Global SVoD services in small audio-visual market contexts: Commissioning patterns in Flanders, Ireland and Norway

Abstract

Global streaming services’ investment strategies in Europe have shifted the production landscape for scripted fiction. This article examines the commissioning patterns for scripted serial TV fiction through a comparative analysis of three small European markets: Flanders, Ireland and Norway. The analysis assesses the differences and similarities in the volumes of scripted fiction and how they evolved, focusing on the position of SVoD commissions in the total volumes based on a dataset of 411 unique titles and 609 title seasons of serial scripted fiction released between 2016 and 2023. It reveals that different economic and cultural contexts modulate global streamers’ investments in local content, which in turn are an essential facet of global streamers’ localization strategies in Europe. Our findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of SVoD localization strategies within European markets, contextualizing the variations in investment and production patterns.