Total UK television production sector revenues fell by £392 million (8.4 per cent) to £3.61 billion in 2023, the 2024 edition of our annual Census (published today) reveals.
This decline is especially compounded when high inflation is taken into account, however total revenues remained well above pre-pandemic levels.
A number of factors including smaller commissioning budgets, a downturn in the advertising market and rising UK inflation, led to a decrease of £183 million in domestic TV revenues (8.3 per cent on 2022), but remained above £2 billion at £2.02 billion.
Read on for a summary of the key findings and download the full report and related annexes below.
UK Commissioning
Revenues Fall
Total UK commissioning revenues decreased by 10.2 per cent from 2022, falling to £1.78 billion, primarily due to a 35.4 per cent decline in revenues earnt from multichannel commissions.
New IP accounted for 35.6 per cent of total UK primary commissioning spend with ITV significantly increasing its share of spend on new programming (58 per cent compared with 27 per cent in 2022).
International TV
Revenues Fall
International TV revenues also fell, decreasing by £209 million from the previous year (14.7 per cent), driven by fewer commissions by linear TV broadcasters.
However, international digital commissions remained stable, declining by only £12 million in 2023 (1.8 per cent on 2022) to £684 million. Revenue from international digital commissions accounted for 23.5 per cent of all primary TV rights revenues, as the UK continued to attract global SVODs as a destination for high-value productions such as The Crown and Criminal Record.
Producers Diversify in
Tough Market Conditions
Non-TV revenues grew sharply by 51.3 per cent year on year to £181 million, showing how producers are able to diversify and restructure during tough market conditions. TV producers’ management and event production businesses in particular showed strong growth.
N&R Share of Spend
Surpasses 50 Per Cent
Share of spend on productions outside London rose to 52 per cent, surpassing 50 per cent for the first time. The English Regions in particular experienced strong growth, accounting for nearly one third of spend (32 per cent).
Size & Genre
Spend
Producers with a turnover of more than £25 million accounted for 91 per cent of total spend on drama in 2023, and 87 per cent on entertainment. Conversely, 64 per cent of total spend on children’s TV was to producers with a turnover of under £25 million.
Download the
Census
You can download the full Census report and related annexes via the links on this page or the Resource Hub where you can also find past editions of the Census.
The Pact Census is conducted by Oliver and Ohlbaum Associates.