Ampere’s latest research shows that Netflix has now become the largest single commissioner of new European Scripted content. This represents one of the strongest indicators of the global changes in production market dynamics as the region becomes increasingly important for global streaming services.

To date, Europe’s major Public Service Broadcasters have driven the European content creation industry and local Drama production. However, Netflix surpassed both the BBC and Germany’s ZDF in terms of number of new show commissions across Western and Central Europe in 2020 to become the largest single commissioner of new Scripted TV in the region.

The ever-increasing importance of international markets to Netflix’s growth, its wide investment in locally relevant Drama across the region, and the shift to pan-regional or global content as the basis for value, means that global SVoD services such as Netflix now drive even local markets.

As a marker of the wider changes in the entertainment industry, this ascent of Netflix is pivotal. Its localised approach to growing global scale means it will increasingly become the most important commissioner at a regional level, in Western Europe and beyond. And with the newer studio-owned direct streaming platforms now looking to emulate Netflix’s strategy of commissioning new Scripted content outside the USA, there could not be a better time to be a European content creator.