Television Production in Transition: Independence, Scale and Sustainability

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This project is about crucial transformations in the structure of ownership of the UK television production industry characterized by increasing consolidation and the growing controlling presence of non-domestic parent groups and related socio-economic, strategic management and policy implications. It breaks new ground by, focusing specifically on TV production, investigating the relationship between, on the one hand, expansion, scale and differing sorts of corporate configurations (whether owned by a multinational parent company; vertically integrated or not) and, on the other, economic performance and capacity to engage in business strategies that sustain growth in a TV landscape increasingly characterised by globalisation and digital multi-platform distribution. Television production is an important sector of industry both for economic and cultural reasons. Two variables that strongly affect the success of production businesses are, first, the effective management and exploitation of IPRs and, second, scale of activities. Over the last decade, adjustments in UK public policy that enhanced the position of production companies vis-à-vis broadcasters on ownership of IPRs have substantially improved the position of producers and boosted their sales revenues. But, as organic growth has contributed to scale and greater commercial success, this has triggered a recent wave of takeovers of many of the UK's leading independent producers, often by US media conglomerates. A central concern here is to build understanding of the challenges faced in nurturing the development of UK production companies that achieve scale but, at the same time, remain independent. A further concern is to investigate empirically how a re-structuring of ownership may affect content. Against a background of increased investment interest from multi-nationals in indigenous UK-based players, this project will extend knowledge and theory by interrogating the association between corporate configuration, creative decision-making and cultural content. Using key case studies, the scope of the investigation will cover:- the role of changing digital distribution technologies in encouraging consolidation and strategies of horizontal, vertical and transnational expansion in the TV production industry;- the relationship between, on one hand, size and corporate configuration and, on the other, the ability of production companies to maximise the value of their IPRs and to achieve sustained economic success; - the conditions that govern creative decision-making and content in the TV production industry and how these are affected by differing corporate configurations; - implications for public policy and regulation.At a time of concern about how incumbent TV production companies can adjust successfully to advancing technology and how public policies ought to change to ensure that UK independent production continues to flourish in the global arena, this project and its outputs are intended to deepen and enhance public understanding of creative and business strategies in the context of a rapidly evolving media ecology. Analysis of configuration, strategy, performance, content decision-making and output will provide an empirically-based foundation for the final stage of the research which addresses the challenges posed for regulation and policy by the current re-structuring in ownership of the TV industry. To what extent are market and technological changes threatening the sustainability of a domestically-based independent production sector? How does public policy need to change? Thus, not only will the project contribute to social scientific knowledge and deliver a significant critical and cross-disciplinary contribution to theory in the areas of industrial organization, strategic media management and cultural analysis but also it will provide a valuable resource for television industry professionals, strategists and policy-makers.