Analysis: How Are UK Broadcasters Helping Producers Through The Worst Cost-Of-Living Crisis In Decades?

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: New UK Prime Minister Liz Truss and Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng are preparing to unveil the government’s plan to tackle the worst cost-of-living crisis for decades, and the TV industry is not immune.As Britain’s production community feels the crunch, the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Paramount-owned Channel 5 have each told Deadline that they are taking a flexible approach to the budgets they set producers to make shows in order to account for any extra costs, with Channel 4 currently in the process of reviewing its commissioning tariffs.And those costs are spiralling, with gas and energy bills skyrocketing and inflation hovering at an incredible 10%.

Truss and Kwarteng’s plan, which comes after the UK parliament shut down due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II, will aim to deal with this in some regard and they have already unveiled a blueprint to help protect businesses over the coming months.In recent weeks, multiple producers have raised concerns to Deadline over the rising costs and John McVay, the CEO of producer trade body Pact, told journalists earlier this month that broadcasters needs to be “sympathetic” to their plight.According to McVay, drama producers are reporting costs rising by up to 30%.Internally, both Sky and ITV have handed bonuses to staff to help them through the crisis, which has the UK harking back to the dark days of the early 1970s.When approached by Deadline, each broadcaster stressed that they are flexible in order to account for extra costs.

The full responses can be seen below.Channel 4 is in the process of reviewing commissioning tariffs and said “for some years now we have been assessing each production budget on the basis of realistic costs rather than sticking rigidly to published