Shameless writer Paul Abbott is one of a number of leading figures to have thrown their weight behind a campaign calling for more TV production work to be delivered outside London.
The Indie Club, a group of 750 indie owners, producers, directors and others founded by Nine Lives Media CEO Cat Lewis, has prepared a 34-page document for Ofcom outlining its belief that the ‘Made outside London’ legislation, as laid down in the Communications Act 2003, is not being adhered to by broadcasters.
The campaign is striving to improve the ‘Made outside London’ criteria, requiring production companies to have a substantive base outside London and for more post-production work to be completed outside London.
The Club has called on supporters to support its submission by signing here: http://ninelivesmedia.co.uk/ofcom/#/
Abbott, who also wrote State of Play and No Offence, said: “It’s incredibly important that Britain has thriving creative clusters outside London with on-going, meaningful TV production happening within them.
“That’s the only way people from all sorts of different backgrounds get a chance to make TV, which does translate as diverse rewards for the audience, the main beneficiaries.
“It has to be a creative meritocracy. Regulation was put in place to balance the scales, but the numbers are still quite embarrassing. It needs fixing.”
David Nicholls, the writer and director of ‘One Day’, and Cold Feet actor John Thompson have also backed the campaign.
The submission highlights how the post production industry generates revenues of £1.6billion a year – with that number expected to rise by 6.5% to £2.2 billion in the next five years – but just under 70% of the businesses in this sector are based in London or the South East.
Andrew Sumner, a post production consultant based in Manchester, said: “Over the last four years there have been 25 productions made at The Space Studio complex in Manchester –
5 for ITV, 16 for the BBC and 4 for Channel 4.
“But only four of those 25 productions (less than 20%) were edited in the North West. It is not a coincidence that the four productions which did their post in the region were three locally based companies – Nicole Schindler’s Red Productions, Craig Cash’s Jellylegs and Peter Kay’s Goodnight Vienna. Every one of the other productions was taken back to London for Post, resulting in a loss of work and economic benefit to the North West.”
