iWorld
Content spending to top $250 billion by year-end, amid soaring demand
New Delhi: Despite a year of uncertainty and production hiatuses due to the global pandemic, streaming platforms have set the global film and TV industry on a trajectory of accelerated growth with no imminent ceiling in sight. According to a latest assessment by London-based fin-tech platform, Purely Streamonomics, audience demand, production spending, and TV budgets reached all-time highs during the pandemic.
While the actual number of films that went into production dropped last year, and TV series experienced shooting delays, more cash than ever was committed to content, reflecting continually rising production budgets and greater rights-buying activity.
Production spending to top $250 billion by year-end
Based on current trend lines, Purely expects production spending to top $250 billion by year-end, and then keep rising beyond that, especially as media mergers: Warner Bros Discovery, Amazon-MGM and Televisa-Univision start to flex their combined muscles around the planet.
“What is remarkable about these record numbers is that the industry’s spending has yet to bump up against any natural ceiling. Every year there is talk of the industry being on the cusp of ‘peak television’ and yet it is clear from our own business dealings that the streaming of films and TV shows is only now starting to reach escape velocity,” said Purely, founder and CEO, Wayne Marc Godfrey, “Streaming is not just displacing traditional sources of entertainment revenue such as pay-TV and linear broadcasting, it is actually expanding the global marketplace for video.”
The research shows that gross cash amount spent producing and licensing new entertainment content (excluding sports) soared by 16.4 per cent in 2020 to reach $220.2 billion, setting yet another milestone that is on track to be surpassed again this year. “But this is only the start of what’s to come. Even more spending growth is on the short-term horizon as a new wave of ad-supported platforms start gaining a stronger foothold around the world, alongside the subscription-funded services that have been driving the streaming marketplace until now,” says the report by the London-based fin-tech platform.
Four emerging trends:
Deluge of new streaming platforms:
Since 2019, the number of global customers subscribing to streaming video platforms (has grown from 642 million to more than 1.1 billion, a 71 per cent leap that has been turbo-charged by months of enforced lockdowns at home. The pandemic not only drove rampant growth on existing platforms, it also accelerated the acceptance of powerful new global competitors including Disney Plus, Apple TV Plus, HBO Max, Peacock, Discovery Plus, Paramount Plus and Star. Joining these global platforms in the hunt for monthly customers are several regional Champions. Total number of subscribers is expected to reach at least 1.6 billion by 2025—representing about a fifth of the planet’s total projected population by then.
Content Spending Reaches a New High
As more platforms entered the streaming market and audience demand reached all-time highs in 2020, overall Film & TV production spending increased worldwide.
According to the research, The Walt Disney Co remains the biggest single spender on content, with a grossed-up total of $28.6 billion for 2020 – which is more than spend across the whole of Asia ($27.7 billion) last year, followed by recently formed Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix. Once Amazon completes its own acquisition of MGM, that combined entity would rank as the fourth largest North American production. On that basis these top four companies alone, with combined spending of $75.3 billion, almost equates to the entire worldwide spending outside of North America ($77.3)
Spending On Indie Content Surges
As much as Netflix and the five major Hollywood studios spend producing their own content, independently made and acquired content accounts for twice as much money globally. According to Purely Streamonomics’ global research, indie content spending jumped by 25.3 per cent year-on-year in 2020 and now accounts for 65.5 per cent of the world’s film and TV production activity.
Budgets Are Soaring for TV shows
As audiences continue to grow, and more competition enters the market, the stakes keep getting higher. In order to stay competitive, producers face pressure to up their production spending. As a result, budgets have risen in recent years, especially for TV shows. According to the research, average budgets across all new series in the US– scripted, unscripted, daytime and kids – was on the rise, up 16.5 per cent in 2020. The cost of introducing and monitoring COVID protocols in 2020 also added 20-30 per cent to production budgets.
The findings of the research were presented in the form of infographics by Purely Streamonomics and created by digital publisher Visual Capitalist. The data is based on SEC filings by U.S. media conglomerates and tech giants, as well as reports published by national film and TV data-gathering organisations around the world.
iWorld
Schmooze launches AI matchmaker Riya to personalise dating
300,000 users try feature as retention doubles on Gen Z dating app.
MUMBAI: Love might be blind, but now it’s also algorithmically curated and apparently quite chatty. Schmooze has introduced an AI-powered personal matchmaker named Riya, marking its latest push to move beyond swipe-led dating into deeper, personality-driven matchmaking. Unlike traditional matching systems, Riya interacts directly with users through conversations asking about everything from lifestyle and humour to relationship goals and family values. The idea is simple but ambitious: understand users beyond surface-level preferences and recommend matches that actually fit.
The feature builds on a pattern Schmooze had already observed. Its earlier AI tool, People Finder, allowed users to describe their ideal partner in detail and users did exactly that. Requests ranged from “an extrovert who works in tech and likes to cook” to hyper-specific traits, signalling a clear shift towards intent-driven dating.
That insight exposed a gap. While dating apps typically rely on probability-based algorithms, many users already know what they want they just lack a system that can interpret it meaningfully.
Riya attempts to fill that gap using a conversational approach. Instead of rigid inputs, it gathers signals organically sometimes through casual questions about weekend plans or social habits while mapping deeper compatibility markers in the background.
To support this, Schmooze has built its own end-to-end voice AI stack and large language model, rather than relying on third-party systems. The move is aimed at keeping costs in check while handling scale, and ensuring tighter control over user data and privacy.
The early numbers suggest traction. More than 300,000 users have already interacted with Riya, with those users showing 2× higher retention compared to others on the platform. While the system is designed for short interactions, some users are spending up to 40–50 minutes in conversation occasionally even asking for date ideas, prompting the company to add personalised recommendations.
The launch is the latest step in Schmooze’s broader attempt to rethink dating for Gen Z. Founded by Vidya Madhavan and Abhinav Anurag, the platform initially stood out by using memes as a proxy for personality tracking over 3.5 billion meme swipes across its base of more than 5 million users.
In a market dominated by global players like Tinder, Bumble and Hinge, Schmooze’s approach signals a shift from visual-first discovery to interaction-led compatibility. And with AI now stepping in as a digital wingman, the dating game may be moving from swipe right to speak right.
