TBI Weekly: From UK slowdown to global reset at the Edinburgh TV Festival

Louis Theroux

The 2023 edition of the Edinburgh TV Festival is wrapping up after four schedule-busting days of industry panels, networking, a Louis Theroux-led MacTaggart Lecture – and the occasional wee dram in the Scottish capital.

Conversation on and off stage this week has been largely dominated by the commissioning slowdown in the UK – and the obvious discordance between what we’ve been hearing from impacted freelancers, and what the broadcasters have been saying.

Bafta CEO Jane Millichip announced the results of a survey earlier in the week that found that around a third of its members are considering quitting the UK TV industry.

More than 60% of members said they had less work than before the pandemic, with 20% having been out of work for more than three months.

With freelancers having to rely on savings, loans, benefits or alternate employment to get by, it painted a pretty bleak picture of a UK industry with not enough work to go around.

Kevin Lygo

To spend or not to spend

But while the broadcasters shared their sympathies for affected industry workers, most seemed to suggest that it was business as usual on spend.

“We are not cutting our budget at the moment,” said ITV MD Kevin Lygo, who insisted: “We’re doing really well,” and highlighted the comcaster’s “enormous” ad revenue.

Taking a swipe at rival Channel 4, Lygo said: “I hear Channel 4 shut the gates or something, but we are not doing that.”

For his part, Channel 4 CCO Ian Katz suggested that his company had “perhaps been a bit more honest” about the commissioning slowdown than other UK broadcasters.

“Every commercial broadcaster has been affected by the advertising revenue slump,” said Katz, who said that the slowdown was “critical” to maintain the sustainability of the broadcaster at this time.

Nevertheless, Sky UK’s Dan Grabiner said the pay-TV firm was planning to spend the same “or more” – even if that will be spread across fewer titles in scripted and factual.

Paramount UK and Channel 5 content chief Ben Frow – who revealed a battle with post-pandemic burnout led him to secretly resign last year – said that making “more lower cost programmes” was the best way to keep commissioning at volume to support workers.

The BBC, while not restricted by the downturn in the ad market, has still felt the impact of the slowdown after two years with a licence fee freeze. Charlotte Moore, the pubcaster’s CCO, defended the ongoing strategy of making fewer, high impact shows that she said was particularly important in “financially constrained times.”

Pearlena Igbokwe

Global rest moment

In his panel, Channel 4’s Katz suggested that the international industry may be facing “a more significant reset moment, in the scale of production globally,” due to a loss of confidence from Wall Street in the streaming model.

“We’ve seen the streamers pulling billions out of their budgets in numbers that dwarf the cuts that have been made in this country,” said Katz.

He also pointed to the strikes in the US – a topic of conversation that was conspicuous by its absence during the Netflix and Disney+ panels, despite the US productions from both platforms that have filming that takes place in the UK.

Universal Studio Group chairman Pearlena Igbokwe did however broach the topic in her panel, stating that US studios are “invested and committed” in working out a deal that is “fair and equitable” for all parties.

Off-the-record conversations with TBI in the EICC atrium on the topic ranged from strong support for the strikers to concerns over the halting of work in the UK over US action, and musings on the potential upside for unscripted creators in the months ahead.