• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, 9 hours ago

More TV and streaming content is needed. But how much?

And will the new mega-merger of two major TV/movie studios change this dynamic?

The short answer is that companies like Netflix and Walt Disney still spend around $20 billion on TV and film production per year, while others spend at least $15 billion. This is not likely to slow down.

The merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. under the new Skydance Corp. will still need to keep pace with the remainder of the marketplace.

Competitively, Skydance will continue to be dependent on aggressive tax breaks from other countries including the U.K., Canada, Australia & New Zealand, and Europe, to pare down spending where they can.

Hollywood unions that were (and still are) opposed to the Skydance merger deal have recently released a study showing the U.S. share of production in the U.S. has tumbled to 64% from 94% from 1999 to 2024.

They say a massive film tax credit is needed to keep movies and TV shows to be filmed on U.S. soil, where production jobs are needed.

Release schedules of content -- especially new TV series -- are related to this, to an extent.

Skydance, now majority owned by streaming platforms Paramount+ and HBO Max, is still regularly behind Netflix when it comes to TV series release schedules where subscribers can view an entire TV season of episodes immediately after their release.

The Paramount+ release schedule remains mostly traditional or hybrid at best --  for example, offering two episodes upon the release of a TV series' new season.

But that is not the case only for Paramount+. Competitors like HBO/Max, Disney+, NBC’s Peacock, and Apple TV+ treat TV releases as event-based weekly programming.

While Netflix remains the primary outlier, the Prime Video hybrid model is a bit closer -- for smaller shows getting full-season binge-worthy releases, but not for its most-viewed franchises. It also offers three-episode premieres.

Generally speaking, keeping the old-school weekly release schedule is a good idea for subscriber retention.

A regular 8- to-10-TV series-episode release can keep subscribers engaged (and paying customers) for two to three months. This also builds regular word-of-mouth marketing spin.

Skydance -- and other premium streamers -- are expected to be cost-conscious in terms of production, and to keep riding the old-school scheduling train for some time for high-profile shows “Landman” and “Marshals” for Paramount+ and “House of Dragons” and “The Last of Us” for HBO Max.