After several seasons of very few new adult animated TV series premiering, with most success tied instead to longstanding TV shows like ‘The Simpsons’, ‘Bob’s Burgers’ and ‘Family Guy’, Show Tracker reveals that the momentum of growth that began in the 2019/20 season is set to carry the current 2021/22 season to a massive, yet unseen, volume of brand new animated TV series commissions.
Netflix has lead the charge for most new animated TV shows historically, but studio owned SVODs are now catching up on the lead set by Netflix, reflecting what is happening in broader commissioning trends too. Despite only being a few months into the 2021/22 season, total levels of commissions have almost reached the previous season’s total levels, suggesting a huge jump in the number of commissions from all types of US services by the end of the season.
Broadcasters are less involved with brand new commissions than they once were, with most new animated TV shows historically coming from the FOX network, itself exempt from the Disney acquisition, and of course historically the home for many of the industry’s most lauded and longest running animated TV series. This season has seen no broadcast commissions so far for new animated TV series, with the Fox Corporation instead focusing on growing its AVOD Tubi with ‘The Freak Brothers’, the service’s first scripted digital original, again reflecting broader trends seen that suggest AVOD services are gearing up to directly compete with Free TV.
Internationally the top homes of animated TV series tend to be SVOD services, partly due to the number of series being produced as digital originals for US SVODs with a global footprint, but also due to high levels of vertical integration through services such as Disney+ Star.
Both the historic global presence of Fox Network Group channels and the more recent international launch of Disney+ have resulted in Disney owned services, whether its SVOD or its FOX channels, premiering more animated TV series internationally than even Amazon Prime, who itself relies mostly on its digital original output. The combined power of new animated TV series from both Disney+ and Hulu, as well as heavy hitting returning TV shows under the Disney umbrella like ‘The Simpsons’, ‘Family Guy’ and ‘Bob’s Burgers’ fuelling Disney+ Star abroad, puts Disney+ in a very strong position as a home for adult animation.
For now however Netflix’s historic lead in brand new animated commissions combined with its global reach puts it well ahead of other service owners in terms of international premieres, with select TV shows such as ‘Final Space’ and ‘Close Enough’, acquired in multi-market deals from WarnerMedia, supplementing their overall inventory. Netflix however is engaging in less multi-market acquisitions such as these than ever with an increased focus on internally developed animated originals.
With most Netflix originals developed with heavy involvement from third party production companies however it may prove difficult for the SVOD to keep up its pace as animated production companies see a demand for their services from Netflix’s competitors or are even acquired by them. ‘Bento Box’, most famous for ‘Bob’s Burgers’, has produced two Netflix Original animated TV shows in the past, as well as one for Apple TV+, but is set to become unavailable in the future to either streamer due to its acquisition by Fox Entertainment. All recent TV shows from the production company have instead been commissioned by the FOX network, with Fox Entertainment itself distributing its latest commission ‘Housebroken’ internationally.
‘Titmouse’ is the only production company out of the top five that is not owned by a studio or streamer, producing for SVODs such as Paramount+, Netflix and Amazon Prime. With so much of the top production companies either in-house, like ‘20th Century Studios’, ‘Amazon Studios’ and ‘Fox Entertainment’ or like ‘Bento Box’ owned by commissioners, the future challenge for Netflix will be finding prominent animation houses with a proven track record willing to produce content for them. ‘Titmouse’ has been a reliable production partner for Netflix, even if not an exclusive one, producing ‘Big Mouth’ for five seasons, winning the SVOD two Emmys over the years and spawning a soon to be released spinoff original TV show ‘Human Resources’.
Other more recent and critically acclaimed animated TV series from Netflix include ‘Arcane’ and ‘DOTA: Dragon’s Blood’, both adaptations from separate video game franchises. Both of these TV shows utilised foreign production companies, with ‘Arcane’ using the French studio ‘Fortiche Production’ and ‘DOTA: Dragon’s Blood’ utilising ‘Studio Mir’ from South Korea.
For Netflix to hold its lead in the adult animated TV market it will need to create a diverse series of partnerships with a number of different production companies to produce digital originals. The producers that are most prolific are likely to in turn be the most targeted for acquisition if they are not in-house already with any exclusive partnerships in the future between Netflix and producers seeming unlikely. One of Netflix’s earliest and most critically acclaimed animated TV shows for instance, ‘Bojack Horseman’, saw its producer ‘The Tornante Company’ go on to produce ‘Undone’ for Amazon in 2019.
For less prolific animated producers the opportunity is out there to get work producing for SVOD originals from the likes of Netflix who are likely keen to keep growing its animated TV series output. The opportunity for independent animation houses even extends to include Studio owned SVOD commissions, despite most having in-house animation studios. Titles like ‘Ten Year Old Tom’ on HBO Max which was produced by ‘Tomorrow Studios’ (owned by ITV Studios) or Solar Opposites on Hulu, with production involvement from ‘Green Portal Productions’, most famously known as the producers of ‘Rick and Morty’ on Adult Swim, reflect the high demand from all sides in the streaming war for producers of animated titles that is likely to remain for the foreseeable future.
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