MUMBAI: Just like the British love the curry that Indians dish out in the UK, it seems Indians can’t get enough of the TV shows that British producers offer.  And this is proved by the fact that exports of British TV shows rose 17  per cent from £ 19 million  in 2022-2023 to £23 in million, pushing India  up from the thirteenth to the twelfth spot in 2023-2024. 

 A dekko at the Producers Alliance for Cinema & Television  (Pact) Annual British TV Exports report for 2023-2024 (which was released on 29 November)  throws up these numbers. 

The report also gave a bit of a bearish trend for British TV exports all over the world as they fell two per cent in 2023-24 to £1,818 million from £1,853 million in the previous year. However, Pact, said the consolation is that 2023-24 figure is 27 per cent higher than the crash in sales British TV production industry experienced in 2020-21 in the thick of the  pandemic.
 

Also, the report said that the good news is that despite the challenges in the US market over the past 24 months, Uncle Sam continues to be the largest destination for UK TV exports, accounting for almost one third of all sales, and it remains the region of primary focus for British distributors. TV show shipments to the US grew by 13 per cent year on year to a new high of £593 million. Together with Canada, which de-grew seven per cent to £89 million, north America accounts for 41 per cent of all British exports. 

Other countries in the top 10 that experienced growth included The Netherlands (a 25 per cent increase to £35 million) and South Africa (a 20 per cent increase to £27 million). Germany and The Nordics both saw eight per cent increases, recording Britain’s highest ever total export revenues (£118 million and £104 million respectively).

Elsewhere in the top 10 countries, France (-21 per cent), Italy (-23 per cent) and Spain (-15 per cent)  all saw significant decreases, with France falling out of the top five for the first time. China and Japan saw a drastic drop of 25 per cent in purchases of British content to £17 million and £8 million respectively. Mexico, however, had the highest increase of 118 per cent to £15 million. 

 
An  alarming trend according to Pact is that  revenues from co-productions fell by 28 per cent to £120 million; TV and format sales too dropped eight per cent and seven per cent respectively. This is likely due to a reduction in activity (especially premium drama) by some of the large US media companies that have partnered with companies in previous years.

Finished programmes fell by eight per cent (to £1,019 million) but still remained the largest contributor by some way. International Productions grew significantly by 29 per cent, to £325 million, increasing its share of total TV exports from 14 per cent to 18 per cent.

Scripted drama continued to dominate the genre share of exports, but fell to 43 per cent from 49 per cent in the previous year, whereas entertainment saw the biggest increase of six per cent to 27 per cent.

(All data has been sourced from Pact. If you would like the full report please send an email to sherylf@indiantelevision dot co dot in )