The Future of British Film and Television: Navigating Challenges and Opportunities

This episode explores the state of the British film and high-end television (HETV) industries based on recent analysis. We look at how big international investments drive growth but also the struggles faced by independent UK films trying to tell British stories. We discuss challenges like funding gaps, skills shortages, and protecting creative ideas (IP). Tune in to understand potential solutions like tax credits, a streaming levy, and support for cinemas and screen heritage.

Key Takeaways:

• Inward investment from international companies is a huge driver for the UK screen sector, creating jobs and studios.
• Independent British films that tell UK stories face significant challenges with funding for development, production, and marketing.
• There's a need for new ways to support the distribution of British films so they can reach audiences.
• Replacing lost funding from the EU's Creative Europe programme is still a major issue for the independent sector.
• Protecting the intellectual property (IP) rights of independent producers when working with streaming platforms is crucial.
• A levy on streaming services is proposed as a way to fund more culturally British content.
• Addressing workforce skills shortages and the lack of clear data on needs are urgent problems.
• Supporting cinemas, especially independent ones, is vital for UK film culture and the industry.
• A strong copyright framework is seen as necessary for continued investment.

Discussion: Given the importance of inward investment for the UK screen industry, how can policymakers and the industry ensure that this success also directly benefits and strengthens the creation of unique British stories and supports UK-based talent?

Source: British Film and High End Television - H of C Committee Report.

10th April 2025

Chapters

• 0:34 Investment
• 1:16 Challenges
• 2:06 Implications of leaving 'Creative Europe'
• 2:36 Distribution challenges / tax credits
• 3:53 High End TV
• 4:40 Intellectual Property
• 5:27 Levy on streaming services
• 6:00 Skills shortages
• 6:34 Regional differences in support
• 7:17 BFI role and funding
• 8:08 Conclusions

Transcript

Amy: 0:00

Hello and welcome to The Bench Report. You're listening to Amy and Ivan. Today we're looking into the British film and high-end television industries. There's some fascinating analysis out recently. It shows, well, booming international investment, which sounds great, but domestic productions, they seem to be facing real hurdles. Our aim today is to get a handle on these dynamics, what's really going on, and what it might mean for the future of British stories on screen, and, you know, our wider culture.

Ivan: 0:29

Absolutely. The UK film and TV scene has... really been transformed by money coming in from overseas, a huge amount of it. This inward investment has brought jobs. It's helped build new studios, develop skills. It's been significant. And it definitely boosts the UK's soft power, our cultural influence globally. The government is quite ambitious here. They want the UK to be the number one spot for film and HGTV production.

Amy: 0:54

Which means staying competitive, I imagine.

Ivan: 0:56

Exactly. Global competition is fierce. So we need appealing tax incentives, enough studio space, basically everything needed to keep attracting the big players. We're talking U.S. studios, the big streaming platforms, setting up long term bases here. And don't forget the ripple effects, benefits for travel, tourism, other sectors, too.

Amy: 1:16

OK, so that's the positive side, the inward investment success. But you mentioned challenges for domestic work. Films and TV actually made here about British life.

Ivan: 1:26

That's right. There's a clear distinction. These independent films, the domestic TV shows, they often speak to British audiences in a different way. They reflect UK lives, our culture. They're vital for that soft power, too, and the economy, but perhaps in a less obvious way initially. You could think of the independent film sector as the nursery slopes. It's where talent often gets its first break, learns the ropes.

Amy: 1:48

Talent that then feeds the whole system, including those big international projects.

Ivan: 1:52

Precisely. It benefits the entire media ecosystem. Now, there is the independent film tax credit, the IFTC, which helps. But It's not a magic bullet. There are still fundamental problems, especially in getting development funding off the ground and then raising the full budget.

Amy: 2:06

And I understand losing access to the EU's Creative Europe program didn't help. That used to fund early stages like screenplays.

Ivan: 2:13

A definite blow. There are concrete examples like producer Rebecca O'Brien securing, I think it was 150,000 pounds just for screenplay development via Creative Europe. That kind of early stage support hasn't really been replaced adequately by our public service broadcasters or even the BFI, and that even if you get the film made, getting it seen is another battle.

Amy: 2:35

The distribution challenge.

Ivan: 2:36

Yes. Independent films often lack the money for big advertising campaigns. They're competing against Hollywood marketing machines.

Amy: 2:42

Which leads to this idea of a distribution tax credit. What's the logic?

Ivan: 2:46

Well, Jay Hunt, the chair of the BFI, made the point quite clearly production success relies on reaching an audience. What's the point otherwise? And the Film Distributors Association, the FDA, they estimate quite a good return, potentially £2.50 So addressing

Amy: 3:05

that funding gap left by Creative Europe, what's happening there?

Ivan: 3:08

The UK Global Screen Fund, the UKGSF, was set up partly in response. Its focus is on international opportunities for the independent sector. It's generally seen as providing good value. But its current budget, around £7 million a year.

Unknown: 3:22

Wow.

Ivan: 3:23

Well, the feeling is it's just insufficient, not enough scale or scope. The BFI is actually pushing to more than double that figure.

Amy: 3:29

And any talk of rejoining Creative Europe?

Ivan: 3:31

There's definitely a strong interest in the film sector to explore that, perhaps during the UK-EU trade agreement review scheduled for 2026. Being part of Creative Europe again would also help UK content qualify as European works, which carries certain benefits. But as it stands, the BFI itself has stated that the UK has not adequately compensated for the loss of Creative Europe funding. It's quite stark.

Amy: 3:53

Let's shift to television, high-end TV or HETV. Are domestic productions feeling the pinch there, too?

Ivan: 3:59

There's certainly a concern. Domestic HETV is so important for our national identity, driving conversations, developing talent. The fear is that the problems we see in independent film, the funding pressures, the IP issues, could start impacting domestic television more significantly.

Amy: 4:16

And is there a specific proposal for TV? I think I saw something about tax credits again.

Ivan: 4:20

Yes, there's a proposal on the table to increase the audiovisual expenditure credit, the AVEC, specifically for domestic HGTV shows. This would target productions with budgets in the range of $1 million to $3 million per hour. The BFI is apparently analyzing this urgently.

Amy: 4:41

Intellectual property, IP, seems to be another key battleground.

Ivan: 4:44

Hugely important. Strong IP rights are crucial for attracting investment, yes, but also for allowing domestic producers to build sustainable businesses. The relationship between independent producers and the big streaming platforms is sometimes described as not sustainable. Deals can be structured in ways that mean the producer doesn't fully share in the long-term success of their own creation. They essentially sell off too much of the potential future value. So there's a recommendation to look into potential regulatory measures.

Amy: 5:12

Like the rules that already exist for public broadcasters, applying something similar to streamers.

Ivan: 5:17

Something along those lines. To ensure independent producers can retain a minimum level of IP ownership and benefit more directly from their successes. It needs careful research, of course.

Amy: 5:27

And another idea floating around is a levy on streaming services.

Ivan: 5:30

That's right. A suggestion of perhaps 5% of their UK subscriber revenue. The aim would be to rebalance things a bit between inward and domestic production, to create a dedicated fund, potentially for culturally significant British drama. The proposal suggests trying a voluntary approach first, see if streamers step up their contribution to the UK's mixed production ecology.

Amy: 5:54

And if not?

Ivan: 5:54

then possibly a statutory levy within about 12 months. It's quite a debated topic.

Amy: 5:59

Okay, moving on. Skills in studios, persistent issues.

Ivan: 6:02

Definitely. Workforce skills shortages remain a major challenge. Industry efforts to fix this have often been seen as, well, too slow, too fragmented. There seems to be a lack of confidence in the existing bodies to really deliver what's needed at scale. And on studios, there's apparently a lack of clear government data on exactly how much space we'll need in the future. plus the ongoing headache of business rates for studios.

Amy: 6:25

Even with temporary relief?

Ivan: 6:28

Yes, the 40% relief in England is temporary. It doesn't solve the long-term uncertainty for studio providers.

Amy: 6:34

You also mentioned regional differences in support.

Ivan: 6:37

Correct. Production support varies significantly across the UK. Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland often have additional incentives on top of the UK-wide ones. England, however, lacks a kind of nationwide equivalent regional boost. Screen Scotland, for instance, really emphasizes supporting projects based on where the creative voice originates and where the IP is held, not just where it happens to film.

Amy: 6:59

And getting data on this is tricky.

Ivan: 7:01

Very. There's a lack of consistent nation by nation data on production spend. This makes strategic planning difficult. One recommendation is to require companies claiming the AVEC tax relief to report their spending on a regional basis. That would certainly help paint a clearer picture.

Amy: 7:18

Finally, the BFI itself, it seems to be juggling a lot.

Ivan: 7:20

It really is. The BFI has this triple role culture education industry support, but its core government funding, the grant and aid, has actually fallen in real terms since 2011. Yet its responsibilities have grown, particularly around managing the tax reliefs. This puts a strain on its capacity. There's concern this could even impact the UK's reputation with investors if the certification process slows down, for example.

Amy: 7:44

So calls for more funding.

Ivan: 7:45

Yes. calls for increases to its grant and aid to reflect the workload, especially from the tax incentive changes, and also a look at how national lottery funding is allocated to the BFI. And just briefly, there's also the BFI National Archive, which needs a proper conservation center and a push for a statutory deposit scheme, a legal requirement to archive moving image works. So to kind of pull it all together, you have this real success story with inward investment bringing jobs and money. But alongside that, The domestic sector, especially independent film and potentially HGTV, is quite vulnerable. Funding, distribution, IP ownership, skills. These are all significant pressure points needing strategic attention.

Amy: 8:26

It really underscores how important these policy decisions are, not just for the economy, but for what kinds of stories get told and whose voices get

Ivan: 8:33

heard. Absolutely. It shapes our cultural landscape in profound ways.