After the gold rush: industrial re-configuration in the UK television production sector and content

Abstract

Recent technological and market changes in the television industry appear to have transformed the corporate configurations which conduce to economic success in the production industry. As a result, many leading independent television production companies in the United Kingdom and elsewhere across Europe have become prime targets for corporate activity and many have been subject to takeover, often by the US media groups. Does this matter? Does the concept of ‘national’ television content still have any relevance in the digital era? Drawing on a multiple-case-study-based analysis of several UK-based television production companies over recent years, this article examines how corporate takeovers in the production sector may affect creative decision-making and impact on the nature and quality of television content. Against a background of increased investment interest from multinationals in indigenous players in the United Kingdom and across Europe, the analysis presented makes a timely and policy-relevant contribution to knowledge.

Virtual Reality and Its Application for Producing TV Programs

“…Photographic robot face recognition is a problem of open-set face recognition, and the main essence is metric learning [13,14]. After the face detection of the TV program is completed, it must detect and identify the target face, whether the target is the primary character or a secondary character in the program, because, in real work, all the faces cannot appear in the training set.…”

Handmaidens of consolidation in the UK television production sector

“…Other alternatives include continued slow organic growth, seeking a minority investment to ensure stability as they continued to seek commissions, or acquisition by a larger entity. The situation is complex and dynamic and as new buyers like the SVODS entered the market and often turned to the larger groups first when commissioning thereby provided an impetus to further consolidation (see Doyle & Barr, 2019;Paterson, 2018). This has further increased the attraction at smaller companies for acquisition by a larger, wellfinanced and well-established groups, expanding the operational space for the specialised intermediaries.…”

Is the Role of Public Service Media in Estonia Changing?

“…The achieved goals that have been formulated by the legislation and regulation of PSM have not changed significantly during the last few decades, but the contextual factors that enable or disable the fulfilment of some goals have changed quite a lot. Based on the changes in the UK market, Doyle and Barr (2019) ask an existential question related to the national media: "Does "national" television content still have any relevance in the digital era?" (Doyle, Barr 2019: 940).…”