"Things Are Tough": What We Learned at the Spotlight Event for TV & Film Leaders

Senior and financial leaders from across the TV and film industry gathered at the Holmes Hotel for our latest Spotlight event, chaired by Guy Ayland of CreativeTotal Media. The room brought together production companies, distributors, advertising agencies and industry newcomers - including Netflix, All3Media, Prodco, Canis Media, Maverick Arts, and Griffin King Creative.

If there was one phrase that summed up the day, it was this: things are tough.

But within that honest, sometimes sobering conversation, some genuinely interesting opportunities emerged. Here's a rundown of the key issues our attendees are grappling with right now - and where they're finding room for optimism.

Funding Is Getting Harder to Find

One guest opened up about the realities of raising serious production funding, discussing an ongoing effort to raise in the region of £7m - and just how difficult that process has become. The days of relying on a single, obvious funding route are over. Attendees discussed exploring every available avenue, from SEIS funding schemes to using industry events as a way of connecting directly with potential backers, through to targeting high-net-worth individuals as a source of investment.

Equity investment came up as a growing trend too, though not without a catch: production companies are increasingly having to weigh up the trade-off between securing the capital they need and giving away a stake in their own intellectual property to get it.

Broadcast Budgets Are Shrinking

A recurring theme was the shrinking commissioning power of the UK's traditional broadcasters. Mainstream players like the BBC and ITV are working with noticeably smaller budgets and simply aren't able to offer what they once could for new productions. The reason is straightforward - audiences are continuing to migrate away from traditional broadcast towards digital channels, taking ad revenue and commissioning budgets with them.

Another guest added a further wrinkle to this picture: advertising spend itself is being diluted across an ever-growing number of channels. Platforms like Sky and Freeview are seeing dwindling audiences, while YouTube's viewership continues to skyrocket. The upshot? Digital channels increasingly need to build and own their own audiences rather than relying on borrowed ones.

The Freelance Shift

One guest offered a striking statistic from the advertising side of the business: his company now employs roughly 300 freelancers compared to just 22 people on PAYE contracts. The driver is uncertainty - minimal recurring revenue and a lack of secure, long-term budgets (impacting up to 60% of the business) are pushing companies away from permanent hiring and towards a flexible, freelance-first model.

AI: A Genuine Threat to Skills and Jobs

Few topics generated as much concern as AI. Many at the table felt that AI represents a real and growing threat to the industry - not just as a tool, but as a potential replacement for entire categories of work. Short-form content, particularly in advertising, was flagged as an area at real risk of being automated out of existence, with knock-on fears about the dilution of creative skills across the industry more broadly.

This fed into a wider debate about the UK's ban on social media for under-16s, and whether it will ultimately prove a net positive or negative for the industry and the audiences it depends on.

Where the Optimism Lies

It wasn't all doom and gloom, though. A few clear bright spots emerged from the discussion:

• Talent-led, direct-to-audience content is thriving, with stars building their own pay-per-view content and cutting out traditional gatekeepers entirely.
• Short dramas are emerging as a major trend with Gen Z and Gen Alpha audiences - a handful of short, punchy episodes designed to hook viewers, followed by a low-cost, ongoing pay-per-episode model (often as little as £1 an episode).
• Production costs are falling. One guest shared an example of a band shooting and editing an entire music video themselves using just three GoPros, then distributing it via a pay-per-view platform on YouTube - keeping 70% of the revenue, with 30% going to the platform, and seeing a fast cash turnaround.
• Live events are booming, particularly where live experiences are blended with technology - think hologram artists performing at music concerts. It's this fusion of the physical and the digital that seems to be capturing audience imagination.

Small Players, Big Impact

It wasn't just the industry giants doing interesting things. Griffin King Creative, founded three years ago, is a great example of a small organisation carving out a valuable niche - supporting smaller production companies and musicians through their Campaign Clinic offering. Their backgrounds (in copywriting and music marketing respectively) show how varied paths can lead to genuinely useful industry support services.

Moments like these were a reminder that some of the most valuable connections made on the day happened organically - Many found common ground during the event and exchanged details, exactly the kind of face-to-face networking one guest highlighted as so valuable in an increasingly digital-first industry.

Final Thoughts

The overriding message from this Spotlight event was one of an industry in genuine transition - squeezed by shrinking broadcast budgets, diluted advertising spend, funding pressures, and the looming disruption of AI. But amid the challenges, new models are emerging fast: direct-to-fan content, short-form drama, low-cost high-quality production, and immersive live experiences are all pointing towards where the value is shifting.

For TV and film leaders, the message is clear - the old playbook is no longer enough, but there's real opportunity for those willing to adapt.

Want to be part of the conversation at our next Spotlight event? Get in touch with the Creative Total Media team to find out more.