The Changing Face of TV and Film Business Models

The wheel turns, and ages come and pass… It might be the tagline from the Wheel of Time, but the phrase has a certain relevancy to the current state of the TV and Film business, too. A lot has changed in the production and distribution space, often in ways we wouldn't have predicted even just a few years ago. Today entertainment lawyer and industry expert, Brandon Blake of Blake & Wang PA , unpacks some of the key takeaways from this changed landscape and the future ahead.

The Digital Age

This was one of the changes we knew was coming long before the tumultuous 2020s. Cinema production, especially, has always sat on the cutting front of modern technology, even where the average moviegoer may not have realized it. Film production shifted away from celluloid and projectors to digital early in the 'digital era'. Yet typically TV production lagged behind its bigger cousin.  

Without getting into the technicalities of the production side, let's just mention that there's a reason many stalwart classic films of the 90s and 00s still translate well to modern screens, while even the best TV series of the era can look, and critically feel, a lot more aged. Film production was also way ahead of the CGI curve, able to leverage large crews and bigger budgets to embrace the CGI shift long before TV production budgets caught up. Yet eventually digital came for TV too, with the widespread migration from analog to digital overtaking TV consumption as new technologies and broadcast patterns settled in.

Film or TV? Not Both.

For a long time, then, the business models for TV and Film were also wildly different. From creating long format vs high-budget spectacle, to the quality and speed of production timelines, they were held as completely different formats to develop. This meant both the production and distribution arms of their respective differences worked differently, too.

Enter Streaming and VOD

However, the larger digital shift, alongside the introduction of some of the first lavish high-budget TV spectacles in the late 2010s, began a merging of business models that had only accelerated for the post-COVID era. Today, undeniably, the Video on Demand, or VOD, consumption model reigns supreme for both. Video streaming now accounts for over 50% of North American bandwidth use daily, after all. 

Nor are consumers happy with low budgets in TV arenas. Once the concept of ‘high cost, high quality’ anchor series came to be- think Game of Thrones or even Bridgerton- the boundaries of what worked for TV and Film business began to merge. The streaming boom added fuel to the fire.

So where does that leave us today? We have a content-hungry landscape that needs 24/7 feeding. It’s no longer unfeasible to see big spend- and big salaries- with high production quality and A-list cast in the TV arena. More and more film studios have either been absorbed into streamers, or offer their own streaming platforms. While there’s still considerable financial and creative differences in producing for TV vs Film, the overall business model that drives both has merged into the VOD business model. What gets made, and in what format, is no longer as clear cut as it once was.

Instead of thinking of film or TV, it's become normal to see them as a holistic whole and part of a larger business model- that of gaining, and keeping, subscriber's eyes on streaming platforms. No matter what you produce, it's key to remember that VOD, not traditional business models are where the entertainment business future lies.