Culture minister Sir Chris Bryant has said his “biggest anxiety” when it comes to the British TV industry is the reduced budgets of public service broadcasters (PSBs).
The commissioning budgets of PSBs have been “squeezed by the real-terms reduction of the BBC licence fee”, as well as a reduction in advertising revenue, according to a report from the Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Committee published earlier in the year.
The MP also spoke about the Government’s rejection of a streamer levy, after the report called for platforms, such as Netflix, Amazon, Apple TV+ and Disney+, to commit to paying 5% of their UK subscriber revenue into a cultural fund which would help PSBs through financing drama with a specific interest to British audiences.
Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival, he said: “We want to get a mixed economy. I love the fact that the streamers and big Hollywood houses make lots of shows in the UK … I want to mix it, to be making our own stuff.”
Speaking about the importance of “a mixed economy”, he said: “Film and TV, and high-end television in particular is fundamentally an international thing.
“I think that some politicians in the world don’t seem to fully understand us, but one of the things I’ve been trying to achieve in the UK is, yes, it’s great that the streamers do make fabulous stuff here, and lots of wonderful films made here.
“Tom Cruise is probably one of the biggest investors in the UK economy over the last decade. Brilliant.
“I really want to celebrate that, but I don’t want everything that is made in the UK, all the IP (intellectual property), simply to go back to the West Coast of the United States of America.
“I’d like us to have some IP that remains here so that we can continue making investments and have strong UK production companies, which also make stuff which maybe sometimes is specifically made for a UK audience as well as for a wider audience.
“So I’ve been trying to make that mixed economy.”
Cruise’s blockbuster Mission Impossible films, particularly recent instalments, have frequently filmed in the UK, with locations including London, Derbyshire and the Lake District.
Sir Chris added: “My biggest anxiety is the state of public service broadcasting budgets, and if they haven’t got any funding, they’re not going to be making any progress.”
After the report into British film and high-end television, chairwoman of the CMS committee, Dame Caroline Dinenage, said “there will be countless distinctly British stories that never make it to our screens” unless the Government intervenes to “rebalance the playing field” between streamers and public service broadcasters (PSBs).
