◼ BUSINESS Bloomberg Businessweek October 14, 201916
THEBOTTOMLINE Netflix,Amazon,andAppletogetherwill
spend$20billion-plus on content this year, spurring traditional
broadcasters to go downmarket in pursuit of “bonfire moments.”● To battle streaming giants, broadcasters in
Europe are turning to live shows and reality TVCut the Script. Bring
On the Feathers
As Netflix, Amazon, and Apple steal viewers from
traditionalTV,oneGermanbroadcasterisfight-
ing back—with a green-suited grasshopper, a
rainbow-hued cockatoo, and a fuzzy pink monster
with shimmering wings. The creatures appear in
The Masked Singer, a mashup of game show and
talent competition that ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE
aired live on Thursday nights this summer. B-list
and C-list celebrities don outlandish disguises and
belt out pop songs, while fans vote on who pro-
gressestothenextround—andtrytoguesswho’s
hidingunderthesequins,fur,andfeathers.The
MaskedSingeraveraged 7 million-plus viewers an
episode,andforthefinaletheaudiencehit9.5mil-
lion—helpingthenetworkreachitshighestdaily
marketsharein 22 years.
It won’t likely win Emmys, but these are tough
times for traditional broadcasters, and many have
concluded that nonscripted TV is their best defense.
The shows are relatively cheap, and with the right
marketing they can win advertisers’ hearts by cre-
ating what ProSieben Chief Executive Officer Max
Conze calls “bonfire moments”—events viewers will
want to see in real time. “Outside of football world
championships, there are very few things where
you can aggregate that kind of audience,” he said
at a September media conference in Cologne.
ITV Plc, the maker of hit dating/reality show Love
Island, has ordered a British version of The Masked
Singer, a concept developed in South Korea. The
show has since spread to about a dozen countries,
including the U.S., where it’s in its second season on
Fox Broadcasting Co. ProSieben’s German competi-
tor RTL Group SA is producing a game show where
costumed contestants navigate obstacle courses in
the woods. And a Danish concept called Married
at First Sight, in which two people first meet at the
altar, has been sold to about 30 countries.
It’s a tacit admission that traditional broadcast-
ers can no longer compete for high-profile dramas
with the U.S. streaming giants and their moun-
tains of cash. Netflix, Amazon, and Apple are pro-
jected to spend more than $20 billion on content
this year, most of it scripted shows and movies. In
the U.K., the cost of producing an hour of dramahas doubled or even tripled in the past decade even
as ad revenue has stagnated, says Tom Harrington,
a researcher at consulting firm Enders Analysis.
“There’s been a drop in commissioning dramas,”
he says, as broadcasters “have less money to spend
on something that’s getting more expensive.”
Instead, traditional broadcasters are turning to
live content and gimmicks such as a camera follow-
ing cops or debt collectors. Enders says the U.K.’s
main free-to-air broadcasters have more than tri-
pled the time devoted to nonscripted shows since- In Germany the share of live programs, game
shows, and reality TV at the three biggest private
networks has more than doubled since 2000, to
43% of productions broadcast last year. At TF1,
France’s biggest free-to-air channel, scripted
shows other than movies dropped to a quarter
of content watched last year, down from a third
in2010,accordingtoratingstrackerMediametrie.
The other stronghold for traditional TV is live
events such as soccer’s World Cup. But while
streaming platforms struggle to serve millions of
simultaneous viewers, they’re getting better. A big
sports push by the streamers would leave broad-
casters even more dependent on lowbrow fare
such as a drag queen talent show featuring German
model Heidi Klum as a juror that ProSieben will
introduce in November. The channel’s content
is “more local, more live, more relevant,” Conze
said at the conference in Cologne. Shows like The
Masked Singer create a buzz that “has huge power,
and that power isn’t going away.” �Stefan Nicola,
with Angelina RascouetDenmarkItalyU.K.BulgariaGermanyGreeceNetherlandsSpainFinlandFrancePolandSwedenBelgiumRomaniaCzechRep.HungaryNorwayPortugalSlovakiaUkraineCroatiaLithuaniaRussiaSlovenia
TheVoice
... GotTalent
MasterChef
Survivor
MarriedatFirstSight
X Factor
TheMaskedSinger
TheFarm
LoveIsland● Countryoforigin ● Localized version airing 2019-Reality TVDATA: COMPANY REPORTS, NEWS REPORTS. INCLUDES SPINOFF SERIES