Prime Video is shifting a greater share of its overall TV spend to Britain, according to Amazon UK boss Chris Bird.
Bird was speaking on a Royal Television Society (RTS) panel predicting the year in UK TV, alongside the likes of Fremantle UK boss Amelia Brown, who said the industry has “lost its guts a bit” when it comes to taking risks.
Bird said Amazon commissioning budgets are “really healthy and strong” this year in Britain despite American contraction, and “as we go forward a greater share of investment at global level is centered here in the UK.” Last year, Amazon initiated a major international restructure that saw layoffs in the Africa and MENA regions as focus shifted to Europe, although there were also some European firings amid the downturn.
Bird pointed to Amazon tentpole Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which is filmed in the UK and “works disproportionately well in the UK but the remit and ambition is to perform globally,” along with local hits like Clarkson’s Farm, which was made “specifically for Brits.”
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Amazon won’t be tempted to go as local as shows like Mr Bates vs the Post Office, however, with Bird acknowledging that the ITV smash was “too British” to have been commissioned by an American streamer.
Go with your gut
Bird was speaking on a panel alongside big hitters in the UK industry like Fremantle’s Brown, who delivered an impassioned plea for execs on both sides of the commissioning fence to take risks.
“Our industry has maybe lost its guts a little bit [in terms of] going for what they believe in across the board,” she said.
Brown cited BBC breakout The Traitors, which wraps up this week. “It got pitched around a few places and then the BBC said, ‘We will do it,’ so the gut instinct was there,” she explained. “Every broadcaster was then pitched versions of what we are now calling ‘psychological reality’. And that’s more on [producers] to say that derivatives and versions are never going to be the thing that hits so we need to go with our guts and with creativity.”
Brown, who oversees the likes of The Apprentice, Britain’s Got Talent and Too Hot To Handle, said this is becoming trickier as young viewers disengage from traditional TV.
With this in mind, BBC unscripted boss Kate Phillips argued the corporation’s biggest rival is no longer the streamers but is now YouTube, TikTok and gaming. “We want to grow love of the BBC with the young and they are becoming very distracted by these other platforms,” she added. “It’s about making them aware of the things we’ve got sometimes – a good show is a good show but it’s about getting [young people] off their devices and off YouTube.”
The BBC is struggling to fund big-budget drama at present but Phillips said premium unscripted is not being hit in the same way due to its lower cost, although she is still busily seeking partnerships
“We are not as reliant as drama is [on co-pro money] and can still fully fund programs but in terms of upping the ambition we are certainly open to partnerships,” she added, citing the BBC’s tie-up with NBC, which birthed The Traitors, and second window deals with the likes of BBC Studios-owned channel group UKTV.
The trio were speaking in London at the RTS session.
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