UK broadcasting bosses have been branded “callous” and “cloth-eared” by the head of Pact for the way in which they publicly proclaimed the death of the mid-budget programing market.
Last month’s Edinburgh TV Festival was dominated by chatter about the “squeezed middle,” with BBC content boss Charlotte Moore saying the pubcaster was “rightsizing” in the area, ITV‘s Kevin Lygo questioning, “Why would you watch the [mid-range] when you have Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen?,” and Channel 4 head honcho Ian Katz challenging producers to make bingeable, streamer-first content.
Speaking at yesterday’s Pact census briefing, John McVay cited a lack of sensitivity given that the mid-range market is “where my members live.”
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“I thought some of the way that was presented in Edinburgh was I think a bit callous,” he added. “It was like, ‘Oh well, that’s how it will be, that’s it’. Using phrases like ‘rightsizing’ was just a bit cloth-eared given the state of the market. It’s frustrating for me and my members.”
Only Channel 4 has engaged with McVay on the topic, he said, pointing to a robust conversation he had with the network’s CEO Alex Mahon at the Creative Cities Convention. “A lot of our members have been great suppliers to these buyers and have held on this year by the skin of their teeth only to be told, ‘Oh actually we don’t do [mid-range programing] anymore.’,” he added. “That may be the reality of the market but no one bar Alex [Mahon] talked to us about those plans.”
Chatter about the financial situation at Edinburgh was gloomy and some of Pact’s hundreds-strong member base such as RDF, Betty and Wildflame have closed or downsized of late. Pact’s census evidenced the “squeezed middle” by finding that the proportion of producers with turnover of £5m-£10M ($6.5M-$13M) slid from 22% in 2022 to 14% in 2023, while the proportion in the £25M-£70M bracket rose from 14% to 21%.
McVay raised concerns about the impact of the death of the middle on the UK TV skills pipeline and diversity push. He drew a connection with Sherwood creator James Graham’s MacTaggart, which criticized a lack of working class representation in UK TV and said the buyers have become too reliant on big-budget franchises and established IP.
“We hear from buyers that they only want massive factories or top-end award-winning shows and if I was young and heard that I might not be encouraged to enter the industry,” he added. “So there are a number of things here that are intersectional and we want to talk about it more.”
His comments echoed Edinburgh Executive Chair Fatima Salaria, who said at the fest that the shift could lead the workforce to be dominated by “an elite class of people who will make elite, high-class premium factual and drama.”
Pact’s census found UK producer revenues to have fallen by £400M in what was a difficult year, although streamer spend remained steady.
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