BBC productions ‘stuck in funding limbo’

The BBC has sounded the alarm over several of its commissions that are “stuck in funding limbo” and therefore unable to progress to production. 

The corporation used a submission of evidence to the culture, media and sport committee’s British film and high-end TV 2 (HETV) inquiry to urge government action.

It is “increasingly difficult” to make the same volume of content against “headwinds” including high inflation combined with a smaller licence fee, reduced co-investment and a difficult global sales market, stated the BBC’s evidence.  

“We are starting to face significant and urgent challenges in getting productions across genres made, even those that have been greenlit by our commissioners to move forward into production.

“Multiple greenlit BBC productions are now stuck in funding limbo and are not progressing to production.” 

The submission stressed the urgency of the situation by highlighting the laying off of staff at Euston Films just 10 days before its BBC1 drama Nightsleeper aired.  

The BBC also urged the government to recognise the screen sector as a “priority sub-sector” in its new Industrial Strategy, pointing to the potential economic benefits, its cultural and societal importance, and the “unique challenges” it faces.   

The government has pinpointed the broader creative industries as one of eight growth-driving sectors within its industrial strategy, and in the next stage of development of the strategy it plans to identify sub-sectors within them based on evidence that policy can address barriers to growth. 

The BBC also repeated its call for targeted tax relief support for comedy, children’s, and audio, three genres it believes have been “particularly harmed” by sector challenges but remain “culturally important”. 

The HETV inquiry into support for the sector was launched under the previous CMS committee but had to be cut short due to the general election, and the follow-up inquiry was launched in October under the new government and new-look committee. 

The corporation’s submission was one of many fed in from the TV indstry, with industry bodies also raising AI concerns with MPs and calling for more regional support.