Advanced Television

Report: UK indie production revenues record high

October 2, 2020

The UK’s Independent TV production sector revenues reached a new record of £3.3 billion (€3.6bn) in 2019 – driven by international revenues breaking £1 billion for the first time – an increase of 11 per cent on 2018, and a rise of 30 per cent over the past five years.

The Pact UK Production Census reveals that the sector’s fastest growing revenue stream – international – reached £1,251 million, a 30 per cent increase on 2018.

Commissions from international linear TV services rose by £226 million in 2019, accounting for the majority of growth, whilst revenue generated by commissions from SVoD services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video grew again, reaching £337 million.

Domestic revenues also reached a new high of £1,943 million, a 3 per cent increase on 2018.

Commenting on the Census, Pact CEO John McVay, said: “It was only a matter of time for international revenues to break £1 billion. The creativity and talent that the UK indie sector has to offer is world class and British programming has true global appeal. Despite the obvious challenges that the sector has faced this year, I am confident that UK indies will weather the storm and continue this international success story”.

Sara Geater, Chair of Pact and All3Media Chief Operating Officer, added: “These record revenues show very clearly that the indie sector has had huge success in 2019, reflecting the importance of our independent TV production sector to the international market. We can look forward to the production levels from UK indies returning to meet the global demand for the high quality, original content that audiences around the world love.”

Smaller producers form majority of market

The UK indie sector remains varied with a good range of different sized producers. Since 2018, there has been an increase in medium sized producers, but smaller producers continue to make up the bulk of the UK sector (42 per cent).

Across the networks, Channel 5 spent the highest proportion of its commissioning budget with smaller producers, with 20 per cent of its independent suppliers in the £1-5 million turnover bracket.

Increase in drama and entertainment spend

Spending on drama and entertainment content continued to increase in 2019. Drama content accounted for 40 per cent of all UK primary commissioning spend in 2019, an increase of five percentage points on 2018.

Both entertainment and factual content saw an increase in commissioning spend, together accounting for 37 per cent of the market – a five percentage point increase in total.

Strong year for Nations and Regions indies

In 2019, half of all UK production budgets were spent in the Nations and Regions (45 per cent in 2018), and 37 per cent of full-time jobs were based outside of London (31 per cent in 2018). Additionally, nearly a quarter (24 per cent) of all commissioning spend outside of London was from international investment (17 per cent in 2018).

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