World fiction continues to be led by drama, according to GECA

The latest report of Teleformat, the international observatory of television trends and formats of GECA, sheds light on global fiction production in 2021.

The report highlights two highly relevant data before stopping in a detailed analysis of some of the most prominent markets for fiction production. The first is that the Drama remains the dominant genre worldwide, while the second key is that Fiction production has decreased slightly compared to 2020.

Focusing attention on USA, GECA emphasizes that the animation becomes the genre with the greatest presence, followed by drama and comedy. The number of animated productions increases 70% compared to 2020 and a 110% since 2018. The production of dramadies and sitcoms also grows significantly in 2021, with twice as many premieres as the previous year. Likewise, there is an appreciable increase in anthology series and a significant decrease in comedies (almost half that of 2019 and 2020). The miniseries continues to be the minority genre, with only four productions in 2021.

With respect to Spain, after 2020 with a large increase in series, 2021 represents a setback to previous figures. Teleformat points out that this situation causes a lesser variety of genres, with drama still as the main genre. Other keys to the Spanish market is a very pronounced increase in the genre dramedia, which previously had very little presence in the market; as well as a large increase in fiction productions for platforms, which account for two thirds of production.

European panorama

Drama production, the main engine of fiction german, has skyrocketed in 2021 to reach a share of 52%. Comedy and drama, which are, respectively, the second and third most represented genres, add the same number of premieres as a year ago. The proportion of premieres on platforms and the internet also remains constant, around 40%. jumping to United Kingdom, highlights the decrease in the production of series in general compared to previous years with approximately 20% fewer premieres. The main genre continues to be drama while it seems that comedies, dramedies and others have suffered the effects of the decline in production the most.

In France, 2021 has been a strong boost for series production, with the usual genres predominant. Drama remains the most powerful genre, although a greater diversity of genres is seen when it comes to telling stories, with productions of miniseries and dramas. The comedy quota has continued to be present over the years and in recent months it has grown considerably, with nine titles in 2021. It is also worth highlighting the presence of animated series. For its part, Italia has once again seen how his fiction production has increased. Drama is gaining ground lately and remains the genre with the greatest presence, followed in 2021 by miniseries and comedies. The drama genre has decreased slightly in the last year and the total number of series produced has experienced a slight increase.

Finally, in Netherlands 26 new productions have been released, which is the highest number in the last four years. It is worth highlighting the drop in drama (less than half that of the previous two years) in the last year. It is no longer the most produced genre while comedy, miniseries and dramas are gaining ground considerably. On the other hand, this year animation disappears and there is only one premiere of the anthology genre.

Fiction in Latin America

Brazil concludes 2021 with the premiere of 24 series, a considerably lower number compared to previous years. The decrease in productions of the drama genre is striking, although it continues to be the preferred option of the networks. Comedy also experiences a decline over the years, while miniseries and animation remain more or less stable.

In Colombia, fiction production has experienced a considerable drop that has been especially accentuated in dramas. The predominant genre of the last three years has seen its production reduced by 50% in 2021 compared to the previous year. This decrease would be 100% if we focused exclusively on linear TV, since all the dramas released this year bear the seal of some digital platform. The production of soap operas, on the other hand, has returned, after the decline experienced in 2019 and 2020, to the levels of 2018.

Mexico continues to bet decisively on soap operas. These fictions emerge as the genre with the most releases of the year, closely followed by drama, which remains stable compared to last year. During 2021, other genres forgotten in recent years have also emerged, such as animation, anthology and miniseries, although with little presence. Finally, Argentina. Drama continues to be the genre with the greatest presence in 2021, followed by dramedy, which grows in the number of premieres compared to 2020. It is worth highlighting the decrease in premieres of comedy productions compared to the previous year. The soap opera remains stable.