Feast to famine: unscripted indies and freelancers feel the pinch

More than a dozen non-scripted indies and countless freelancers have highlighted a shocking contrast between the scarcity of work during the first half of 2023 and the post-Covid production boom.

Broadcast has had multiple conversations in recent weeks in which indies have confessed to struggling to win business this year in many areas of mainstream factual programming.

At the same time multiple contacts have highlighted the knock-on effects for freelancers, reporting a dearth of opportunities with a mixture of bewilderment and frustration.

The issue came to a head on Tuesday afternoon (16 May), when Bectu revealed a motion had been passed at its conference on 14 May instructing it to declare an “emergency” in the unscripted freelance community.

It is preparing to launch a survey to establish the scale of the problem.

Phillipa Childs, head of the union, described the situation as deeply concerning. She said many freelancers have “already faced incredible challenges brought on by the pandemic and the cost of living crisis, and work long hours to the detriment of their mental health, family lives and work/life balance.

”Now, many are struggling to simply get by”.

Caution from major broadcasters

Interviews by Broadcast shows that many parts of the industry have not woken from their usual new year production slumber.

Many hitherto in-demand freelancers have gone months without a gig, while production companies that do not have returning brands to fall back on are feeling the pinch.

Senior freelancers have described the sector as “like a desert” and “deadly quiet”.

“It feels like 2009,” was the ominous message from the talent manager at a major non-scripted indie, this week, citing the last major recession.

Talent managers from myriad production companies are discussing the issue on a vast email chain that is shared between them, while message boards on Talent Manager and LinkedIn posts flagging the issue are hosting multiple messages of solidarity and support – but without too much optimism.

A key factor is the challenging commerical situation at the traditional UK broadcasters.

The TV ad market is down significantly on last year according to multiple sources – somewhere between 10% and 20%  since January appears to be the broad consensus. That would tally with ITV’s update in March in which it said it was down 10% for the first three months of the year, and that this performance was ”better than the wider TV advertising market”. 

Indies report that the likes of Channel 4, ITV and Channel 5 are cutting their cloth accordingly and that they are quietly being told there is a lack of funds for new greenlights. 

One senior figure at a commercial broadcaster said there had been an expectation that Q1 would be tough, but that Q2 and the outlook for Q3 had been worse than predicted.

A very well-known figure in the indie world suggested British broadcasters would be well served by opening up about their difficulties in a more formal way, rather than asking rank and file commissioning editors to fudge the issue.

“Some more transparency would serve them well,” they said. “They don’t want to say it [that commissioning has been scaled back] for fear of producers taking ideas elsewhere, but companies appreciate honesty. We’ve been here before – the ad market always goes in cycles.”

The BBC, which is not reliant on advertising income, is employing a fewer, bigger, ,better strategy and has born the brunt of a frozen licence fee during a period in which inflation has risen to 10% and dramatically increased logistical costs for things such as transportation, fuel and catering.

However, there is some discrepancy across different genres, with far more production and freelance work around in the reality space than docs, for example.

This chimes with the analysis Broadcast delivered last month, about mid-range, mid-budget factual shows being pushed out, while tentpole constructed shows such as Love Island, Married at First Sight, Love is Blind, Gladiators, Survivor and (come the autumn) Big Brother will all be major employers this year.

Many sources pointed to the production sector’s resilience, but the overall picture painted by indies and freelancers is that the first five months of 2023 have been grim.

Bectu’s warning yesterday suggests that the industry may have far fewer talented people to call on when the pace of commissioning does finally pick up, as the precarious working patterns force them to seek employment in other sectors.