As a Kiswahili adage goes, “When the elephants fight, the grass gets trampled.” In Hollywood, the elephants are fighting–and British film and TV workers are suffering to an extent that I have never seen in my 30 years working in the media industry. Whatever the outcome, it will have consequences for years to come.
The world’s largest film studios and television broadcasters in the world are locked in a seemingly intractable industrial dispute with the most powerful actor and writer unions in the world, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), and the Writers Guild of America (WGA).
But there is another set of elephants–and they’ve been in longer fights that are now coming to a head. The largest streamers are also fighting each other–and themselves–as they struggle to find a sustainable business model and stem years of losses. In the last quarter alone, Disney's streaming operation lost over half a billion dollars and shed 11.7 million subscribers. Netflix, one of the few streamers in the black, having been profitable since 2003, recently launched a crackdown on password sharing, suggesting that it’s a service in flux. A recent survey found that it's the “most frequently canceled” streaming service.
While these U.S. and global elephants fight it out, across the pond in the U.K., TV broadcasters are fighting over advertising revenue. Both ITV and Channel 4, two of Britain’s largest television broadcasters, announced large year-on-year falls in advertising revenue of 11% and 8%, respectively. Last but not least, the U.K. government and the BBC are having their own fight. So far, the BBC has had its license fee funding frozen for two years.
The effects of these rampaging elephants are reverberating across the U.K. media industry. The grass is well and truly being trampled here.
Several productions involving U.S. actors that were either in production in the U.K. when the strikes hit, or were about to go into production, have been put on hold.
If we look at TV, although 2023 figures have not yet been released, the number of productions being commissioned in the U.K. by both international streamers and domestic broadcasters is expected to be significantly down. The end result? Thousands of people are out of work.
According to a recent survey by the U.K.’s largest union for film and TV professionals, BECTU, three-quarters of U.K. film and TV workers are currently out of work, over a third are struggling to pay their bills, rent, or mortgages, and one in 10 are considering moving in with parents or other family members. All this is only serving to amplify the problems already facing people from under-represented groups from gender to race to disability.
If this all sounds incredibly depressing and a little scary, then I am doing my job, or at least the job I am about to start. On Sep. 18, I will start a new role as CEO of the Film and TV Charity. The charity will be celebrating its 100th anniversary next year–and has a long history of providing financial, mental, and emotional support to workers in the sector.
In the last three months, the charity has seen an 800% increase in applications for its financial hardship grants. The grants are a vital lifeline for people who are facing a financial crisis and can give them just enough breathing space to reorganize their finances and debts and hopefully help them stay in the industry they have dedicated their careers to.
Last month at the Edinburgh Television Festival, I described the current situation as an “existential crisis” because my real fear is that the current fighting between the elephants will destroy the grass for a generation or even longer as people, especially from underrepresented groups, are forced to leave the industry altogether.
My fear was brought into sharp focus last week when an anonymous freelancer’s resignation letter to the industry posted on Reddit went viral and made headlines in Broadcast (the industry’s publication of record in the U.K.).
But these challenges are not just about fears or even jobs. They are about the UK’s national interest. The British film and high-end TV industry is one of the few economic success stories in recent years, generating a record $7.5 billion dollars in 2022 with almost 90% of this being direct overseas investment. While a large part of this success has been attributed to successive governments’ policies of generous tax breaks since 2007, reputation has also mattered. The film and TV infrastructure and talent base in the U.K. is world-renowned and it's undoubtedly a major factor contributing to the ongoing success.
If people leave the film and TV industry and businesses that support the industry are forced to close, we will see international productions going elsewhere. These elephants may not be simply fighting during–and over–a difficult economic situation, their fights may be leading to the demise of an entire sector.
The charity can provide much-needed short-term relief to stop workers from having to quit the industry they once loved. But ultimately, we need a government and industry-wide solution involving all the elephants. We must find ways to stop trampling the grass–and instead enable it to grow, better than ever.
Marcus Ryder is the incoming CEO of the Film and TV Charity.
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