UK’s Film and TV Production Restart Scheme supported over £3bn in production spending and nearly 50,000 full-time equivalent jobs
Nordicity and, top 20 accountancy firm, Saffery Champness have today published the findings of a new economic evaluation of the Film and TV Production Restart Scheme – a Government-backed indemnity scheme launched by the (then) Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) to cover certain COVID-19 related losses incurred by UK film and TV productions.
The Scheme commenced in October 2020 and committed to absorbing up to £500m in COVID-19-related losses incurred by UK-based film and TV producers. It closed to new applicants in April 2022, covering losses incurred up to June 2022.
The research and economic evaluation published today, which was commissioned by the British Film Institute (BFI) for DCMS, found that the Scheme was critical to helping UK producers resume production of independent films and television programmes, whilst restoring their business confidence during the pandemic.
Key findings:
- 1,259: The number of individual TV and film productions supported by the Scheme
- £3.06bn: The total production expenditure of productions registered with the Scheme
- £1.6bn: More than half of the production expenditure by Scheme registrants came from the High-End TV sector, reflecting its wider growth in importance to the screen industries (HETV spend accounted for 69% of the industry’s total in 2022 according to the BFI)
- 552: almost half of the productions registered with the Scheme were factual / documentaries
- £49.5m: The expected value (at the time of publication) of compensation claims paid to registered productions – approximately 10% of the £500m budgeted for by the Scheme
- £19.5m: Net cost (at the time of publication) to the Government of the Scheme (i.e. total expected claims and operating costs less collected Scheme registration fees)
- £2.25bn: Additional gross value added (GVA) generated by the Scheme incorporating direct, indirect and induced economic impacts (ranging from job creation to supply chain spend). £1.15bn of GVA was directly within the UK’s TV and film industry
- 48,500: Full time equivalents (FTEs) of employment generated by the Scheme
Dustin Chodorowicz, partner at Nordicity and one of the lead authors of the report, said:
“The Government introduced the Film and TV Production Restart Scheme at pace during a period of heightened uncertainty about the what would happen to the UK’s world-leading and film and TV production industry and workforce, not to mention the overall economy. Against this challenging backdrop, the Scheme has been an unbridled success in achieving its objective of enabling the UK’s talented and film and TV producers, creators, crews and cast to quickly resume production. In doing so, it protected tens of thousands of jobs in the UK from the effects of the COVID-19 economic downturn. Indeed, many of the freelance workers brought back to work by the Scheme would not have been eligible for the Government’s furlough scheme or other Coronavirus temporary support. So not only did the Scheme restore business confidence within the UK production industry across all regions of the UK, but it was instrumental in helping to protect the UK’s highly skilled workforce, thereby, positioning the country to benefit from strong worldwide demand for film and TV content during the pandemic.”
About Nordicity
With offices in London, Toronto and Vancouver, Nordicity is a leading international consulting firm providing solutions for economic analysis, strategy and business, and policy and regulation across the arts, culture and heritage, and digital and creative media industries.
For further information, please visit www.nordicity.com.
About Saffery Champness
Saffery Champness LLP is an adviser to private clients and their business interests, providing market-leading accountancy, tax, audit, business advisory, trust and fiduciary services. Founded in 1855 by Joseph John Saffery, it is currently the 15th largest accountancy firm by UK fee income.
For further information, please visit www.saffery.com.