The TV Festival in Edinburgh felt subdued this year. Mark Thompson’s keynote, by necessity, was a political affair. Whereas, James Murdoch, can come out clad in gold satin with a big Sky on his chest and batter the BBC baddie at will, Mr Thompson, clad in a pair of staid plaid licence fee shorts, has to put the gloves up and take it, hoping that he’ll be able to land a sneaky punch.
And there were some good hits, but the thing that resonated for me was the discussion around spending money on original UK content – or rather not spending it. Thompson’s argument was that for every pound taken out of BBC commissioning a pound is lost from the British creative economy. I think he is dead right and the government should listen carefully to that argument as they consider the renewal of the licence fee. And yes, Sky should step up to the mark and commission original UK content – much as we love the HBO back catalogue.
But it is not only about TV budgets shrinking, that is hardly news, it is also about the beating that the creative services companies are taking as public sector bodies slash their budgets. The poll on the homepage of The Drum this week shows that this is affecting a large part of the business and there will only be worse to come.
In addition to that, you have the prospect of regional support funds drying up. These have traditionally helped stimulate projects and production across the country and across the different parts of the industry from games to apps to film.
If all this money is leaving the economy, where is the new cash coming in? The government says the private sector will pick up the slack.
Perhaps, but my starters for ten are:
- Project Canvas. If it works like it says it will, it could open up a huge consumer market to small producers and really break down the online/TV divide that is still very evident. (Disclosure, We are already working with BBC FM&T and North West creative companies on Canvas prototypes)
- Export. British content is really desirable, expensive but desirable. We need to be doing more to get it out there. The Norwegians, Microsoft and Al Jazeera English were all scouting at Edinburgh.
- Finance. Actually there is still a lot of money about but it is on different terms. Here, we have the new digital and creative fund with £15 million ready to invest. That will mean a chance to get good sums of money into your business, but on much more commercial terms.
And we’ll be working hard over the next few months to bring in any new opportunities to you.
Maureen, our Head of Broadcast was also at #mgeitf, why not read her blog too?
