Research

Television Production in Transition: Independence, Scale and Sustainability

Television production is a vital component of the UK creative industries and a sector whose performance has important cultural and economic ramifications. This project investigated major changes in the structure of ownership of the UK television production industry. Recent transformations in ownership, characterized by increasing consolidation, have raised concern about the ability of the ‘independent’ production sector to survive and flourish in an increasingly globalized and competitive environment for television. This three-year project funded by the UK Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) investigated the relationship between independence, scale and economic sustainability in the television production sector and related implications for public policy.

The project was carried out from April 2017 to October 2020, led by Gillian Doyle (Principal Investigator), Professor of Media Economics at the Centre for Cultural Policy Research in the University of Glasgow working with Co-Investigator Richard Paterson, former Head of Research and Scholarship at the British Film Institute.

Using case studies, the scope of the investigation covered:

• the relationship between, on one hand, size and corporate configuration and, on the other, the ability of production companies to maximise the value of their IPRs and to achieve sustained economic success;
• the conditions that govern creative decision-making and content in the television production industry and how these are affected by differing corporate configurations;
• the role of changing digital distribution technologies in encouraging consolidation and strategies of horizontal, vertical and transnational expansion in the television production industry;
• implications for public policy and regulation.

Findings have been disseminated via publications including a project monograph published by Palagrave MacMillan in 2021 https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-63215-1?gclid=Cj0KCQiAjJOQBhCkARIsAEKMtO0nuKY1f253su0ddgMSyn7AC3pk7JPvRGK1KBtLSr5geAClfomsKB0aAn7wEALw_wcB

As well as contributing to academic knowledge and theorisation, these have enhanced strategic business knowledge concerning the production sector and helped to improve understanding of the policy measures required to support the success and competitiveness of indigenous television production companies in an increasingly globalised and competitive distribution environment.