Netflix commissioned its highest number of new titles since the third quarter of 2021, while Amazon Prime Video set an all time record for its quarterly content production, according to a report from Ampere Analysis.
In fact, Netflix and Amazon commissioned more than half of all global SVOD original titles in the first financial quarter of 2024, the research company said.
Ampere noted that the trend was spurred by investment in global content, with both Netflix and Amazon ordering the majority of their originals outside the U.S.
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“The market saturation in North America, the growing cost of production, and the lingering impact of the Hollywood strikes have pushed Netflix and Amazon to increase investment in international productions to stimulate subscriber growth,” Mariana Enriquez Denton Bustinza, senior researcher at Ampere Analysis, said in a statement.
“While several studio-backed SVODs have made cutbacks internationally,” Bustinza added. “These two streaming giants are doubling down on their localized global strategy.”
In fact, Ampere predicts that Netflix and Amazon’s international content spending, which has already increased sizably over the past few years, will continue to rise as streamers look to combat slow domestic growth expanding internationally.
"For Netflix, this means catering to a broad subscriber base while leaning on markets whose productions offer the greatest potential for crossover appeal," Bustinza added. "Meanwhile, Amazon’s approach remains more heavily targeted towards key markets such as India, while it leverages its global position to expand further into the theatrical market to generate downstream revenues from its platforms.”
In fact, Ampere claims that Netflix’s Western European commissions already almost achieved parity with North American titles for the first time in Q1 2024.
Asia-Pacific titles also saw a significant increase in popularity, led by India, South Korea and Thailand.
Netflix, which announced in April that it would reduce the quantity of expensive big-budget films it releases, has reportedly upped its international movie orders to compensate in territories like the Nordics, Asia-Pacific and Sub-Saharan Africa.
That makes sense, as a report in June by analytics firm Omdia indicated that, in some international regions like South Korea, Netflix content that's shot locally can attract nearly three times the viewership of English counterparts.
As for Amazon, the majority of its international commissions during the first quarter of 2024 came from India, with 37 total titles.
That’s more than the previous six quarters combined, and a 32% increase from Amazon’s Indian slate in Q2 2022.
