Pact’s McVay offers practical solutions to UK industry decline
As total UK television sector revenues slump by £392m (US$512m) in a year, Pact CEO John McVay has urged broadcasters to reveal commissioning budgets and not abandon mid-market shows to help reverse the downturn.
John McVay
UK broadcasters should be more transparent about their future commissioning budgets so struggling prodcos can pivot to meet demand amid a market contraction, says Pact CEO John McVay.
Industry trade body Pact this week unveiled the results of its UK Television Production survey, with results from the financial census making grim reading for the UK’s embattled screen sector.
The results came as little surprise to anybody working within the UK industry, with Pact CEO John McVay saying many indie prodcos “have held on by the skin of their teeth” over the last year as a commissioning crisis both domestically and internationally took hold.
Total UK television sector revenues slumped by £392m (US$512m) to £3.61bn last year as the industry reeled from commissioning cutbacks, soaring inflation and a soft advertising market. That figure is down 8.4% on 2022’s record figure of £3.944bn, when the screen sector was enjoying a short-lived post-Covid content boom.
Domestic TV revenues fell by £183m to £2.02bn during the 2023 financial year, down 8.3% year-on-year, while total UK commissioning revenues dropped to £1.78bn, down 10.2%. This was largely attributed to a 35.4% decrease in revenues earned from multichannel commissions for the likes of Sky and UKTV.
McVay says that part of the problem is the uncertainty over how much UK commissioners are likely to spend on specific genres of programming. During 2023, for example, factual entertainment grew its share of overall commissioning spend to 22%, up 8% from 2022, while drama (35%, down 2%) and entertainment (down 7%) both saw drop-offs in greenlights.
“It’s a volatile market,” said McVay. “If we knew the total spend [in genres of programming] it might give producers some sense of what their market opportunities are as we’re going through difficult times.
“I just don’t see why, as a mature industry, we can’t do that in a more sensible way. For a lot of companies and freelancers, 2023 was a terrible year and I think that’s partly because they didn’t really know what was coming and there was no way to forward plan.
“If, for example, producers knew that the total market for lifestyle programming in the UK was going to be down by 20% over the next period, they may decide to pivot and do something else. If broadcasters made clear what their future plans are on spend – maybe not precisely – it just lets people plan a bit more.”
One of the major commissioning trends in recent times has been a progression towards ordering more premium high-end TV projects (HETV), while also increasing greenlights for low-cost, high-volume shows, often in the factual and unscripted spaces.
James Graham at the ETVF
That has resulted in a sharp drop-off of commissions for programming with medium-sized budgets – effectively eliminating large swathes of the UK indie production community who have traditionally made shows within that pricing bracket.
McVay feels that broadcasters have shown a lack of empathy for producers’ suffering as a result of the middle dropping out of the market.
“As I keep pointing out to them, the middle is where nearly everyone lives,” he said. “I thought the way some of that was presented at the Edinburgh TV Festival (ETVF) was callous. Given the state of the market, hearing executives use phrases like ‘right sizing’ is cloth-eared.
“A lot of Pact member have been great suppliers to these buyers and brought them brilliant ideas for years. These producers have been holding on by the skin of their teeth looking for the market to recover, only to hear, ‘Oh actually, we’re not going to do that anymore’ from buyers.”
McVay also referenced James Graham’s McTaggart Lecture at ETVF, in which the playwright and dramatist demanded action to narrow the UK TV class divide.
The Pact boss believes that levelling up is unlikely to happen if broadcasters only commission HETV projects from an elite clique of well-financed prestige prodcos.
“It’s worrying: how do we develop, jumping from low-cost fact ent shows to top-end true crime dramas?” he said. “The middle is where people train, get experience and progress. How will we recruit, attract and develop diverse voices if all the buyers want is very top-end award-winning shows?”
