TV '25: Self-Financed Series and 3 More Market Shifts to Know
It's 'bet on ourselves' time as new rules emerge after a year of 'streamers and studios' . . . intense therapy'
Elaine Low recently wrote about what’s being bought at HBO and Max, Netflix, Amazon’s Prime Video, NBCU and Peacock, Disney brands ABC, Disney+, Hulu and FX, Apple TV+ and CBS, Paramount+ and Showtime. She also revealed the fallout from a massive cache of scripts being used to train AI, and where the jobs are (and aren’t) right now.
Happy New Year, Series Business fam! (What’s the statute of limitations on saying “Happy New Year” . . . mid-January?) The timing of the holidays this year means that many folks are just now stepping back into the office today after a hearty two weeks off, with the Golden Globes already in the rearview mirror.
Speaking of which: The imperiled awards show’s decline in status, from the Oscars’ fun drunken younger sibling to its nearly canceled, mired-in-scandal, all-but-disavowed cousin, is a cautionary tale of how quickly institutions can be disrupted in just a few short years.
But a sharp change in fortunes — for the better, of course — is exactly what the industry is hoping for as we embark on 2025. The first half of last year was disheartening and disappointing, with much hand-wringing as everyone looked around expectantly for the business to rev back into gear following the writers’ and actors’ strikes.
Yet it took many months for the town to take its finger off the pause button in TV production, particularly as IATSE’s crew-member contract negotiations in early 2024 fueled worries of a third industry-paralyzing labor action. (Even as recently as Q3 2024, production in greater Los Angeles was down 5 percent from the previous year, which is wild when you realize that’s a comparison to a period in which two strikes were happening concurrently.)
Anecdotally, though, buying and selling activity seemed to pick up around Labor Day, leading us to where we are now in the New Year: a state of cautious but palpable optimism.
“I guess I am a little excited, because I do feel like [2024] was the year where everyone was working through their stuff,” says producer and showrunner Mike Royce (One Day at a Time, Everybody Loves Raymond). “You know, I think in a certain sense, all the streamers and studios have been in some intense therapy — in some cases, couples therapy — to figure out what they are, what their model is and what the future is. I don’t know that they’ve necessarily settled on it, but I do feel like things seem a little clearer and I think a little more hopeful.”
The landscape might get a bit rockier before it gets better, especially with one more major merger pending, but in talking to people from all pockets of the industry — business affairs, production, creative, unscripted, etc. — I get the sense that the very worst is behind us.
We all survived ’til ’25, and the theme for this year could (and should) be: Take charge of your own destiny, because there are still many ways to get a show made in this industry. My colleague Manori Ravindran has been examining the way producers are leaning into brand-funded TV, taking the hustle to YouTube, and international co-productions.
So! In the spirit of looking forward, I’ve composed a few New Year’s resolutions for the industry, as we did on the latest Ankler pod, based on my reporting and conversations over recent weeks. Call it a collective vision board for the streaming and TV communities.
In this edition of Series Business, let’s take a look at:
How buyers’ tastes are evolving to expand opportunities for writers and producers
Why broadcast’s fear of being left behind is good for TV
The new TV financing model that Mark Ruffalo and the Duplass brothers are embracing
How writers and producers can bet on themselves with “tactical” and “responsible” decisions and deal structures
A biz affairs veteran’s surprising Rx for Hollywood’s addiction to Wall Street and venture money — and why Hollywood should go cold turkey
Companies’ and creators’ smartest path forward to harness AI