Producers of High-End Scripted Face Protracted Delays

Producers of high-end scripted content are facing delays of 12 months or more due to COVID-19, with unscripted titles increasingly filling in the gaps in schedules, according to Ampere Analysis.

Unscripted content spends an average of two months in production, according to the research firm, and producers have been able to adapt quickly to COVID-19 circumstances. Scripted spends an average of 11 months in production. As such, producers will be dealing with delays well into 2021.

Non-scripted content is increasingly filling the gaps, Ampere reports. Unscripted commissions increased from 66 percent in Q2 2019 to 72 percent in Q2 2020. Reality shows in particular were up, with 24 percent more titles commissioned in Q2 2020 compared to the year-ago period.

Programmers are also tapping into their wells of “older and less popular content” to fill gaps, and are turning to unscripted to “to pad their schedules,” Ampere Analysis says.

The proportion of new content aired has dropped steadily over the first two quarters of this year, but unscripted has made a “rapid recovery,” Ampere reports, with new titles representing a higher proportion of prime-time series than before COVID-19. The proportion of new scripted has not returned to pre-COVID-19 levels.

Programmers that do have new scripted will have a competitive edge, Ampere Analysis says. In Q1 and Q2 of this year, audiences in the U.S. and the U.K. ranked comedy, crime and thriller, sport, drama and sci-fi and fantasy as their top five genres. All have seen a considerable decrease in the proportion of new titles available.

Ampere indicates that almost half of scripted commissions from the first half of 2019 hadn’t been released by the time its report was compiled. As such, scripted delays are going to run well into 2021. Drama and romance can be expedited, the report continues. For action-adventure, sci-fi and fantasy and horror, the key will be in shortening the post-production process while maintaining quality output.

“COVID-19 has hit the production of high-quality, scripted content most severely, and producers will be fighting delays well into 2021,” said Olivia Deane, analyst at Ampere Analysis. “Linear programmers know that viewers won’t accept poor quality content and repeats indefinitely, and they will lose consumers to both broadcast and on-demand competitors if they don’t address the situation fast. This is particularly problematic for channels that offer a high proportion of original scripted content. To maintain a competitive edge, they will need to adjust their acquisition models to compete in the race to broadcast new, high-quality content. This suggests a time to shine for independent studios with scripted projects already in the pipeline. However, with indies facing their own delays, it’s likely that supply will be outweighed by demand for the foreseeable future.”