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Category Archives: Film & TV industry policy
Broadcasting White Paper published
The DCMS has published its Broadcasting White Paper promising “a new golden age of programming” with changes to regulations on SVoDs, sports rights, and the privatisation of Channel 4. One change is that C4 will be able to start producing … Continue reading
Bectu ‘Live to Work’ campaign launched
Bectu has launched the Live to Work campaign aimed at improving terms and conditions in the UK TV drama industry. You can visit the campaign page here and join the network (open to members and non-members), download images to use … Continue reading
Demand for UK studio space v Netflix subscriber drop
Two stories passing each other in this week’s newspapers. Firstly, a good fact-packed briefing from The Times [£] on how demand for studio space is multiplying at the moment, to meet the demands of SVoD productions: “UK production spend is … Continue reading
Posted in Film & TV industry data, SVoD, Tax incentives
Tagged Netflix, SVOD, UK Studio Watch
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Understanding commuting costs – some bookmarks
For freelancers working either in film and TV, or in Live Events, there is often no option to use public transport to get to work. For a typical filming day, Bectu members tell us that they tend to arrive at … Continue reading
Skills shortages in film & TV – update
There’s a useful roundup in the i-Paper showing the scale of the studio expansion and growing physical production capacity that the UK has, in contrast to the roster of available skills which will leave an estimated “40,000 workers needed to … Continue reading
Bectu Mental Health and Welbeing Policy published
This was an idea that came from Bectu members during the pandemic. We did a load of online sessions discussing different aspects of the question “what is wrong with ‘the freelance deal’?” and there was a repeated refrain saying “our … Continue reading
Posted in Feature film data, Film & TV industry data, Film & TV industry policy, Freelance working, Freelancer rights, Health & Safety, High End TV data, Long hours, Management, Mental Health, Safe working practices, Safe working standards, Wellbeing, Work-life balance
Tagged Bectu Mental Health and Welbeing Policy
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Shepperton update: Now Prime Video have agreed a deal.
Further to a recent post here about Shepperton (which outlined the way that Netflix were treating the studio as it’s UK production base), The Pinewood Group (Shepperton’s owners) have today confirmed that the new facilities under development will be given … Continue reading
Travelling to work in the EU (updated)
Post updated 27/01/22 I started writing this post because I was quite annoyed that there wasn’t any straightforward advice on travelling to work from the UK to the EU. Also, as far as I can see, Brexit will hit freelancers … Continue reading
BBC as an antidote to social media competitors
A good post from Diana Coyle on the need for “a publicly-funded, public purpose and independent competitor of scale” in online markets such as social media.” “…foreign observers find it impossible to understand why UK governments are so keen to … Continue reading
Posted in BBC, Film & TV industry policy, Public Service Broadcasting
Tagged Diana Coyle, Social media
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Production growing in the nations and regions
Back in September, I posted here about The Pact Census (as carried out by Oliver and Ohlbaum). I’ve been meaning to pull out something about the impact on regional production from that for a while. So here goes. Pact chose … Continue reading
BBC funding statment from the VLV
The Voice of the Listener and Viewer has published the following Briefing note and press release in response to yesterday’s BBC funding settlement.The briefing includes the claim that, on current projections, the BBC will be in deficit by between approximately … Continue reading
Lord Bragg: The BBC is an institution that is being damaged for political purposes
I can’t find it on the Radio Times website, but the Times is quoting Melvyn Bragg’s article there, saying… “…as the BBC entered its centenary year, it found itself “sniped at, disparaged and blamed for every current malaise from culture … Continue reading
Round up – production in the UK
Anyone looking for a good roundup of the UK production landscape – investments, studios, facilities, etc, may find this article in KFTV useful. A lot of it has been covered here already, though I’m aware I need to post more … Continue reading
BFI Screen Business report details the scale of the UK production boom
Anyone who has any doubts about the size and scale of the UK production boom can have a look at the latest BFI Screen Business report (if the annual Pact Census most recently published in September wasn’t convincing enough!). The … Continue reading
Posted in BBC, Economics, Factual & Entertainment sector data, Feature film data, Film & TV industry data, Film & TV industry policy, High End TV data, Public Service Broadcasting, Quotas, Skills & capacity, SVoD, Tax incentives, UK studios
Tagged BFI, BFI Screen Business Report, Pact Census, UK Studio Watch
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Shinfield Studios planning permission granted.
Shinfield Studios in Reading is another addition to the UK’s ever-mushrooming production capacity (for details of other recent developments see the UK Studio Watch tag on this site). Located very close the M4 and nearly 5 miles away from the … Continue reading
A distinctly British focus for TV programmes
David Tennant has been questioning some of the arguments around demands for ‘distinctly British programmes (or ‘lovely jubbly telly‘ as John Whittingdale didn’t say recently). “Is there some inherent criticism within this plea for more Britishness?” he said in the … Continue reading
Working terms in Swedish productions
It’s always worth looking at how other countries do work hours in the film and TV industry, and it is a commonplace view that the Swedish drama sector manages a high quality of production on working hours that also give … Continue reading
Posted in Bectu Agreements, Employment Law and Rights, EU & Brexit, Factual & Entertainment sector data, Feature film data, Film & TV industry data, Health & Safety, High End TV data, Long hours, Major Motion Picture Agreement, Productivity, SVoD, Tax incentives, Trades Unions, TV Drama Agreement, Work-life balance
Tagged Eyes Half Shut, Scen and Film, Sweden
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Shepperton expansion confirmed – with deeper Netflix ties
Further to the previous post about Shepperton Studios here a few months ago, it looks like the support from Spelthorne Council has borne fruit: The Pinewood Group has now announced its decision to further expand Shepperton. This will expand the capacity … Continue reading
ITV and SVoD revenues
The picture for ITV is a bundle of contradictions. On the one hand, their ad revenues, the FT are reporting [£] that they are rising dramatically and have done well throughout the pandemic. Share prices are climbing accordingly. On the … Continue reading
What is the future for streaming TV?
There’s a lot of soul-searching going on in the pages of the FT about the future for streaming TV. Both Netflix and Disney Plus are reporting slowdowns in growth. It’s a bit of an odd one – both have grown … Continue reading
Posted in Film & TV industry data, High End TV data, SVoD
Tagged Disney, Disney Plus, Netflix
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Bray Studios expansion agreed
Bray Studios – the home of Hammer Horror films – is the latest of the UK’s historic film studios to announce an expansion. Plainly, this growing capacity is good news all round for Bectu members, though there will be mixed … Continue reading
Violation Tracker UK
Violation Tracker UK is a search tool that brings together data on a range of regulatory infringements committed by companies across the United Kingdom, including employment tribunal data. It has been put together by the Corporate Research Project of Good … Continue reading
More details of the proposed IATSE deal
The actual text of the proposed agreement between IATSE and AMPTP is still in the hands of the lawyers, but IATSE have published some more information about how they will be consulting on this, the financial aspects of the offer … Continue reading
Piracy of films is still a thing
The commonplace (one I’m occasionally guilty of repeating) that online piracy of movies is almost a non-issue now thanks to the emergence of competitively-priced streaming platforms is wrong, it seems. The Global Innovation Policy Center is claiming that worldwide online piracy … Continue reading
Posted in Copyright and piracy, Feature film data, Film & TV industry data, High End TV data
Tagged Copyright, Dune, Piracy, Torrent sites
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UK radio to get ‘discoverability’ boost on smart speakers
Regulators have a number of tools at their fingertips. They can offer tax breaks linked to cultural tests. They can tell TV channels that a percentage of their content should be made within a particular jurisdiction. They can oblige distribution … Continue reading
Posted in BBC, Quotas, Radio, Regulation
Tagged DCMS, Discoverability, Ofcom, Smart Speakers
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Public Service Broadcasting – contestable funds under threat?
The dust has long settled on the Public Service Broadcasting Contestable Funds Consultation [pdf] from 2016 (the outgoing culture team were fairly keen on them but Nadine Dorries may not be), and the Times [£] has a worrying set of … Continue reading
Netflix global strategy on films
More fuel to the debate about how the SVoD boom will affect the cultural diversity of film and TV, and on that whole ‘cinema to sofa’ question will play out. Here, their international film Boss David Kosse talks about how … Continue reading
UK commissioned productions losing crew talent to streamers
We’ve been saying it will happen for a while, but the wider world is beginning to notice. This, from the FT[£]; “Seetha Kumar, chief executive of ScreenSkills, said the “pinch points” were particularly acute in mid-tier roles — for which … Continue reading
Yet another big streamer eyes European markets
This time, it’s Paramount +. “In the U.K., Ireland, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria (GSA), for example, Paramount Plus will launch on Sky platforms. Craig explained that according to the deal, Paramount Plus and Comcast/ViacomCBS streaming co-venture SkyShowtime will be … Continue reading
BBC Studios Appoints Tom Fussell as CEO
As reported in Variety. “Fussell will oversee BBC Studio’s “ambitious” plans for global expansion, its focus on employee engagement and wellbeing as well as diversity, inclusion and sustainability.”
Posted in BBC, Diversity of representation, Environment & Sustainability, Wellbeing
Tagged BBC Studios, Tom Fussell
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French cultural policy
France has always had an interesting, and different approach to cultural policy to the UK’s equivalent. In thinking about this last night, I remembered this 2013 document [pdf] from the Coalition Francaise and I thought I’d bookmark it here. This … Continue reading
Shift-working and disrupted patterns of rest – a research round-up
Thanks to Siobhan Wray, an Associate Professor in Organisational Behaviour at Lincoln University for a useful roundup of research resources on this, including…. A systematic review of shift work and nurses’ health: This – ‘Working Time Society consensus statements: Evidence-based … Continue reading
IATSE go back into talks with AMPTP following overwhelming strike mandate
Following the overwhelming support given to a strike ballot, and a slew of pressure from Californian and New York politicos, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) are now headed back into talks with The Alliance of Motion Picture … Continue reading
DCMS parliamentary committee (effectively) opposes Paul Dacre appointment at Ofcom
It seems that Julian Knight MP, the (Conservative) chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee wrote to Oliver Dowden (subsequently reshuffled) effectively opposing the appointment of Paul Dacre as chair of Ofcom. “…the industry standard for rerunning a … Continue reading