Videoage International August-September 2021

20 Four Decades of Int’ l TV Biz August/Sept. 2021 V I D E O A G E After the 2020 U.S. presidential elections, social media became the focus of government investigations and public scorn, but its problematic influence was never more clearly displayed than in 2017. That year also saw 80 licensing options, the largest number of rights that content companies could offer. But it only took three years for those rights to be reduced to just one: streaming. In 2018, digital took its toll, both in terms of human resources and companies. That year LATAM TV exports took a dive, mainly due to challenges from Turkish producers and distributors. Changes were also in the air in Canada, where Netflix basically reduced export companies from 12 in 1997, to two. With the pandemic of early 2020, all TV trade shows were canceled as in-person events and became all virtual. The streaming surge of 2019 exploded in 2020 and early 2021, forcing international content sales companies to reduce their sales forces and to come up with new sales models. (Continued from Page 18) 2017 2019 2018 2020