BBCS, Fremantle distribution chiefs highlight UK scripted ‘crisis’

BBC Studios distribution chief Rebecca Glashow and Fremantle counterpart Jens Richter have urged the UK industry to realign budget expectations as the country’s scripted crisis continues to grow. 

Richter told Broadcast International that there are now between 15 to 20 scripted projects “floating around” that have been greenlit by UK broadcasters which cannot be produced because of budget shortfalls. 

That number has soared from “around five or six” projects at the start of 2024, Fremantle’s chief exec of commercial and international said, adding that the “sweet spot” for budgets now stood at around £2m per episode, well below peak-TV highs that sometimes touched double that amount. 

Richter, whose scripted slate includes the upcoming Little Disasters for Paramount+ and Iris for Sky, added that affected projects were “not all done and forgotten about” but admitted that costlier projects demanded international appeal to secure distributor participation. 

“Our sweet spot is a show that is entertaining, somewhat commercial and that can be produced for around £2m per episode. Then it’s doable because you have the commissioning money, you have the soft money and that leaves a gap of somewhere between £300,000 and £500,000, and that is OK.  

“Beyond that, in the current market with the US being very cautious, you have to be very careful. We think about the show’s appeal during development, how relevant it is for rest of world, and obviously things like casting are thought about very much.” 

UK scripted crisis 

Richter highlighted the problem during a panel at NATPE Global in Miami last week, where he was joined by Rebecca Glashow, chief exec of BBC Global Media and Streaming at BBC Studios. 

Glashow, whose slate ranges from well-travelled A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder to Channel 4 drama Brian and Margaret, said that assumptions of streamer participation had to be tempered in the current environment and described the squeeze affecting the UK market as “a crisis”. 

She went on: “We got to a place where the amount of money people were expecting to come in was too high - Netflix ore another streamer might come in, but you can’t create a development slate assuming that that money is there for it.  

“As public broadcasters creating shows for the UK, the budget has to be appropriate because it’s going to be very hard to find a secondary market sometimes. It’s about asking where is the show going.” 

Glashow added that costs needed to come down and commissioners had to spend “a little bit more”, while windowing with several streamers would also ease production hiatuses. 

“The old is new again. We have relationships with broadcasters in all different markets and it’s now hand to hand combat to pull the financing to get it done.  

“It is no longer about plug and play deals, you need all those markets to get these shows funded.”