Broadcast
After weathering a perfect storm of US strikes and a slowdown in commissioning, UK studios are cautiously optimistic about the coming year.
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For a while this year, it seemed like many studios’ worst
fears were coming home – after all, studios don’t make money if their space is
vacant.
The US actors’ and writers’ strikes compounded an existing
climate of high interest rates and adjustments to higher Pact/Bectu rates,
while a slowdown in broadcaster commissions due to the weak advertising market
delivered the perfect storm. All studios, ancillary services, production
services and freelance crew were affected – but some fared better than others.
Broadly, studios reliant on tentpole features and HETV
drama experienced a lean summer, while those with a mix of clientele proved
more resilient.
Dock 10 head of studios Andy Waters says the studio has
“fortunately been insulated by long-running favourites”.
To Blue Peter, Match Of the Day, Question Of
Sport, Countdown and University Challenge the studio added a 20-show run
of Remarkable’s Deal Or No Deal, ITV format The 1% Club (Magnum Media), and
Whisper North’s reboots of Jeopardy!, hosted by Stephen Fry, and Wheel Of
Fortune, helmed by Graham Norton. But even so, its roster of light
entertainment shows was lighter than in previous years.
“It’s not been a great year, with a definite reduction in
spend by broadcasters,” Waters admits. “The BBC has endured two years of
licence fee freeze at a time of huge inflation while ad revenue for commercial
broadcasters has been flat.” But BBC coverage for Euro 2024 is in the works, so
“we are optimistic,” says Waters.
Most other studios had to contend with an exodus of
enquiries, let alone solid bookings, when the SAG-AFTRA strike hit.
Bristol’s The Bottle Yard, for example, had two enquiries for drama postponed
or cancelled, leaving a gap in occupancy. Where The Bottle Yard would
expect 75% occupancy this autumn, it is currently at 25%.
Despite this, Bristol City Council head of film Laura
Aviles is upbeat, pointing to the productions involving non-US actors that were
able to continue over the summer: Disney+ Jilly Cooper adaptation Rivals
(Happy Prince) and the fifth series of Malory Towers (King Bert
Productions for CBBC), marking the first time the children’s drama had been
based at a UK studio.
“Since the actors’ strike was resolved, enquiries have
significantly increased,” Aviles says. “Next year is looking very healthy and
back to normal levels.”
She adds: “The Bottle Yard has an additional layer of
resilience in the breadth of our offer - from smaller, cheaper soundproof
stages for children’s productions and UK indie films to premium sound studios
for bigger-budget productions. Having that flexibility has enabled us to
maintain a steady ship through these disruptive times.”
At Maidstone Studios, there’s a similar story of versatility
in adversity. “From spring into summer, we got quote after quote as normal but
overnight [with the strikes] everything changed,” says commercial director
Josephine Clark. “The amount of work we’d normally expect reduced. Some shows
weren’t returning, others weren’t commissioned.”
The studio was kept going with regular tenants Family
Fortunes, Catchphrase and Blankety Blank, and shows like Sky Kids’ The Makery
and the third run of Optomen’s Sort Your Life Out (BBC1), plus
commercials.
“Some years we’re quite high on sports, other years on light
entertainment or drama,” Clarke says. “Because we’re not catering to any one
thing, I am incredibly positive for 2024.”
The first couple of quarters are booked with
light-entertainment shows and other bookings are “heavily pencilled” through
into 2025.
“I don’t think the experience will be like the post-pandemic
bounceback,” Clark says. “It will be slow. TV is gearing up now and film will
gear up in the summer.”
For studios reliant on major scripted drama, that upturn
can’t come quickly enough.
After production of Euston Films’ BBC drama Midnight Sleeper
wrapped up in August, conversations about shows lined up to follow it “died
overnight” with the strikes, says Pioneer Film Studios digital director
and co-founder Jamie McCoy. “Because the industry is so US-dominated, everyone
more or less downed tools. It’s unlikely anything will kick off until the new
year.”
Pioneer aims to attract HETV and major film, and sells
itself as much on its location near Glasgow as its facilities. “The flywheel
for booking a studio is a long conversation,” says McCoy. “Streamers don’t just
come for the studio. Their decision depends on location, crew and access. Our
major advantage is our proximity to Glasgow, which is a chameleon city that can
turn into Japan or London or Manhattan.”
Another advantage, he says, is the ability to offer cheaper
rates than studios further south. “As London gets busier and more expensive,
Scotland looks more attractive.”
The problem, of course, is that London has not been busy –
but McCoy is confident this will resolve itself imminently. “As England starts
to get full, Scottish facilities will beef up,” he says.
But he also sounds a note of caution about the long-term
future: “Inward investment won’t last forever. It’s getting more competitive on
an international level, with 40% tax incentives luring major productions
elsewhere. There are few of these whales and more folk fishing.”
Perhaps benefiting from being in the middle of the country,
“the north-west seems to have weathered [the storm] really well,” reports
Liverpool Film Office director Lynn Saunders. There have been no
cancellations as a result of the strikes, she says.
“Our suppliers and their crew have been busy. I know that
story is not replicated in other areas.”
The reason for this, she reckons, is that as space in the
south “was saturated by US streamers”, UK broadcast productions looked north,
so when the strikes hit, they were less affected.
Since Liverpool’s The Depot, with its 40,000 sq ft of
shooting space, opened in 2021, primarily aimed at HETV, it has hosted Sexy
Beast (Paramount+), C4 drama The Gathering, produced by
World Productions, and indie feature Midas Man, about the life of music
entrepreneur Brian Epstein.
Locations across the region recently stood in
for Bristol in ITV drama Archie, while Liverpool City funding of Jimmy
McGovern drama Time brought that show to shoot in the city.
Planning permission has been submitted to convert the former
home of Littlewoods, adjacent to The Depot, into studios, doubling the space
and on track to open in 2025. “The Depot was driven by industry demand and
meant productions spent longer on location, but it was also a short-term
solution until the much bigger scheme came online,” says Saunders.
Sony’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and LucasFilm’s Star
Wars series The Acolyte finished photography at Shinfield Studios near Reading
before the summer shutdown, but productions have been on hiatus since.
“It’s taking longer than usual for studios to put packages
together, but we have bookings, a mix of streamers and studio features, for the
first quarter of 2024,” reports managing director Nick Smith.
Having opened 13 stages over the past two years, Shinfield,
which is owned by US-based Shadowbox Studios, used the hiatus to
concentrate on finalising five more stages that are due to open by the end of
February. The combined offer totals 1 million sq ft of studio space.
With warnings that streamers are trimming their content
spend after decades of mounting investment, there is some doubt over whether
the UK’s new studio capacity all be in demand in the medium term. “I wouldn’t
be thinking about starting construction now,” Smith admits. “But given where we
are in the cycle of [supply and demand], I believe we’ve got the best product
in the UK, if not Europe.”
Notably, there are those who are taking the plunge, in spite
of the concerns – Fulwell 73 advanced plans in November to build a £450m film
studio in Sunderland, to open in 2027.
And, Smith says, studios with a strong offer will weather
the storm. “There might be less [high-end production] in the market, but our
approach hasn’t changed,” he says. “We are very confident that quality
productions will come to us since there is no reason for productions to go to
an inferior space when quality is now available.”
Regardless of business model, studios agree that all boats
are lifted with a rising tide of skilled crew, so addressing the skills
shortage is imperative. That’s why screen agencies, including Screen Yorkshire
and Liverpool Film Office, have formed a trainee scheme with BFI funds at
Screen Alliance North.
Before embarking on three new studios, The Bottle Yard
knew it did not have enough local crew to support them. That’s why it is
launching a new-entrants skills programme in 2024, with funding from the West
of England Combined Authority, aimed at new talent from under-represented
backgrounds.
Shinfield is working with Screen Berkshire to collate crew
databases and is developing education initiatives with Reading University. “We
selected Shinfield as a site in large part because of its catchment area
for skilled crew,” says Smith. “This is a long game. We are here for 200 years,
not two.”
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