Regionality trends within the UK production sector
The regionality of the TV production and broadcasting sectors has become a key policy area, with multiple significant initiatives, ranging from the BBC’s relocation to Salford to Ofcom quota changes and Channel 4’s recent ‘4 All the UK’ strategy announcement, recently aiming to improve the state of the industry outside of London. This report for Ofcom provides some context for the consultation on regional TV production and future discussions in this area though an analysis of recent trends in the production sector.
UK production sector in the nations and regions
Network PSB commissions account for the majority of production spending in the nations and regions, although their ‘made outside London’ (MoL) originations spending has fallen very slightly over recent years
Northern England is the most active region, with roughly £550m of originations spend in 2017. Southern England and Scotland are also key areas; though all are significantly smaller than the production industry in London
PSB commissioning outside London
Total PSB MoL originations volume has fallen slightly but the proportion of MoL hours made by external producers has increased from 38% in 2014 to 47% in 2017
Over 60% of these external originations are produced by companies whose main office is in London, though many also have a secondary office in the nations and regions
Sports MoL programming, which has typically covered sporting events outside the location of production, has diminished but still accounts for over one-quarter of PSB MoL originations in terms of volume
BBC and ITV in-house MoL originations are predominantly focused in Northern England while Channel 4’s MoL commissions, mostly factual and entertainment programming, are spread more evenly across the different areas
Impact of previous broadcaster policies
The BBC relocation to Salford and changes to Channel 4’s nations quota have had a significant impact on overall spending, but have had a more subdued effect on the independent sector and audience perceptions
Click here to read the report in full.