Tax breaks and a streamer levy are needed to avert the current crisis in the UK’s high quality drama sector.
A report from the Culture, Media and Sport Committee says an urgent package of support is needed if the Government’s goal of making the UK the best place to make film and high-end television is to be realised.
The report outlines evidence that this has put distinctly British content, which is vital to the UK’s identity, national conversations and talent pipeline, under threat.
It says a series of measures is needed to halt the decline of domestic production of culturally distinct British film and programmes, which has failed to keep pace with the headline-grabbing growth of big box office productions financed and controlled from outside the UK.
Dame Caroline Dinenage MP, Chair of the CMS Committee, said: “While streamers like Netflix and Amazon have proved a valuable addition for the industry and economy, unless the Government urgently intervenes to rebalance the playing field, for every Adolescence adding to the national conversation, there will be countless distinctly British stories that never make it to our screens.”
The Committee wants enhanced tax incentives for domestic high-end TV, and for streamers. which benefit from the creativity of British producers, to commit to pay 5% of their UK subscriber revenue into a cultural fund to help finance drama with a specific interest to British audiences. A cultural fund administered by the BFI would then be established to support domestic production. If the industry does not voluntarily establish the fund within a year, the Government should introduce a statutory levy.
Wolf Hall director Peter Kosminsky, Stonehenge Films said: “I hugely welcome the fact that the CMS select committee has endorsed the call for a 5% levy on streamers’ revenue to support public service broadcasting high-end television. This is a brave thing to do in the current political climate and absolutely the right solution.
“However, I do think it is important to stipulate that the fund created by this levy should only be available to productions which are either commissioned or co-commissioned by a public service broadcaster. As far as I can see, this isn’t made clear in the report and it is an essential aspect of the 5% levy solution to the problems our industry faces.”
The Committee believes that while streamers laud the UK’s mixed production ecology, they are largely failing in the making of culturally British content, and not just reap the cultural and training benefits it provides.
The report welcomes last year’s introduction of the Independent Film Tax Credit – a measure put forward by the Culture Committee in the last parliament – but now says the Government should go further, or producers will continue to struggle to develop and raise finance for films, and those that are made will not be seen by audiences. The Committee calls for a tax credit to support the distribution of lower-budget films, among other measures to support independent film.
The Committee further warns that without urgent intervention, the problems seen in independent film will extend to the domestic high-end TV sector, where competition from high-budget overseas production is driving up costs, revenue models are changing due to the terms offered by streamers and commissioning budgets of public service broadcasters are being squeezed by a fall in the licence fee and drop in advertising revenue.
