Disorganised and confusing 'LA Screenings' spells change - and maybe even some trouble - for South African viewers and DStv subscribers in the months ahead.

The just-concluded 2019 "LA Screenings", this year described by content buyers from various countries who once again visited Los Angeles for a week, as "disorganised" and "confusing", spells change - and maybe even some trouble - for South African viewers in the months ahead, especially DStv subscribers and M-Net viewers.

A level of confusion and uncertainty permeated the past week's 2019 LA Screenings with not just buyers but even studios and the representatives from their international distribution divisions who seemed unsure about exactly what of their new content slate they're willing to sell and which are available to buy.

It's raising questions about not what's available but about what studios might increasingly be likely to keep back for their own existing and upcoming video-on-demand streaming services, like Disney that plans to launch Disney+.

NBCUniversal is also holding shows back and not making them available to buy through NBCUniversal International Distribution. 

Warner Bros. Television Group is likewise holding back content and shows as well, also for the same reason, in that it's making those specifically for its video streaming service from WarnerMedia, meaning that it won't be available for international licensing.

Once a year around May, the big American studios collectively hold what in the trade is known as the "LA Screenings", with about 1 500 content executives from around the world descending on Los Angeles to party, wine and dine and view the upcoming new show slates from which they'll be able to pick and choose and negotiate content deals for their TV channels.

This year, as previously, content executives from MultiChoice and M-Net, flew to Los Angeles for the 2019 LA Screenings.

This year the 2019 LA Screenings has had a very different atmosphere however, indicative of the tumultuous changes rocking the TV industry in America and worldwide as digital is sweeping the biz. 

American broadcasters, studios and pay-TV services are ramping up content production for their own subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services like Disney+ and keeping that content back to exclusively be placed and funnelled through their own services. 

This has led to growing confusion about what content exactly is available to acquire.

As Television Business International noted, this could likely lead to "a scarcity" of content.

One TV executive attending the 2019 LA Screenings described the scene at Walt Disney as "super disorganised" this year with some of Disney's international sales team members who were unaware that Disney has taken over operational control of Hulu.

"Disney is still selling stuff, but it's likely that a lot of the proper Disney shows will be held back," a source told TBI. "They are definitely looking for more flexibility and co-exclusivity. They want to have their cake and eat it, too."

"For buyers at the LA Screenings, the whole point is to see the brand new shows at basically the same time as the American networks so you can make a decision, do a deal and get it in your schedules around September and October," said another executive.

"However, if there’s a holdback, then a lot of the content that broadcasters would have wanted to launch schedules with won't be available until, potentially, next year. If they are going to hold back content for their own over-the-top (OTT) services, and if I was a broadcaster, I'd be saying, 'I’m not going to pay you $100; I’ll pay you $60'.

Sophie Judge, the head of acquisitions for series at Britain's pay-TV service Sky, told TBI that "We know their own SVOD services are being launched, but as far as we’re concerned, their content is available to buy and that has been communicated to us".

Disney Global Content Sales and Distribution is now also responsible for distributing Fox content following Disney's Fox acquisition, and showed Fox's slate together with Disney content at the 2019 LA Screenings - for instance, new comedies from the 20th Century Fox Television studio, Bless This Mess and Perfect Harmony, alongside ABC Studios' Emergence and Stumptown. (Gone was the traditional Disney International Upfront event from previous years).

It's not clear where South African viewers will get to see a new upcoming show like The Mandalorian, the first live-action Star Wars series that will be on Disney+ - a streaming service not being launched in South Africa for years, if at all.

Will The Mandalorian be on M-Net, Showmax, FOX, elsewhere on MultiChoice for DStv susbcribers - or nowhere at all, except on illegal torrent feeds and download sites?

For South African viewers and DStv subscribers its already becoming clear that the best content distributed by CBS Studios International will no longer automatically be on MultiChoice's platform and M-Net (DStv 101) in South Africa and across Africa as it has been, with the new buzzed-about Star Trek Picard series going straight to Amazon Prime Video after snapping it up in a multi-territory global deal.

Yet the new 90210, BH90210, that CBS Studios International screened in LA, might very well end up on M-Net.

A new comedy from Chuck Lorre, Bob ♥ Abishola, from CBS about a middle-aged sock businessman from Detroit who unexpectedly falls in love with his cardiac nurse, a Nigerian immigrant, had some international buyers slightly worried. 

They said they didn't know how to do the title on their electronic programme guides (EPG) with the symbol but would try to figure it out.

Several international buyers at the 2019 LA Screenings asked the various studios and distributors about the exclusive international rights to the studios' shows but got no or very little answers about rights and availability.