High-end production spend dropped by a third last year as the actors’ and writers’ strikes took hold and international spend on UK shoots fell by almost half.
In total, film and high-end TV (HETV) UK production spend was £4.23bn last year – 32% down on 2022.
Even so, this is on par with pre-pandemic spend, and is the third highest annual spend since the introduction of tax relief in 2013.
TV accounted for £2.9bn of that figure, a drop of 33% on 2022, which had recorded the highest spend of the decade.
Almost half of last year’s HETV productions last year - 91 of the 187 – were domestic, the highest number in that 10-year period. Productions shot around the UK included ITV dramas Mr Bates vs the Post Office, Trigger Point and After the Flood, and BBC1’s Call the Midwife, Men Up and comedies Ghosts and Here We Go.
But inward investment – productions funded in large part from abroad, but shot in the UK, like HBO’s House of the Dragon and, thanks to its new co-production deal with Disney, Doctor Who – fell by 43% to just over £2bn, or 72% of total spend.
British Film Commission chief executive Adrian Wootton said it was “no surprise” that spend dropped against the current challenging backdrop, but strestted that the UK remains a “leading global centre” for film and TV production, post and visual effects.
Culture secretary Lucy Frazer hailed “the innate talent of our actors, writers, creatives and crews”.
She added: “We will continue to champion our screen sectors as we deliver our plans to boost the creative industries by £50 billion by 2030 and keep the success story of UK studios and cinemas going.”
