Motion Picture,TV & Video Production
Industry Profile Report
Dive Deep into the industry with a 25+ page industry report (pdf format) including the following chapters
Industry Overview Industry Structure, How Firms Opertate, Industry Trends, Credit Underwriting & Risks, and Industry Forecast.
Call Preparation Quarterly Insight, Call Prep Questions, Industry Terms, and Weblinks.
Financial Insights Working Capital, Capital Financing, Business Valuation, and Financial Benchmarks.
Industry Profile Excerpts
Industry Overview
The 14,700 motion picture, TV, and video producers in the US produce a variety of video content, including movies, videos, TV programming, and commercials. Major revenue categories include domestic licensing rights; sales of copies of audio/visual works, international licensing rights; contract production services; and merchandise licensing. Movie and video production companies may specialize in a particular category, such as animation, commercials, films, music videos, or TV programming.
Delayed, Uneven Cash Flow
Productions incur the majority of expenses months to even years before realizing a single dollar of revenue.
Piracy
Video piracy is a growing problem, particularly internationally, where copyright protection is lax and illegal activity is more likely to go unnoticed.
Industry size & Structure
The average motion picture and video production company operates out of a single location, employs 11-12 workers, and generates $5 million annually.
- The motion picture and video production industry consists of about 14,700 firms that employ about 171,200 workers and generate about $75 billion annually.
- The industry is highly concentrated; the top 50 firms account for 75% of industry sales.
- Large firms with production operations include the Walt Disney Company and Twenty-First Century Fox, Lions Gate Entertainment, and Comcast (Universal Pictures). The major studios produce and distribute the majority of movies released in the US.
- Large firms may be vertically-integrated. For example, some companies are involved in production, distribution, and broadcasting of content.
Industry Forecast
Motion Picture,TV & Video Production Industry Growth
Coronavirus Update
Apr 28, 2022 - Netflix Customer Base Shrinks
- Netflix’s customer base fell by 200,000 subscribers during the January-March quarter of 2022, the first contraction the streaming service has seen since it became available throughout most of the world other than China six years ago. Netflix projected a loss of another 2 million subscribers in the April-June quarter. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said that he now believes that outsized gains during early states of the coronavirus pandemic may have blinded management. “COVID created a lot of noise on how to read the situation,” he said in late April. Demand for some content may decrease if viewers spend less time watching streaming services.
- Kaufman Astoria Studios President and CEO Hal Rosenbluth said he doesn't believe that the film industry has lost a significant amount of its workforce due, in large part, to its fast-thinking pandemic response efforts. Hollywood's recent pivot to streaming has also helped "fill the [production] void" in between big blockbuster hits, Rosenbluth added. The availability of soundstages has been a primary concern, however, as competition for viable filming spaces heats up with productions — aided by the streaming boom — now in overdrive.
- Hollywood studios and unions agreed in mid-February to extended and updated pandemic workplace safety guidelines for movie and TV productions that will require vaccinated cast and crews to show they’ve received COVID-19 booster shots. The agreement lasts until April 30. As of March 15, if a production mandates that all cast and crew need to be vaccinated to work in the most high-risk areas of its film sets, that will require workers to show they’ve also received booster shots in addition to the two original doses of COVID-19 vaccines. Employers will provide the more protective KN95 or N95 masks; and productions will be allowed to use cheaper and faster antigen tests. Film workers can still bank up to 10 days for COVID-19-related sick leave. The changes come as California has lifted its mask mandate and Los Angeles County has eased of some of its restrictions.
- The Biden administration withdrew in late January its Covid-19 vaccine-or-test requirements for businesses with 100 or more employees. The withdrawal followed a Supreme Court decision to block the rule. Experts say that the Supreme Court majority sent a clear message that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which is charged with protecting workplace safety, had overstepped its authority with the regulation. The justices said, however, that a separate agency could issue a rule to protect the health and safety of Medicare and Medicaid patients.
- Motion picture and video production has largely continued unhindered in Canada, and companies including Netflix CBS, Disney, HBO, and Apple are producing more content there, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Experts cite a swift, industrywide embrace of strict safety protocols and social distancing, and the use of smaller crews as key elements that allowed operations to continue. Canada expects even greater production growth in 2021 and 2022 as Hollywood increases production post-COVID.
- Insurers have eliminated a special status for Hollywood that covered losses resulting from stoppages due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to financial information and analytics firm S&P Global. Insurers without exclusions for pandemic-related business interruptions in their policies have been hit hard by COVID-19-related claims. Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE, a major provider of insurance to the film, TV, and events industry, said in October that it had reserved about $571 million, for expected COVID-19-related claims, especially for the cancellation of live events and the disruption of movie or film productions in the entertainment industry. New policy coverage now is either much more expensive or does not include pandemic business interruption coverage, leading many in the industry to say that government intervention will be required if the entertainment industry is ever to get back on the financial footing it enjoyed before COVID-19.
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