Prepared by its research division, FilmLA has released a new report that offers an overview of the current production landscape for U.S. based television series and TV projects. The report also assesses some of the trends shaping series production across broadcast, cable and digital networks.
During the 2018-19 development cycle, a total of 465 live-action scripted series were available for viewing for the domestic market (467 in 2017-18). FilmLA also counted 144 projects that were picked up to series but not yet available for viewing during this cycle.
The impact that digital streaming services are having on television production continues to be substantial.
This category has experienced a rapid growth in television content for both new projects and live-action scripted series. The number of digitally distributed original series in production has increased 2,300 percent from the 2010-11 season. The number of new digital projects nearly doubled between the 2017-18 and 2018-19 development cycles, increasing approximately 85.3 percent in one year.
As the number of digital series in production climbs, the number of “straight to series” orders are also on the rise. In 2018-19 a total of 100 new shows were ordered straight to series including 4 broadcast, 26 cable and 70 digital projects.
A total of 51 percent of new projects ordered went straight to series in the 2018-19 cycle compared to 36 percent in 2017-18, and 205 of the 465 tracked series were produced in California, yielding a 44 percent market share for the period.
Overall, new project production is up 23.3 from the 2017-18 season. Of those new projects, 72 or 36.7 percent of all new projects counted, filmed in the Golden State (28 one-hour and 44 half-hour). From an annual count, an increase of 10.7 percent in new project production can be seen from the 2017-18 (65 new projects) to 2018-19 cycles.
For new projects, California’s top competitors include the state of New York (with 29 projects), and the Canadian province of British Columbia (with 24 projects), and the state of Georgia (with 20 projects).
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