The UK's high-quality drama sector is facing a crisis, according to a new report from the Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Committee. The report calls for an urgent package of support to achieve the Government's goal of making the UK the best place to make film and high-end television. It highlights a decline in domestic production of culturally distinct British content, which is crucial for the UK's identity, national conversations, and talent pipeline. This decline hasn't kept pace with the growth of large-scale productions financed and controlled internationally.
Dame Caroline Dinenage MP, Chair of the CMS Committee, stated: “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 proposes enhanced tax incentives for domestic high-end TV and a 5% levy on streamers' UK subscriber revenue to create a cultural fund. This fund, administered by the BFI, would support domestic production. If the industry doesn't voluntarily create this fund within a year, the Government should introduce a statutory levy.
Peter Kosminsky, director of Wolf Hall and Stonehenge Films, commented: “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 report acknowledges the Independent Film Tax Credit introduced last year but argues that further action is needed. The Committee calls for a tax credit to support the distribution of lower-budget films and warns that without intervention, the problems in independent film will spread to the domestic high-end TV sector. Increased competition from overseas productions is driving up costs, revenue models are changing due to streamer terms, and public service broadcaster commissioning budgets are shrinking.