UK Film & TV Posts Record $7.6BN Production Spend In 2021; Another Challenging Year For Box Office
deadline.comThe UK’s high-end TV (HETV) and film industries have defied the Covid odds and are back, pulling off a record year in 2021 as they delivered a massive £5.6B ($7.6BN) of production spend.Today’s annual statistics from the BFI showed a hefty turnaround after last year’s spend fell by 20%, in a year that included months of lockdown-induced production hiatus.Film spend returned to an increase in 2021, rising by 13% to £1.5BN ($2BN), but it was the UK’s booming HETV sector that really reaped the rewards, skyrocketing by 155% to £4.1BN ($5.6BN), almost three times that of film, which crushed previous records.The HETV growth is also double pre-pandemic levels.
Shows such as Netflix’s Bridgerton series two, which defied several Covid shutdowns to push on, Call My Agent! and co-produced BBC dramas such as Chloe and The Girl Before brought in huge amounts.
By the summer, reports of a “skills crisis” were abounding, with producers regularly reporting that the workforce was virtually at full capacity.The majority of the HETV spend (£3.4BN) came from international spend or co-productions.
The rapid growth was also helped by a sharp increase in single long-form productions made for the streamers, such as Netflix’s Pinocchio and Matilda, which count towards HETV rather than film.
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