BBC and ITV slash big-budget TV spend as US streamers pour money into UK Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky also among UK broadcasters making cuts as Netflix, Disney and Amazon pile on pressure.
While UK broadcasters remained under pressure – last year Channel 4 made its deepest job cuts in more than 15 years while Sky axed 1,000 roles in response to the shift away from satellite TV – investment from primarily US based media firms surged by a quarter.
“Inward investment” on shows such as Netflix’s The Immortal Man, a Peaky Blinders continuation, and Rowan Atkinson series Man vs Baby accounted for 82% of the total £3.44bn spent on premium TV production in the UK last year.
UK broadcasters slashed their spending on big-budget TV shows to the lowest level in almost a decade last year, even as their US rivals Netflix, Disney and Amazon ploughed hundreds of millions more into British-made premium content.
“As a consequence of the strikes, many film and high end TV productions were paused or start dates were postponed, which impacted UK production spend over [three quarters of 2023] as well as rescheduling production starts in 2024,” it said.
