London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Oct 06, 2025

Streaming demand for UK shows will create 30,000 film and TV jobs

Streaming demand for UK shows will create 30,000 film and TV jobs

Amid a shortage of crew, UK producers are investing billions in training and bringing in more diversity

Global streaming companies’ appetite for British-made shows is reshaping the UK TV and film industry as it aims to keep up with demand by creating 30,000 new jobs and training 10,000 people.

As demonstrated by Amazon’s recent decision to switch filming its new Lord of the Rings TV series from New Zealand to the UK, Britain is a magnet for big US studios who want to work in Pinewood as well as Hollywood.

In order to cope, Four Weddings And a Funeral and Bridget Jones co-producer Tim Bevan said that for the first time the British screen sector is “properly investing” in training and bringing in more diverse crew.

“This hasn’t really happened before,” he told the Guardian, saying that in the past “the first thing” previously cut from budgets was training. But now producers have realised “that if we don’t train up the next generation … we won’t have an industry”.

Bevan said the situation was “crazy” at the moment, with a shortage of crew meaning “it is really difficult to find, not even good people, people full stop” to work on productions. Across the sector there are “some shocking things going on” such as people jumping ship during filming to work on another show for more money.

According to ScreenSkills – the body funded by the film and TV industry to provide training – last year the spend on UK high-end TV (HETV) shows was about £1.5bn. But it has already hit a record high of £878m for the first quarter of 2021 and is projected to rise to £6bn over the next few years.

ScreenSkills is helping the British Film Institute conduct a review of the industry for the government to help train people for the estimated 30,000 new roles needed.

Its HETV director, Kaye Elliott, said it “is an unprecedented time” for programme making due to projects delayed by the pandemic coming back into production, but also “the appetite for TV content has never been so high.”

James Burstall, the CEO of The Masked Singer parent company Argonon, agrees, saying: “We are in the midst of a chronic shortage … with a battle to get the best people on to production crews and a dogfight to get spaces to shoot.”

He said the shortage was “fuelled by the streamers’ thirst for high-end British content” and affecting all parts of production from accountants to costume makers.

Elliott said tax breaks in the UK, the range of locations and hit British dramas had given streamers “the confidence to invest”, but the bigger scale of shows meant more production staff were needed and for longer.

She said ScreenSkills was providing training on about 170 productions, almost double the number in previous years, and “we’re only halfway through the year”.

Sean Connery at Pinewood Studios in 1967 filming You Only Live Twice.


Netflix contributes to ScreenSkills but has also set up a £1.2m scheme called Grow Creative UK to train 1,000 people this year, particularly those from diverse backgrounds. Many will be offered work on hit shows such as Bridgerton, with some 12-month contracts to give them job security.

The Netflix UK training manager, Alison Small, said: “What we’re trying to do is open the door to people and support them. We want to be the studio that provides the most training opportunities in the UK [and] across all our content and productions here, to really make a difference and diversify the industry.”

As part of that, Netflix is donating £600,000 to free sixth-form school the London Screen Academy, co-founded by Bevan’s Working Title Films and the producers of James Bond and Harry Potter.

Bevan said LSA “recruits from schools where the last thought in anyone’s head would be that they may work in the film industry” and gives its students training on projects being made by the school’s founders and partners, including Netflix.

“Although our crews are brilliant they tend to be white, so it’s really important [to have] the permutation of different sorts of people [and] diverse voices,” said Bevan.

Others are playing their part. MasterChef and Peaky Blinders producers Banijay UK is giving 10 underrepresented freelancers a 12-month contract to work across its shows. Channel 5 and Sky have also launched diversity schemes.

BBC Bitesize is also trying to encourage more young people into TV through a film about jobs in the industry.

It comes as the future of British TV on the global stage is due to be debated on 15 September at the Royal Television Society’s Cambridge convention, featuring Hillary Clinton, and Gareth Southgate discussing Britishness.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
×