According to a new report recently published by the European Audiovisual Observatory, entitled “Audiovisual fiction production in Europe - 2020 figures,” over 1.000 titles, 20.000 episodes and 13.000 hours are produced each year in Europe. The report analyses the volume, formats, origin, commissioners and producers of original European TV films and TV series released on TV and SVOD between 2015 and 2020.
Daily soaps account for 9% of seasons but 60% of hours produced, and suffered from Covid-caused interruption of shooting. Meanwhile, shorter formats kept on growing, although at a slower pace. Figures also suggest a downward trend for TV films, maybe hinting at a substitution of the production of TV films by TV series.
The average duration of an episode of the vast majority of titles produced is higher than 36’. Very short formats (15’ or less) account for 7% of all titles produced, but together with short formats (16’ to 35’), they are slowly growing in number and represented 30% of all titles in 2020. Longer episodes are decreasing due to a drop in the number of TV films being produced and to the general shortening of episodes.
Regarding territories, Germany is the leading fiction production country in Europe by number of TV seasons and TV films produced. However, the United Kingdom is the leading producer of 2-to-13-episode seasons. Meanwhile, figures suggest a production boom in Spain and in Scandinavian countries.
The study also revealed that 48% of screenwriters and 42% of directors were active in only one year between 2015 and 2020. Therefore, on average, a writer wrote, and a director directed, only about two episode per year (excluding more-than-52-episode seasons). Only 7% of screenwriters were credited for at least one episode during each of the six years.
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