UK Film & High-End TV Production Could Be Worth $9.4B By 2025 But Estimated 21,000 More Crew Needed To Meet Demand — ScreenSkills Study

deadline.com:

The UK’s film and high-end TV could be worth nearly £7.7B ($9.4B) by 2025 but training enough crew to achieve that would cost around £300M ($368M), according to a study by British industry body ScreenSkills.The value of the production sector is expected to leap from the current £5.64B to anywhere between £7.07B and £7.66B, with around 15,130 and 20,770 additional crew needed to meet demand.While this represents an annual investment of between £95.1M and £104.3M between 2023 and 2025, ScreenSkills’ research suggests the estimated economic return would be 15 times the costs of the training — with the costs based on figures for existing ScreenSkills training programs.The UK is currently seeing a surge in productions as broadcasters and streamers line up increasingly ambitious shows and take advantage of the industry’s tax break system.

However, a skills clear gap has emerged and many are concerned that major projects such Amazon’s upcoming production of the Lord of the Rings TV series will push the situation from problematic into a crisis.‘The Forecast of Labour Market Shortages and Training Investment Needs in Film and High-end TV Production’ study, carried out by consultancy Nordicity with the accountancy firm Saffery Champness LLP, also claims the higher-end of this investment scale would “go a long way” to creating a further 23,270 full-time jobs across the UK economy.The research notes that the latest UK figures show film and high-end television currently generates the equivalent of 122,000 full-time jobs.Growth ForecastedThe report’s authors — who conducted interviews with major film and high-end TV companies and analyzed existing and unpublished research — have concluded in the UK industry still can grow, fuelled by