BFI RESEARCH AND STATISTICS STATISTICS PUBLISHED AUGUST 2016 FILM ON UK TELEVISION Image: Quartet courtesy of eOne Films FILM ON UK TELEVISION In terms of viewer numbers, television is the single most important platform for film consumption in the UK. Viewers had a choice of nearly 7,000 unique film titles across all channels in 2015, and the cumulative film audience was just under three billion. FACTS IN FOCUS In 2015, 6,966 unique film titles were shown on television in the UK, including 1,463 on terrestrial channels, 1,368 on pay TV film channels and 4,135 on other digital channels. There were 1,665 film transmissions on terrestrial channels, down from 1,943 in 2014. Of these, 372 (22%) were UK films (down from 400 in 2014), 208 (12%) were network premieres and 39 (2%) were foreign language films. The most-watched film screening on terrestrial television was Brave on BBC One, with 6.1 million viewers; the top independent UK film screening was Quartet on BBC Two, with 2.7 million viewers. There were 2,952 million viewings of feature film across all television formats (except pay-per-view) in 2015 – over 17 times the number of cinema admissions. The estimated value of feature film to UK broadcasters in 2015 was £1.6 billion, up from £1.4 billion in 2014. FILM ON UK TELEVISION PROGRAMMING ON THE TERRESTRIAL CHANNELS Table 1 shows the total number of feature films broadcast on the five terrestrial channels in 2015 and the number of UK titles broadcast in that time. (Terrestrial television is used here to describe the previous national terrestrial analogue services, all of which have some degree of public service obligation.) UK films are broken down into older titles (more than eight years old) and recent theatrical releases (released in the last eight years). Here, UK films include all titles listed as UK originated by the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB), plus UK qualifying films given other nationalities (mostly USA) in the BARB data. There were 1,665 film transmissions on terrestrial television in 2015, down from 1,943 in 2014, an average of just under five films a day. Table 1 Feature films broadcast1 on terrestrial television 2015 Number Number of UK films Number of Recent UK films of films UK films as % recent UK films as % of total broadcast broadcast of total broadcast2 films broadcast BBC One 227 23 10 17 7 BBC Two 454 172 38 54 12 ITV 202 71 35 16 8 Channel 4 432 59 14 41 9 Channel 5 350 47 13 8 2 Total 1,665 372 22 136 8 Source: Attentional, BFI RSU analysis 1 Includes repeat broadcasts of individual titles. 2 A recent film is one which has been theatrically released, or intended for release, in the UK since 2008. In 2015, 12% of films broadcast on terrestrial television (208 films) were premieres (films shown for the first time on terrestrial networks); 47 of these were UK films (Table 2). Channel 4 showed the highest number of premieres overall and BBC Two showed the highest number of UK film premieres, with 111 and 19 films respectively, whereas ITV showed the smallest number of premieres with seven, although four of these were premieres of UK films. BBC One showed the lowest number of UK film premieres with two films. Table 2 Premiere feature films broadcast on terrestrial television, 2015 Number of Number of UK premiere Average Top Audience premiere UK premiere films as % audience premiere for top films films of total (million) premiere broadcast broadcast premiere films (million) BBC One 16 2 13 1.77 Brave 6.1 BBC Two 41 19 46 0.59 Quartet 2.7 ITV 7 4 57 2.39 The Amazing Spider-Man 3.9 BFI Statistical Yearbook BFI Statistical Yearbook Channel 4 111 18 16 0.60 The Jungle Book 3.9 Channel 5 33 4 12 1.01 Olympus Has Fallen 1.8 Total 208 47 23 0.81 Source: Attentional, BARB, BFI RSU analysis 2016 3 Figure 1 shows the percentage of films broadcast categorised by the number of times they have been screened by a particular channel. The number of times films are shown varies across the channels, although for each channel titles shown five times or more account for the greatest share (57%) of film broadcasts. Channel 4 had the largest proportion of premieres (26%) in 2015 in terms of films broadcast, while ITV had the smallest (4%). Figure 1 Percentage of feature film premieres and repeat broadcasts on terrestrial channels, 2015 % 100 90 FILM ON UK TELEVISION 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 BBC One BBC Two ITV Channel 4 Channel 5 Premiere 7.0 9.0 3.5 25.7 9.4 2nd broadcast 11.9 8.1 3.5 23.4 7.4 3rd broadcast 12.3 8.8 2.5 11.8 8.9 4th broadcast 20.3 9.9 5.9 7.4 6.9 5th or more broadcast 48.5 64.1 84.7 31.7 67.4 Source: Attentional, BARB, BFI RSU analysis The most popular film premiere on terrestrial television in 2015 was the Christmas Eve broadcast of Brave on BBC One, which attracted 6.1 million viewers. The channel also had two other top 10 premieres including the year’s second highest-rated terrestrial television debut, Mrs. Brown’s Boys D’Movie, which drew 4.7 million viewers. Interestingly, one of the films in the list, Disney’s classic animation The Jungle Book, made its premiere on terrestrial television almost 50 years after its theatrical release. The top 10 is dominated by films from the USA, which include two UK studio-backed titles. Quartet is the only UK independent production in the list (Table 3). 2016 BFI Statistical Yearbook BFI Statistical Yearbook 4 Table 3 Top 10 film premieres on terrestrial television, 2015 FILM ON UK TELEVISION Title Channel Country of origin Year of Audience theatrical (million) release 1 Brave BBC One USA 2012 6.1 2 Mrs. Brown’s Boys D’Movie BBC One UK/Ire/USA 2014 4.7 3 The Amazing Spider-Man ITV USA 2012 3.9 4 The Jungle Book Channel 4 USA 1968 3.9 5 The Croods BBC One USA 2013 3.9 6 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ITV USA/NZ 2012 3.8 7 The Dark Knight ITV UK/USA 2008 3.6 8 The Adventures of Tintin ITV USA/NZ 2011 3.4 9 Ted ITV USA 2012 2.8 10 Quartet BBC Two UK 2013 2.7 Source: Attentional, BARB, BFI RSU analysis As Table 4 shows, 39 foreign language films were broadcast on the main terrestrial channels in 2015 (2% of all film transmissions) down from 56 in 2014. Only two terrestrial channels screened foreign language titles during the year: the majority were shown on Channel 4 (31 films) while BBC Two screened eight. Table 4 Foreign language films broadcast on terrestrial television, 2015 Number of % of Average Top foreign Audience for top foreign language channel’s audience language film rated foreign films broadcast film output (million) language film1 (million) BBC One - - - - - BBC Two 8 1.8 0.08 La Vie en Rose 0.18 ITV - - - - - Channel 4 31 7.2 0.05 [Rec]2 0.13 Channel 5 - - - - - Total 39 2.3 0.06 Source: Attentional, BARB, BFI RSU analysis 1 Total audience for all transmissions for the foreign language film, on the terrestrial channel listed. Audience figures for foreign language films on terrestrial television in the last few years have failed to match the success of sub-titled European television series. As Table 5 shows, with over 179,000 viewers, the most popular foreign language film shown on the main terrestrial channels in 2015 was the Edith Piaf biopic La Vie en Rose, followed by the Spanish horror film [Rec]2 with an audience of just over 129,000. BFI Statistical Yearbook BFI Statistical Yearbook (The top two foreign language films on terrestrial television in 2014, The Gatekeepers and House of FIying Daggers, achieved audiences of just over 361,000 and 263,000 respectively.) Eight of the top 10 films were European-backed projects and the remaining two were from India. 2016 5 Table 5 Top 10 foreign language films1 on terrestrial television, 2015 Title Channel Country of origin Year of theatrical Audience release 1 La Vie en Rose BBC Two Fra/UK/Czech 2007 179,300 2 [Rec]2 Channel 4 Spain 2010 129,200 3 Lore Channel 4 Ger/Australia/UK 2013 108,200 4 Stranger by the Lake Channel 4 France 2014 100,300 5 Love Like Poison BBC Two France 2011 94,700 FILM ON UK TELEVISION 6 The Father of My Children BBC Two Fra/Ger/Bel 2010 85,500 7 Cash BBC Two France 2008 80,400 8 Fashion Channel 4 India 2008 71,700 9 Chennai Express Channel 4 India 2013 69,500 10 Come as You Are BBC Two Belgium 2013 66,900 Source: Attentional, BFI RSU analysis 1 Foreign language films with the highest audience figure for an individual transmission. Figure 2 illustrates the number of foreign language films broadcast on terrestrial television between 2006 and 2015. The total number of titles shown annually has remained consistently low in comparison to the number of English language titles broadcast, ranging in the 10-year period from a high of 76 in 2009 to the 39 transmissions achieved in 2015. Channel 4 has shown the most foreign language films throughout the period accounting for three quarters (75%) of all non-English language film broadcasts on terrestrial channels.