A new report from Diffley Partnership/Solid Media, commissioned by Screen Scotland, has found broad support for retaining and reforming the UK’s regional television production quotas, alongside significant concerns about their current operation, enforcement and ability to deliver the potential benefits of investment from our public service broadcasters for the UK’s nations and regions.
Screen Scotland commissioned the research into the UK’s current nations and regions television production regime operated by Ofcom in order to:
- Understand how the existing production quotas, which were introduced to make UK public service broadcasting less London-centric, are understood and valued from different perspectives – public service broadcasters (PSBs), regulators, production companies, industry workforce and suppliers.
- Examine the effectiveness and limitations of the current Ofcom quotas, with a particular focus on how the production quotas operate in practice and whether they deliver sustained economic and cultural benefits to the nations and regions of the UK, including Scotland.
- Examine alternatives through comparative analysis of interventions used in other countries, as a means of delivering the policy ambitions.
The Diffley/Solid Media research incorporates contributions from stakeholders across broadcasting, production, policy and academia. Three overarching conclusions have emerged:
- Stakeholders largely supported the retention of distributed production quotas for the UK’s Public Service Broadcasters (BBC, Channel 4, ITV, 5, previously known as Channel 5).
- Confidence in the current form of those quotas, their application and enforcement is fragile.
- All stakeholders understood that output focused production quotas alone cannot secure strategic outcomes such as long-term sectoral growth and business resilience outside of London.