The era of ‘peak TV’ is over; even Apple TV+ is reining in production budgets

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The era of “peak TV,” is over, said 17 entertainment business executives, agents and bankers who spoke with Reuters. Hollywood is shrinking.
Dawn Chmielewski for Reuters:
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“The great contraction is upon us,” said one veteran television executive, speaking on condition of anonymity. “I think there will be a significant retrenchment in the quantity of content, and the amount spent on content.”
Streaming services, which were supposed to carry the industry into the future, are also struggling to reach profitability after years of profligate spending. As the industry enters what MoffettNathanson describes as the “third act of the streaming wars,” production spending will fall below 2022 levels, when competition stoked “never sustainable” investment.
The overall number of scripted series is expected to shrink dramatically from the pinnacle of 633 shows released in 2022. The combination of the Hollywood strikes and constrained spending dented production last year, with just 481 U.S. series released in 2023, according to data from market research firm Ampere Analysis.
Even market-leading Netflix slashed the number of scripted series it released by more than one-third from 2022 to 2023, Ampere said.
The industry is slowing down, executives said. Development executives are taking longer to greenlight shows, even for projects from established showrunners like Ronald D. Moore, whose credits include “For All Mankind” and “Outlander.”
Production budgets are contracting — including at the streaming service Apple TV+, whose cash-flush corporate parent, Apple, boasts a market capitalization of $3 trillion. Both examples are reported here for the first time.

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MacDailyNews Take: Apple could continue current production budgets pretty much forever without breaking a sweat. Even with some fiscal responsibility, Apple TV+ will remain the last bastion for uniformly quality content.
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