Perspectives

Physical production studio trends

Meeting the growing demand for content creation

Demand for original content continues to grow year over year. But as content creators seek out spaces to meet their production needs, major cities across North America and Europe are experiencing a shortage in production studio space. Dive into considerations and strategies for filming locations, content creators, real estate investors, and production facility operators.

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The evolution of the video production landscape

In recent years, we have seen content production increase significantly—driven mainly by the growing number of streaming platforms. We set out to explore the studio production landscape, focusing on market, supply, and demand dynamics across four cities: Los Angeles (LA), New York City (NYC), London, and Vancouver. This media and entertainment market assessment is the next edition in our ongoing analysis of the studio production industry.

As of 2023, we have determined that demand for production space at soundstages is continuing to outpace supply in LA and NYC through 2025. With the influx of investment in the London and Vancouver markets, projected supply is estimated to meet anticipated demand by 2025. For all markets, however, we found there is opportunity for continued investment in high-end, purpose-built facilities as modern, bespoke studios are in high demand and the preferred option of content producers.

While opportunities exist for further investment in purpose-built studios, the content production landscape moving forward may look significantly different than it has over the past three years. But after years of year-over-year growth, have the winds changed for original content production? We explore this question and more in this case study on the studio production industry.

Have the winds changed?

Studio production in LA, London, and Toronto

Over the past few years, soundstage supply in major production hubs was nearing capacity, and capacity constraints have been further exacerbated due to pent-up demand from COVID-19 shutdowns and multiyear leases to reserve stages.

In our analysis of NYC in 2021, we determined that it will be important for content creators to have strategies in place to overcome constrained supply. This recommendation holds true across all three hubs, but especially in Los Angeles and Toronto where demand will exceed supply for the near future.

The time to act is now: As more content creators continue to tie up space with long-term deals, supply will likely become even more constrained.

Physical Production Studios in LA, London, and Toronto

Studio production in New York

New York City is uniquely positioned as a leading location for studio production for streaming providers and broadcast networks given the strong ecosystem that provides access to talent and labor, the ability to shoot on location, and the advantageous tax credits that help content creators overcome the costs of filming in New York City. However, current capacity constraints have led to a need for new physical studio production spaces that will meet the demand of the growth of content creation.

Through this media and entertainment market assessment, we determined that demand for production space at soundstages will continue to outpace NYC supply through at least 2024 and have provided some key findings that can be applied to other filming locations and leveraged by content creators (e.g., streaming service providers or studios), real estate investors, and production facility operators.

This case study dives into the New York studio production shortage and outlines what content creators, studios, and real estate investors can do to get ahead of it.

Physical production studios in NYC

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