British TV dramas drive record-breaking year for UK TV exports
Dawn McCarthy-Simpson MBE
Retired Media Executive, MBE & Entrepreneur in Rural France
Our latest UK TV Exports report published today (Monday 23rd November) shows that 2019/20 was another record-breaking year for UK TV exports, generating ￡1.48 billion, a 6% year-on-year increase.
Scripted drama – such as Chernobyl, His Dark Materials, The War of The Worlds, The Feed and Doctor Who – was the key driver of international exports for UK companies, and accounted for 48% of all revenue. Factual programming – such as Seven Worlds, One Planet and The Planets – increased its share from 23% to 28% year-on-year.
USA remains most important market
The USA continues to be the most important market for UK exports contributing 32% (￡466m) of all revenue in the 2019/20 financial year, an increase of ￡22m year-on-year. France (￡102m) and Australia (￡98m) complete the top three markets. China was identified last year as a market with growth potential and revenues there increased by 25% to ￡40m.
Looking ahead to 2020/21, China and Latin America are again predicted to offer opportunities as well as expected continued growth in the USA.
Finished TV programming surpasses ￡1billion
Sales of finished TV programming remained the largest source of income (70% of the total) and this year surpassed ￡1 billion for the first time, an increase of 7% year-on-year.
Total revenue from the sale of formats increased by 39% to ￡119m with the majority (51%) of sales to Europe and sales of co-productions also increased by 6% to ￡133m with North America - at 88% - the largest buyer.
Library sales (content aged 4+ years) comprised 22% of revenues this year (compared to 38% last year). With production largely halted past March 2020 there may be an increased contribution from library sales in the next financial year, with feedback from UK distributors highlighting increased demand already.
British TV content – and in particular drama - continues to be attractive to a global audience. The quality of UK production is admired around the world and this is evident from these record figures.
The Pact TV Exports report was produced for Pact by 3Vision with funding partner the Department for International Trade and covers the period of April 2019 to March 2020.