TV production spend jumps to £938m in the UK – BFI

Total UK production spend for high-end television programmes reached £938 million (US$1.33 billion) in 2017, the highest amount yet according to BFI research.

The latest figure is an increase of 9% from UK spend in 2016, which arrived at £861 million.

A combination of inward spend, the case where titles are substantially financed and controlled from outside the UK, and coproductions were the largest contributors to the overall figure, coming up at £684 million. This is the highest amount since analysis began.

It is not clear how much of this spend is due to coproductions, and they are combined with inward spend to avoid disclosing budgets for specific titles.

Domestic spend on titles came in at £254 million, a decrease from £324 million in 2016.

A total number of 91 titles started production in 2017, a decrease from 108 in 2016. Of these, 49 were coproductions and inward investment, an increase from 42 in 2016. There were 42 domestic titles created, down from 66 in 2016.

Shows to go into production included Krypton, Game of Thrones season eight (pictured), A Discovery of Witches, Doctor Who season eleven, In the Long Run and A Very English Scandal.

UK spend on animation programmes has dropped to £54 million from £92 million in 2016. Domestic UK programmes accounted for £33 million (62%).

A total of 21 animations programmes started production in 2017. Of these, 14 were domestic.