TV formats withstand European ad recession

Given the prolonged advertising recession and the fact that several major titles have peaked, the TV formats market in Europe is showing remarkable resilience. The value created by the top 100 formats was $2,931 million in 2013 for 84 European channels across the 16 territories and 21 distributors, according to the TV Formats in Europe report, which is published today.

Michael Cluff, director at Madigan Cluff and co-author of the report, said: “Across Europe TV advertising revenues declined, which explains why the value for major formats in 2013 was 3.3% down on the 2012 total. Despite this decline revenue was higher than in 2011. The number of hours for formats broadcast across the channels we monitored was 28,386 in 2013; almost exactly the same as in 2012.”

The report uniquely brings together the number of hours scheduled for major formats broadcast across Europe with the income each one generates for each TV channel.

The value created by the top 100 formats for European broadcasters

                                2010     2011     2012     2013
                             -------  -------  -------  -------
Formats revenues ($ mil.)      2,555    2,850    3,030    2,931
Formats Hours                 22,906   24,902   28,461   28,386
Average revenue per hour $   111,547  114,427  106,467  103,262

The UK is the TV formats leader in Europe – just ahead of France. The value created by formats for UK broadcasters was $600 million in 2013, down from $677 million in 2012. France recorded $599 million in 2013, up from $547 million in 2012. The UK, France, Germany and Italy accounted for 72% of Europe’s total value created in 2013. Russia’s $144 million in 2013 was notable because it was up by 57% on 2012’s $92 million.

Top five European broadcasters by formats revenues ($ million)

Channel         2012   2013
-------------  -----  -----
TF1 (France)   313.5  331.5
Rai 1 (Italy)  295.8  266.1
BBC1 (UK)      214.7  219.9
ITV1 (UK)      195.9  176.3
RTL (Germany)  203.6  173.7

Cluff continued: “The top 10 broadcasters accounted for two-thirds of the total value created in Europe for 2013 – which means that the remaining third was shared by 74 channels. France’s TF1 ($332 million) led the pack again, followed by Italy’s Rai 1 and the UK’s BBC1. Russia’s 1TV made the top 10 in 2013 – by more than doubling its formats revenues in the year.”

Jonathan Bailey, managing director of Essential Television Statistics and co-author of the report, added: “The total number of hours broadcast in Europe for the 100 formats was 28,386 in 2013; very close to 2012. The UK was the leader again, despite its 2013 total (3,935) being considerably lower than in 2012 (4,623). Romania took third place, having added 645 hours to its total in 2013.”

Top five European broadcasters by format hours

Channel              2012   2013
------------------  -----  -----
Antena 1 (Romania)  1,432  1,939
Kanal 5 (Denmark)   1,665  1,313
Channel 4 (UK)      1,307  1,181
Antena 3 (Spain)      929  1,180
Vox (Germany)         841  1,170

Romania’s Antena 1 became the top channel by format hours screened in 2013 – increasing by 507 hours to a total of 1,939 (5.3 hours/day). Denmark’s Kanal 5 dropped to second place.

The values in the report are the financial benefit (sourced by activities such as advertising revenues or a proportion of annual household license fee income) that broadcasters receive from screening these formats.