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Written evidence submitted by Indie Club THE FUTURE OF PSBs Indie Club Introduction & Background: Indie Club represents independent television production companies based outside London, so our members are keen to ensure the PSBs continue to commission programmes which support production bases around the whole country, as they are required to do under the Communications Act 2003. In the ten years leading up to 2018, Indie Club discovered many TV productions were being declared by the PSBs as having been produced in different places around the UK, but were actually being mainly made in London. Some TV production companies were even bringing runners up from London to Manchester rather than employing young people locally. The majority of jobs created and money generated by these productions was benefitting only the capital city and not the country as a whole. This was particularly the case with Channel 4 productions, as the previous senior management team had worked out a clever way of bypassing Ofcom’s regulation of the Communications Act 2003. As a consequence the TV industry as a whole was becoming more and more upper middle class and less meritocratic, as people living outside the capital found it increasingly difficult to get jobs and find consistent, year-round work in the industry. The vast majority of key editorial decisions on programmes across all the PSBs were being made in London, which left the rest of the country feeling television was out of touch with the way most British people live and think. Indie Club therefore led a successful campaign in June 2018, asking Ofcom to tighten the regulations around programmes made outside London, to ensure each production both created jobs in the nations and regions, and also left an economic legacy, which is what the Communications Act 2003 intended. The PSBs needed to be reminded by Ofcom and the DCMS of their legal commitment to help build production bases outside London. The new, tighter regulation of TV programmes made outside London starts in January 2021, but in preparation, there has been considerable improvement in the last twelve months. It is a joy to see so many jobs in television being advertised outside London for the first time in many years. The new management team at Channel 4 has opened offices in Leeds, Bristol and Glasgow and has appointed commissioning editors to be based there. Hopefully, in the future C4 will also start to commission more programmes from smaller independent companies based outside London and stop relying on large companies plus the ‘super indies’ owned by foreign broadcasters. Channel 5 has set up a production company in the north which provides local employment and continued to ensure it commissions from out of London indies. Production companies which would previously just filmed outside London whilst doing their pre and post production in the capital, have now set up proper offices in the nations and regions creating jobs and ensuring each production leaves an economic legacy. The BBC does not yet have commissioning editors outside London, but it is supporting small independent production companies in the nations and regions through various schemes including the Small Indie Fund. Indie Club applauds the PSBs re-stating their commitment to diversity following the Black Lives Matter campaign, however, it is incredibly important that they ensure these verbal commitments are followed by genuine actions, because far too few British black and Asians are employed at senior levels by the PSBs. Indie Club Responses to DCMS Questions: Regulation: Are the current regulations and obligations placed on PSBs, in return for benefits such as prominence and public funding, proportionate? What (if any regulation) should be introduced for SVoDs and other streaming services? The Communications Act 2003 outlines the legal requirement for PSBs to invest and maintain Production Bases outside London to ensure British television is made across the whole of the UK and not just in London. This allows people from across the country to have the opportunity to make television, which ensures the industry is both creatively meritocratic and that its programmes reflect the country as a whole. This nationwide approach to the regulation and production of TV is historic, dating back to the creation of the network of ITV regional companies in the 1950s. Many of those who now run successful TV companies and programmes began their careers outside London including Nicola Schindler, of Red Production Company – Years & Years; Happy Valley and Last Tango in Halifax to Siobhan Greene, who co-created Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway; The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent. The creative industries create a large number of jobs and Britain is one of the biggest exporters of TV formats in the world, so with careful regulation, the PSBs can drive job creation and economic growth. Indie Club believes the reason British TV is so successful, is that successive British governments have ensured it is creatively meritocratic, tapping into talent across the whole country, and is not reliant only on people who live in London to come up with programme ideas and produce them. Boris Johnson is keen to create jobs outside London and if Ofcom continues to regulate the work of the PSBs, they can really help the Government balance the economy across the UK. MediaCity in Salford is the most successful regeneration project in Europe. Since the BBC became its anchor tenant and began broadcasting in 2011, the 3,000 jobs it created have resulted in more than double that number being created by other companies attracted to the development. Hopefully the new Channel 4 HQ in Leeds and the broadcaster’s hub offices in Bristol and Glasgow will similarly lead to thousands of new jobs. It’s particularly important for the BBC to ensure it creates jobs across the UK because the licence fee is paid by people who live all over the country. The experience of Indie Club is that the BBC does take job creation outside London very seriously and also genuinely nurtures smaller companies in a way that makes it very different to all the other PSBs. The BBC currently gives more work to smaller independent companies than any of the other PSBs. Channel 4 is a wonderful part of Margaret Thatcher’s legacy and is specifically tasked to commission from smaller independent companies outside London. At the moment, according to its annual report/s, it remains overly reliant on larger companies which are based in London and are often not independent. Hopefully this will change as its bases outside London become established. It’s important the DCMS and Ofcom regularly and closely examine just how many independent suppliers each PSB has, how large those companies are and where they are based. The PSB system could really help the Government’s ambition to create jobs all around the UK and level the playing field – but not if all the work is given to companies run by multi-millionaire white men who are based in London or if it is handed to companies which are owned by international broadcasters who take the profits out of the UK, rather than reinvesting them here. The Terms of Trade outlined in the Communications Act 2003, allow independent companies to own the formats and programmes they make – keeping a large percentage of the revenue from international sales. This has been an excellent incentive for producers to innovate and fully exploit their creativity internationally. Since the Terms of Trade began in 2004, the British TV sector has increased its value hugely and has become the envy of the world. Many large international broadcasters now own British independent production companies because content is king, and we own our own content. Indie Club believes the Terms of Trade are therefore essential, but work best when the PSBs do also benefit from part of the back-end revenue. Channel 4 recently re-negotiated with PACT to give producers 100% of the back-end revenue rather than the previous 85% in exchange for more VOD/SVOD rights and so it can use clips of the programmes it commissions online. Indie Club believes this was a poor negotiation and that C4 should have kept 10% of back end rights, because its commissioners do help form the content the producers make. The BBC also recently renegotiated the Terms of Trade to allow the programmes it commissions to stay on iPlayer for 12 months and quite rightly argued and agreed to keep 10% of the revenue from back end sales. Representation: How would representation be protected if changes were made to the PSB model? How would the nations and regions be affected by changes to the PSB model? Is the ‘quota’ system the most efficient way to maintain and improve representation in broadcasting? Media is a very powerful and influential tool in society. Onscreen and off- screen diversity is crucial. Indie Club believes British TV is far from the diverse industry it should be. As it has become more and more London centric, it has also become more and more upper middle class. Many different, recent studies reveal this to be the case. One of the key roles of the PSBs should be to unify the country and therefore pushing for less centralisation in the capital and for a more diverse work force should be a key target for all those running PSBs. Having genuine editorial power outside London by basing commissioning editors and channel controller around the UK is also key to ensuring all voices are represented. Having both BBC Breakfast and BBC 5Live broadcasting from MediaCity in Salford each day has made a massive difference to representation. At last there are academics with northern accents on TV and radio news and children from the north are reflected in reports.

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