2023 sees festive Originals down after strikes delay production

With both actors’ and writers’ strikes only being resolved in late 2023, most new titles that were intended to be ready for the festive period have been delayed. Therefore, there has been a shortage of new Christmassy content being premiered this season, according to Ampere Analysis’ latest report.

December 2022 saw festive-themed TV and movies enjoying year-on-year growth, with consumers’ appetite for high-end, feel-good seasonal titles boosted by franchises such as Netflix’s Christmas universe (including titles such as “The Princess Switch” and “The Christmas Inheritance”). Analysis of titles including the words “Rudolph,” “Santa,” “Christmas,” “snow,” or “sleigh” suggested that the volume of festive titles available to watch in the UK and the United States increased by 31% between December 2021 and December 2022.

In 2022, Netflix had the highest volume of Original festive content among the SVOD services: it released 29 new Christmas titles in December 2022, 61% up on December 2021’s 18. However, in 2023, while Netflix has more Christmas titles in-production (eight) than any other commissioner, just three new Christmas-themed productions had been released by mid-December 2023. Even if all eight festive titles are released this month, this would still represent a 62% decrease on the December last year.

Although brand new festive content may be in short supply, AVOD services are still offering large volumes of older Christmas titles. At the end of October 2023, AVOD services made up almost half of the top 20 providers of festive content, and already boasted 102 more Christmas titles overall than in December 2022. “Although viewers may be lacking in new titles for the 2023 Christmas season, there is still a wealth of old festive favorites waiting to be enjoyed all over again,”  said Olivia Deane, Senior Analyst at Ampere Analysis.