UK programme spend falls as TV viewing rises

Spending on first-run, UK made programmes continues to fall, according to regulator Ofcom’s latest Public Service Broadcasting Annual Report. Across the UK’s PSB channels spending on new UK programmes fell by 6% between 2008 and 2009. Since 2005 there has been an overall decline of 16%, Ofcom said. 
Overall BBC spending on first-run TV programming fell by 9% on BBC1, 15% on BBC2 and by 17% on BBC digital channels between 2005 and 2009 – which constitutes an overall a drop of 13% from £1.42bn (€1.7bn) to £1.24bn.


Taken as a whole spending on new, first-run programming fell in real terms by 20% from £1.38bn in 2005 to £1.10bn 2009 for ITV1, Channel 4 and Five, yet as a proportion of their overall revenues spent on new programming this spending increased from 43% to 52% during the same period.
The report also found people are now watching more channels and TV than ever, but the result is that viewing of the five main PSB channels has fallen from 58% in 2005 to 55% in 2009 in multichannel homes. 

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