The top 100 audiovisual companies in Europe showed some resilience to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has been accelerating pre-existing market trends. Their cumulated operating AV services revenues grew slightly more (+7.7% over 2016 at the end of 2020) than average inflation and the overall market, according to a new report from the European Audiovisual Observatory.
However, not all market segments have been equally impacted. Players whose business models are primarily based on pay TV and public funding proved more resilient. Those relying on advertising were more severely affected, and PSBs weight dropped by 3% over the five-year period, down to 31% in 2020.
The report also noted that the SVOD market has been thriving, significantly boosting the revenues of SVOD players across the board. Cumulated revenues of the pure SVOD players - such as Netflix, Amazon or DAZN - among the top 100 audiovisual companies quadrupled over the five-year period between 2016 and 2020, comprising 7% of cumulated revenues for the top 100 at the end of 2020.
At the same time, consolidations helped bolster the top 100 companies’ revenues. “These consolidations followed different rationales: obtaining more, premium content at competitive prices, seeking to pair that content with strong distribution, or just eyeing access to new markets,” the report noted.
Moreover, the structure of the top 100 audiovisual groups in Europe by operating AV revenues experienced several significant evolutions between 2016 and 2020. Public players, for example, saw their weight in revenues diminish between the period (down by 3% to 31%). Although not too strongly affected by Covid-19, PSB revenues decreased over the same period by 0.4% in real terms. Also, these players were not part of the consolidation game.
Overall, the revenues of the traditional players have more or less stagnated, while the growth of the top 100 players was largely driven by the new SVOD players. Traditional telco players kept their share of the top 100 revenues stable over the five-year period (around 16%), while traditional broadcasters lost 5% in weight (down to 77% at the end of 2020). By contrast, pure SVOD players accounted cumulatively for more than 75% of the revenue growth registered between 2016 and 2020 at the top 100 level.
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