Streaming Helps UK Film and TV Studios

Covid-19 pandemic causes developers to bank on streaming boom and invest into building Hollywood-style in the UK.

09:54 12 November 2020

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced consumers to rely heavily on streaming services for their entertainment needs during the lockdown. With movie theatres shutting down due to strict social distancing protocols, the demand for quality content on streaming apps has reached a record high. 

 

Virgin Media has confirmed that viewers in the UK spend a third more time watching Netflix during lockdown and that viewing of video-on-demand content has doubled. 

 

This demand has seen developers now investing hundreds of millions of pounds into building Hollywood-style studios in the UK. Barking and Dagenham council has struck a deal this week to build a studio in east London. The £300million deal is hoped to transform the town "London's Hollywood." 

 

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Jason Hariton, chief real estate officer at US film studio operator MBS Group, which will run the Dagenham studio complex, said: “The quantity, the budget, the amount of films and TV shows being made in all the [world’s] main production hubs is all increasing. In the fourth quarter this year we are setting a seven-year record for quantities of productions serviced,”

 

“We are seeing all the projects that stopped when the pandemic hit starting up again and seeing new projects being raced to market to fill the void, because of all the content that was consumed. Even if you take [the pandemic] aside the industry has been on an explosive upward path.”

 

Adrian Wootton, the chief executive of Film London and the British Film Commission, added:“We have been given more responsibility to work with developers and councils around the country to cut red tape and accelerate more infrastructure [to use as studio space],” 

 

“If we can deliver the stage space we can move from almost £4bn investment in productions in the UK to £6bn over the next five years. The growth curve is such that we are nowhere near the ceiling. Cinemas are in trouble but the streamers have emptied their content banks. Subscriptions and eyeballs aren’t going away.”