. Netflix’s original production has skyrocketed, from the first season of Lilyhammer in 2012, to 300 titles in 2017, continues the research.
While retail giant Amazon has stepped up its original production, it is still running well behind Netflix in overall volume. Amazon Prime Video also produced a single title in 2012, renewing cancelled BBC series Ripper Street, and went on to launch 56 original titles in 2017.
“In the linear TV era, channels produced programming primarily for domestic consumption, with international sales an often lucrative — but definitely secondary —revenue stream,” said IHS Markit director of research and analysis, channels and programming, Tim Westcott, in the report’s news release. “The time-lag between U.S. and international release also encouraged piracy of hit shows, like HBO’s Game of Thrones. Now, both Amazon and Netflix are originating programming in order to capture a global audience, releasing their originals on the same day and date in multiple territories. This also means that non-U.S. programming has the potential to find an audience in the world’s largest entertainment market — one where subtitled or dubbed programming has been almost unheard-of outside the art-house cinema circuit.”
IHS Markit estimates that Netflix had 57.8 million international online streaming video subscribers at the end of last year, outstripping the 52.8 million in the United States. Amazon Video subscribers in the U.S. reached 30.2 million in 2017. Having switched on globally later than Netflix, Amazon Video is well behind in terms of subscribers outside the U.S., which totaled just under 15 million at the end of last year.
