Buyers Spotlight

There remains a healthy market for the international distribution of content, with multiple services acquiring the first season of US scripted shows in most Show Tracker territories.

France is the leading market for unique buyers with 21 separate services having acquired a first window in the past six months.

Pay TV is the biggest buyer in France (as it is in most markets), with 11 services acquiring 22 shows. The M6 Group has bought titles for a mix of Free (Teva), Pay (M6, W9, Gulli) and AVOD (6Play) services.

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Germany has the biggest number of local SVOD services buying shows, RTL being the most prolific in the past six months with five acquisitions for their TV Now Premium service.

Joyn Plus (ProSieben/Discovery), Magenta TV (Deutsche Telekom) and StarzPlay (Lionsgate) are also buying a mix of first and second windows of US shows.

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Amazon remain active in all Show Tracker markets with five acquisitions at most in any one country (Germany and Italy).

As Netflix concentrates on its own Originals development, there has been minimal first window acquisitions of US shows, with activity limited to Germany (Salvation, from the 2016/17 US season) and Mexico (The Kids are Alright, from 2018/19).

Six services in total have bought US shows for AVOD services, three in Australia (7Plus, 9Now and SBS On Demand) and one each in France (6Play), Germany (Joyn) and the UK (BBC Three - though not technically an AVOD platform).

All US acquisitions were offered as full Box Sets with the exception of ‘Claws’ in Germany.

With buyers from Free TV, Pay TV, SVOD and AVOD services, there are a diverse range of buyers who are taking a mix of first window options, including catch-up exhibition and other rights.