The UK high-end TV industry needs an enhanced tax credit in line with the Independent Film Tax Credit (IFTC), according to Jane Featherstone, co-
The UK high-end TV industry needs an enhanced tax credit in line with the Independent Film Tax Credit (IFTC), according to Jane Featherstone, co-founder of Black Doves and Chernobyl TV production company Sister.
Featherstone was speaking today in front of the cross-party UK parliament Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Committee inquiry into British film and high-end TV.
In the wake of Netflix arriving in the UK in 2013, Covid and the Hollywood strikes of 2023, Featherstone said below- the- line costs have shot up by around 40%, and above- the -line costs up around 50-60%, leaving the public service broadcasters (PSB) – BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 – priced out of the high-end drama market.
A greenlight from a PSB now means a guarantee of around 30-40% of the budget. The rest of the financing has become near impossible to piece together.
“This leaves us with a gap of 60% of the budget, which is more like indie film… I do believe we are now getting closer to that model [of financing] at that lower cost end of the programming budgets [under £3m per hour].”
Featherstone would like to see a similar uplift to 40% in relief that films under the £15m mark will now receive, following the confirmation of the independent film tax credit via the Enhanced Audio-visual Expenditure Credit in October.
High-end TV production currently benefits from the standard Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit headline rate of 25.5% in relief.
She described the existing tax credit for TV as “a blunt tool – I’d put in levers”. These levers would include an enhanced relief for PSB productions and an additional uplift for productions made in the nations and regions. Featherstone’s statements echoed those made by fellow UK TV producer Jane Tranter of Cardiff-based Bad Wolf to the first iteration of the committee’s inquiry back in March.
The collapse of distribution advances has made financing for TV even more treacherous. “British content is very hard now to sell abroad,” said Featherstone, citing the example of ITV’s Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, produced by ITV Studios and Little Gem, as a show immensely popular in the UK, but not sellable globally, that ultimately made a loss of around £1m.
It is only the US streamers that have the deep pockets to spend, said Feathersone, and they are all also becoming more cost conscious. While Sister has worked with Netflix on Eric, Black Doves and Kaos, and The Power for Amazon, she lamented their lack of flexibility regarding rights ownership. “It would be hard to argue they are fully flexible. There has in the parts been some negotiation around bits of rights around the edges. But the reality is for most of the streamers their business model requires them to own pretty much all of the rights.”
She continued, “We’ve effectively gone from a manufacturing industry to a service industry… I feel as a producer for hire, rather than a creative entrepreneur.”
COMMENTS