Animation greenlights going down

[Scofisticated]

I found this Hollywood Reporter article that talks about Apple TV+ ordering less animation. But the graphs it shows say something about the animation field in general. Most streamers are cutting back on greenlighting animation from 2022 to 2024. And it goes down pretty steep.

NOTE: report was released in June of '25. So the numbers for 2025 are only for maybe half a year.

Where Did All the Apple TV+ Animation Go?

Even with its 'Peanuts' rights, the Apple SVOD service has seemingly all but abandoned cartoons.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

What might be obvious, is that it shoots up during the pandemic. But after lockdown, decreases. Not surprising, necessarily.

Also, personal note, for as much flack as Netflix gets about animation, it is still greenlighting more anim than anyone else.

 

[Classic Speedy]

I don't know why Netflix gets flack for animation either. Most of the new series I've watched in the last couple years have been on Netflix (Carmen Sandiego, JP Chaos Theory, Ranma 1/2, Tomb Raider), plus movies (Fixed, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, K-Pop).

 

[harry580]

I wonder why that's the case if animation would have expanded during the pandemic

 

[PicardMan]

Well, the issue is more of a quantity issue than quality when it comes to cartoons. Netflix does the one season every three years thing and modern cartoons have much shorter seasons than in the past. There is significantly fewer cartoon episodes coming out in the streaming era than the cable era of animation.

 

[Space Cadet]

Well, the issue is more of a quantity issue than quality when it comes to cartoons. Netflix does the one season every three years thing and modern cartoons have much shorter seasons than in the past. There is significantly fewer cartoon episodes coming out in the streaming era than the cable era of animation.

The one downside of cord cutting is that tv seasons in general get much shorter now.

 

[Scofisticated]

I'm not sure what to say on the length of seasons, but it has another graph for Streaming to Cable.

It's following the same trend, but Cable is greenlighting less and less. And Streaming, more by comparison.