Reports
24th Apr 2025
Insight Event North Report (March 2025)
Sessions: Richard Broughton (Executive Director, Ampere Analysis) on the health of the UK TV market and commissioning patterns; Harriet Finney (Deputy CEO, BFI) on why policy matters and how the BFI champions policy for the screen sectors across the UK; Thomas Wrathmell (Director, Across the UK Strategy, BBC) on the BBC’s Across the UK Strategy; and Krishna Sood (General Counsel, Microsoft) on generative AI and its use in the screen sectors.
15th Apr 2025
March 2025 Insight Report
Sessions: Helen Keefe (Director of Policy & Regulation, Oliver & Ohlbaum) and Nick Toon (Director, Rationale Consulting) presented findings from the recently published Pact and COBA report “Screen Sector Clusters: Securing Sustainability and Growth”; Prof Doris Ruth Eikhof (University of Glasgow) presented the findings from the recently published groundbreaking research report “Make Freelancing Pay – Can we use taxes & benefits to boost competitiveness, and improve workforce diversity and retention in the UK screen sector?“; Cristina Nicolotti Squires (Group Director for Broadcast & Media, Ofcom) took part in a major session on Ofcom’s 2025 Review of Public Service Media.
6th Mar 2025
Make Freelancing Pay
“Make Freelancing Pay – Can we use taxes & benefits to boost competitiveness, and improve workforce diversity and retention in the UK screen sector?” was co-funded by a consortium led by British Screen Forum and the Film + TV Charity, and comprising Bectu, BFI, Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, Directors UK, Equity and Production Guild of Great Britain.
The report, authored by Prof Doris Ruth Eikhof (University of Glasgow) and Dr Hannah Randolph (Fraser of Allander Institute, University of Strathclyde) considers whether the UK government could use the taxes & benefit system to help retain vital skills and talent, and shore up the screen sector’s creative and economic competitiveness. The study used microsimulation modelling based on policies currently in place in Germany, France, South Korea, Spain, Ireland, and Sweden. Researchers modelled outcomes for six representative cases: freelancers on average, high, and low incomes; younger freelancers; disabled freelancers; and freelancers working outside of London—both with and without children.
Although the report makes no recommendations, we hope that its findings will help ground in evidence the current live debate about how best to secure the freelance workforce the screen sector needs.
5th Mar 2025
January 2025 Insight Report
Sessions: James Purnell (CEO, Flint Global) took stock of what the new Labour government has meant for our sectors, including on AI and copyright, BBC Charter Renewal, legislation implementation (Online Safety, Media, Digital Markets), spending review and industrial strategy, and planning reforms and film studios; Cliff Fluet (Partner, Lewis Silkin) gave an overview of key trends in licensing music for games; and Krishna Sood (Assistant General Counsel, Microsoft) spoke about Microsoft’s plans for the future of generative AI and its role in the screen sectors.
20th Jan 2025
December 2024 (Data) Insight Event
Sessions: Ian Whittaker (Founder, Liberty Sky Advisors) on what the markets suggest about the short, medium and long term prospects for some of the key players in the media landscape; Miranda Wayland (CEO, Creative Diversity Network) on what the data from the 7th cut of Diamond tells us about the sector’s progress on EDI; Ben Keen (Consultant, British Screen Forum) on recent trends in aggregation of content and services; and Adam Dalrymple (Senior Research Analyst, Enders Analysis) on sports rights.
23rd Nov 2024
British Screen Forum Submission to DBT Consultation on UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy
British Screen Forum submitted a response to the Department for Business and Trade’s inquiry “Invest 2035: the UK’s modern industrial strategy” on 23 November 2024