• by Wayne Friedman , December 10, 2018

Two U.S.-based movie/TV content companies -- Walt Disney and Comcast -- will now control 20% of all worldwide content spending, once their respective big mergers are complete.

Comcast Corp. recently won a bid to buy European broadcaster Sky for $39 billion. Disney agreed to purchase about half of Fox's TV/movie businesses for $71.3 billion.

According to U.K.-based Ampere Analysis, Disney will now have a content spend of $22 billion a year, while Comcast's total is $21 billion a year. 

Its analysis suggests Disney will control 11% of all global production and 23% of all U.S. TV/movie content. Comcast will have a 9% share worldwide and 14% in the U.S.

The company says “this is more than the combined outlay of the next 10 largest content spenders in the U.S., including OTT platforms Netflix and Amazon.” It estimates that Netflix will spend some $8 billion on content this year -- in line with what other estimates have said.

Ampere Analysis says the rising consolidation of movie/TV content production has implications “ on independent producers.”

It adds: “With a shrinking number of content acquirers in the market, the competition for rights diminishes. This in turn will impact the indie sector’s ability to negotiate favorable deals.”