Neither Amazon nor Netflix will take part in the Television Critics Association summer press tour this year.
According to Variety, CTAM’s recently released schedule for the tour includes programmers like HBO and Discovery but not Amazon or Netflix, two of the biggest SVODs.
“I cannot answer to what Netflix’s reasons are for not presenting at the Summer TCA Tour,” CTAM spokesperson Mary Shaw told the publication. “However, I can say that there are a lot of variables that go into a content provider being able to present at any given tour. There are many factors that go into a successful presentation e.g., executive availability, talent availability, production schedules, marketing materials, etc.”
She added that the CTAM cable and streaming portion of the tour will still feature a “robust five days of programming.”
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The CTAM portion of the tour is scheduled to take place July 25-29. The TCA Press Tour takes place twice a year, in January and July. According to the TCA, each tour generates roughly 40,000 stories during each two-week span, with approximately 45,000 more stories from the tour banked and released in subsequent months.
Last year, Netflix also dropped out of the TCA winter press tour. At the time, TCA president Amber Dowling told Variety that Netflix has an inconsistent record of attending TCA press tours.
While Amazon and Netflix are sitting out on a chance to show off new and upcoming series to the press, the companies are both on track to increase their original programming slates.
Netflix said it plans to spend $6 billion this year on content, and Amazon plans to double its content budget and triple it in the second half of 2017. That means the two have the kind of buying muscle they can flex on programmers and fellow subscription video on demand providers. Analyst firm MoffettNathanson said Netflix might start outbidding cable networks for the rights to reality shows.
“Concurrently, SVOD players have started to show interest in buying nonfiction content which could start to put pressure on the bigger nonfiction cable networks. Netflix has continuously emphasized increasing original content. However, given the high cost of scripted originals, Netflix will need to incorporate more unscripted content in these efforts. As a result, Netflix (and the other SVOD players) will start to bid away name brand nonfiction shows from cable networks,” MoffettNathanson wrote in a research report.