Pact UK Television Census 2019

UK independent TV production sector revenues reached over £3 billion in 2018, the highest yet up over 40% since 2008.

This is an increase of 10% since 2017, and revenues have grown by over £500 million since 2012 – a rate of 3.1% per year.
International revenues rocket

Over the past year, international revenue grew by 20% to £962 million, an increase of over 90% since 2013. This growth was primarily driven by a 28% increase in primary international commission revenues totalling £704 million in 2018.

Domestic TV revenues also rose by 3% to just under £1.9 billion, but remain broadly flat since 2008. This is due to PSB commissioning spend falling annually while commissioning spend from multichannels continues to grow (up by £62 million to £321 million), more than doubling since 2008 (£321 million compared with £158 million).

SVOD commissioning income soars
Commissioning income from international SVODs (including Netflix and Amazon Prime) increased by 87% from 2017 to £280 million, accounting for 40% of all international commissioning income. Including UK VOD services (BBC iPlayer, All4, ITVHub, My5), this rose to £328 million.

Share of commissioning spend by genre
Drama spend increased significantly since 2017, accounting for over one third (35%) of all external UK commissions, the highest since 2009. Entertainment retained the second highest share of commissioning spend at 25%.

Share of commissioning spend by company size
The BBC continues to commission a greater share from the smallest companies compared to other PSBs (8% of its spend was with companies with less than £1 million turnover), with ITV (55%), Channel 5 (53%) and Channel 4 (50%) commissioning from the largest producers (companies with more than £70 million turnover).

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