Studio groups are still the largest commissioners of original content and first run TV shows, despite the rise of Netflix as an original production monster. Hollywood studios rank as four of the five largest commissioning groups the world. Across all its entities, The Walt Disney Company is the world’s largest commissioner of first run TV shows, with 341 shows in production as of January 2020. The media behemoth is followed closely by Viacom CBS (parent to Paramount), responsible for 328 new TV show commissions. Though individually the largest, Netflix, with 283 commissions, is pushed into third place. Studio groups NBCUniversal and Warner fill positions four and five. The production output of the four big studio groupings illustrates just how strong a position they could carve out in the direct-to-consumer streaming market if all rights are pulled back and each switches to serving internal original production needs.

The aggregated view takes into account Disney’s 19 subsidiaries with a first-run TV production slate and the 27 subsidiaries contributing to Viacom CBS. The two studio group's US networks are the largest commissioners in each grouping with ABC the largest contributor to Disney’s commissioning. ABC accounts for 31% of Disney’s total slate. Similarly, for Viacom CBS, CBS is the largest single commissioner with 91 new shows currently in production.