The British Video Association (BVA) announced a new report it commissioned suggests that sales of video entertainment on DVD, Blu-ray Disc (BD) and through other digital means are the largest revenue sources for the production of film and television drama in the UK.
The UK Video Industry: Ready to Face the Future can be downloaded from the British Video Association’s website.
For more information visit: www.bva.org.uk
Unedited press release follows:
Video revenues are the lifeblood of UK film and TV industry
6th July 2012: Sales of video entertainment on DVD, Blu-ray and digital formats are the single biggest revenue source for the production of film and television drama in the UK, a new report confirms today. Following the Oxford Economics study commissioned by the British Video Association and published a year ago, today’s new edition, Ready to Face the Future, reveals that in a rapidly evolving market, video revenues remain critical to British film and television production.
• Half of feature films revenue comes from video entertainment
• A third of TV series and features of revenue comes from video entertainment
Using new case studies from recent British films, the report highlights the significance of an industry that directly supports creativity, skills and employment in our audiovisual sector, with video entertainment contributing more to the finance of original film and TV content than any other single source. It also provides insights from BVA consumer research by Kantar Worldpanel’s Entertainment Panel into why physical discs are still account for 88% of consumer spending and points to the importance of measures to combat copyright theft and potential threat from proposed changes in copyright policy to the future health of the £2.3 billion video entertainment market.
Eddie Cunningham, President, Universal Pictures International Entertainment uses two British films to illustrate the role video revenues play in his company’s investment in original quality production:
“As the BVA’s report shows, video continues to be a critical part of the film industry’s ecosystem and a significant driver of revenue. Working Title’s Paul and Senna are two great examples of British filmmaking at its best, and the revenue generated from video – more than 60% coming from home entertainment on these titles – is hugely important in helping British producers like Working Title re-invest back into production and continue to create great films.”
Channel 4’s David Root, Head of 4DVD, says:
“Channel 4 understands its audience and it was because of our confidence of a healthy DVD income from the previous success of the Inbetweeners TV series on DVD that Channel 4 could budget to see a return on its investment and was able to fund the making of The Inbetweeners Movie. Without this millions of Inbetweeners fans might not have been able to enjoy their exploits on the big screen.”
Commenting on today’s publication, Lavinia Carey, Director General of the BVA, said:
“The audiovisual industry is experiencing rapid and dynamic change as a result of digital technologies that create huge opportunities and challenges to a complex creative sector, which is shown in our report to be heavily reliant on video entertainment to generate returns on investment in film and television production. It is vital, therefore, that additional uncertainty is not introduced into the sector by simplistic copyright policy changes or hesitancy in enforcing copyright law while our industry evolves, offering more innovative digital services alongside the ever-popular DVD and Blu-ray Disc while maintaining the quality in video entertainment that is so widely enjoyed by British audiences.”
The UK Video Industry, Ready to Face the Future – data sources: Oxford Economics, Kantar Worldpanel, Official Chart Company, IHS Screen Digest, British Video Association.
About the BVA
The British Video Association exists to champion video entertainment in all its forms, from packaged media such as DVD and Blu-ray Discs through to digital services available on demand, to rent or to own on portable devices and for home viewing.
The BVA’s members include film and television companies and independent labels who produce, license and distribute pre-recorded video entertainment, covering film, sport & fitness, music, TV, children’s and special interest programming. Its members account for some 90% of the sector.