The Edinburgh TV Festival, the annual shindig of the movers, shakers, and changemakers of the British television industry, took place last week and change was very much on the schedule, reports Michael Burns.
The headline issues facing the TV industry in the UK are significant – high inflation, market contraction, shrunken ad revenue for commercial broadcasters, freelancers being out of work for long periods, and firms ranging from indies to hire companies to VFX facilities going under. Content is still being made, but it’s now made at the extremes: a few big, expensive shows and lots of lower-cost, high-volume shows.
In his Mactaggart Lecture, playwright and dramatist James Graham talked about the boom and bust of TV, pointing out that two years ago post-Covid, a trend in the industry was over-production. “And now: a drought, a desert,” he said...
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