California led the nation and the world this year when it came to TV series production, according to a new study from FilmLA.
The Hollywood nonprofit that coordinates on-location filming in various jurisdictions said in the 2021 Television Report that California had the most series filming there across broadcast, cable and streaming platforms with 97 shows this year. That is a steep 39 percent drop from the 159 shows filmed in the state last year.
“New York was second, declining from 60 to 41 series (-31.7 percent),” the report said. “British Columbia and the U.K. experienced more modest declines of 18.8 and 11.8 percent, respectively.”
For broadcast series, California had a total of 36 shows, or about 43 percent of all broadcast series, this year. Coming in second was British Columbia, which the study said was popular with networks such as The CW in Burbank. “The province hosted 18 shows or 22 percent of broadcast series,” the report said.
For cable series, California edged out Georgia with a total of 20 series to 17 shows for the Southern state. Third place went to New York with 13 series or about 13 percent of the total number of cable shows filming – 103.
And for streaming, California emerged as the top location to film with 41 shows, or about 28 percent of the total 145 series filmed. “Following California was Georgia (17 series), New York (16 series) and British Columbia and Ontario with 14 series each,” the report said.
The report also looked at the number of shows on each of the three platforms and compared them to 10 years ago, when FilmLA began keeping its data.
Cable dominated the television market in the 2010-2011 season with 63 percent of the series being shown. That had since declined to 33 percent for the 2020-2021 season. Broadcast series went down by 10 percent to 24 percent of all shows for the just completed 2021 cycle. Streaming went up from an insignificant 3 percent in the 2011 cycle to 43 percent for the 2021 cycle.
“In terms of sheer numbers, streaming services now dominate the television industry,” the report said.Â