Introduction

I normally update this page each January – this is the 2024 update (with some tweaks in March).

 

Rapid increase in film stages continues but the US strikes badly affected the industry in 2023.

 

Since the website was launched in 2006 there have been many changes.  2020 and 2021 were of course years of huge disruption but despite the industry having to cope with Covid restrictions and many productions being postponed or cancelled, ways were found to work around the problem and by the end of 2020 most TV and film studios were coping well with the restrictions and were almost as busy as ever.  The upward trend built throughout 2021 and into 2022, despite the various waves of infection.

However, just when the industry seemed to be back on its feet, there were two significant disputes that, although being US based, affected many studios in the UK.  The Writers’ Guild of America went on strike between May and September 2023, and the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) were on strike between July and November.

Almost every film studio in the UK was affected by this.  The larger ones such as Pinewood, Shepperton and Leavesden were described to me as ‘ghost towns.’  This sadly affected thousands of freelancers who rely upon what until then had been regular well-paid employment.  I gather that some are unlikely to return to the industry, having found new jobs.

Unfortunately, it has taken a long time to return to full production, as contracts have had to be renewed and shooting schedules drawn up again.  One hopes that as 2024 progresses we should see studios fully booked again.  However, it has to be said that this is taking a long time to happen – in February 2024, many freelancers were saying that their diaries were still empty for the coming months.  According to Sky News and BECTU, during the strikes 74% of freelancers were out of work but early in 2024 68% were still unemployed.

 

Despite the hold-up in production, 2023 saw UK studios specialising in film and high-end television (HETV) continue to expand with around 190 sound stages either having recently opened, under construction or planned to open within the next 2–3 years.  These are sited in and around London – mostly to the west.  A number have also recently opened around the rest of the UK too but nothing like this amount.

Just let that extraordinary figure sink in.  If you’re wondering how it can possibly be that many, here’s how:  Pinewood 25, Shepperton 17, WB Leavesden 10, Longcross 16, Dagenham 12, Shinfield 18, Sky Elstree 12, Ealing 1, Elstree Studios 2, Bray 7, Bovingdon 6, Troubadour Meridian Water 6, Troubadour Brent Cross 1, Perfume Works 1, Wharf Studios 6, Garden Studios 4, West London 4, OMA:One 4, OMA:X 6, OMA:V 3, London North 5, Apple Symmetry 4, Winnersh 6, RD Studios 5, Farnborough 2, Ashford 4, Wycombe 8.

Shinfield Studios were up and running in 2023 and will be completed in the spring of 2024.  HOP Studios in Bedfordshire had their planning application passed in 2023 – they are proposing to build 22 sound stages, opening from about 2025 (not included above.)

There is one exception to this expansion – Sunset Studios, due to open in Waltham Cross with 22 stages, had their construction put on hold.  My understanding is that the project has not been abandoned and construction will resume in due course.

 

Proposed or awaiting planning permission in Jan ’24 are also the following:

Sky Elstree North 10, Marlow 18, Hertswood 21 and Holyport 20.  So if all these go ahead, by 2028 London could have around 300 new sound stages, including the ones built in the last few years.  These in addition to those that have existed for much longer at studios like Pinewood, Shepperton, Leavesden, Longcross etc.  My guess, however, is that not all of these listed above will actually be constructed.

 

It is worth noting that although tax incentives are targeted to help the UK film industry, the revaluation of business rates that took effect in England and Wales on the 1st April 2023 became a significant new cost for studios.  2023 also saw a large increase in interest rates and construction costs due to inflation.  These important changes were in danger of preventing some proposed studio developments from being realised.  Fortunately, in his March 2024 Budget, Jeremy Hunt introduced a 40% reduction on business rates for film studios, to last for 10 years.  This is a hugely welcome change and should mean that projects such as Elstree North, Pinewood South, Leavesden South and Sunset Waltham Cross will now go ahead. 

The Chancellor thanked the studios who had made the case for this change but personally I reckon he probably read this website and that’s what persuaded him.  He also introduced a 40% tax relief on low budget films and increased the existing incentive for visual effects.  Interest rates are predicted to fall during 2024 which will help further, although inflationary costs still of course remain.

 

With the slow-down in commissioning from HETV streamers, it seems unlikely that any more major film studio centres will be constructed in England once these planned new ones are up and running.  But, who knows?  I would certainly expect more rapid-build temporary stages to go up in various places to cope with demand, provided by companies like Acorn Structures, Serious Stages and Stage 50.

 

It is hard to make simple comparisons between the facilities offered in Hollywood with those around London.  However, as far as I can determine, there are currently 334 sound stages in greater Los Angeles but many of these are relatively small.  This figure also includes stages being used to make multicamera television shows.  According to Internet searches, the total square footage of all these stages is about 4.7 million.  The main 6 Hollywood studios (Paramount, Universal, Warners, MGM, Fox, Sunset) have a total of 144 sound stages.  In 2023 the London area had 241 sound stages totalling about 4.9 million sq ft.  Many more stages totalling 3.8 million sq. ft are in development.

 

 

How is the industry doing?

 

Overall, the film and high-end TV drama industry has never looked so healthy and vital to the British economy.  A report from the BFI published in December 2021 revealed that the UK’s screen sector generated £13.48bn return on investment from screen tax reliefs to the UK economy from 2017-2019.  Over that period there were record-breaking levels of production and jobs.  There were also wider economic benefits for other industries including tourism, hospitality and retail.

Tax incentives were first introduced in 2007 and have helped to attract billions of pounds in inward investment money from the US streamers and studios, reaching record levels in 2022.  These incentives were improved further in the March 2024 Budget.

In 2023 inward investment and co-production spend on film and high-end television in the UK was £3.3bn.  That year was disappointing due to the US actors and writers strikes.  2024 is likely to eventually return to the previous level of activity so it is worth looking at the statistics for 2022.

A record £6.3bn was spent on film and HETV production in the UK in 2022, up 11.1% on 2021.  According to figures published in February 2023 by the BFI’s Research and Statistics Unit, film and high-end production was up £1.8bn on 2019, the last full pre-pandemic year.

Inward investment films and HETV delivered a record £5.4bn, representing 86% of the combined production spend.  In 2021 the spend was £5.1bn. 

220 films went into production in the UK in 2022, 11 more than was reported for 2021.  One hundred of these were local UK productions.

The £4.3bn UK spend on HETV production was the second-highest on record, down 3% on 2021’s £4.4bn.  (2021 saw many projects in production that had been postponed from 2020 due to the pandemic.)  This figure was up 88% on 2019’s pre-pandemic £2.3bn.

In 2022, 195 HETV productions began principal photography, of which 55% were inward investment, 41% were local UK projects and 4% were co-productions.

These are all very positive statistics.

 

However, let us not forget that the story in 2023 was not good.  A January 2024 report from Broadcast Intelligence’s Programming Index revealed a 26% dip in TV programming across the board between 2022 and 2023.  They logged 1,301 programme announcements across the UK and US in 2023, a huge fall from 1,748 shows in 2022.  Of the 1,301 programmes logged by the Programme Index, 777 (59%) came out of the UK, with 256 from the US and 290 from international SVoDs (this adds up to more than 1,301 because co-productions between US and UK broadcasters are counted in both categories).  All show a drop from 2022.

 

So do we really need even more stages?

According to a report published in 2022 by Knight Frank, the UK at that point had around 6 million sq ft of production space.  60% of this was in London and the South East.  Total production spend was forecast to double over the following 5 years so they thought it was reasonable that this would mean an additional 6 million sq ft was required by 2026 if the sector was to keep pace with growing demand.

In October 2023 Knight Frank published an updated report.  By then the UK had nearly 7 million sq ft of stage space with 71% in London and the South East. 

According to the report, Netflix is the third-highest spender on content in the UK, after Sky and the BBC.   All three, along with ITV and Channel 4, are suffering from reduced revenue.  It is anticipated that the days of rapid increase in content spend are over.  However, the streaming platforms and film companies will continue to increase spending, albeit at a lower level than the past few years.  In fact, despite 2023 being a terrible year for the whole industry, Netflix was again the biggest commissioner of content amongst the streamers, with 93 programmes announced in 2023.  Almost the same as the 94 they ordered in 2022.  (According to Broadcast Intelligence’s Programming Index).

Although the report acknowledged that the rate of increase in film and HETV spending was not as high as it had been, it did predict that total production spend would reach £8.7 billion by 2028. The additional £2.4 billion in spending between now and then would need around 2.6 million sq ft of additional studio space.  This is what they describe as a ‘centrist’ view, so the actual figure could be somewhat higher or lower.  In other words, those film studios currently proposed and being constructed are still needed.

 

According to the 2023 Knight Frank report:

 

‘Our analysis of the current development pipeline indicates that there is 3.8 million sq ft of planned stages across the top 11 developments, though just 852,000 sq ft of this space is currently under construction.  In addition to these top 11 developments, other, smaller schemes are either planned or underway, which will bolster these numbers.  However, based on demand projections, the amount of space currently under construction is likely to be insufficient to support the anticipated growth in the coming years.’

 

Despite the evidence above, some people suggest that we are planning to build too many new sound stages and some will be forced to close.  However, there is no sign of that happening at all soon and while the demand remains from US feature film companies and Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+ and the rest of the streamers – as well as the BBC, ITV, Sky, Channel 4 etc – then the industry continues to look extremely healthy.  Of course, this partly depends on whether the government continues to offer attractive tax breaks to production companies.  Other countries are expanding their facilities too so it is vital that the UK does not slip behind.  Some years ago many films were made in Eastern Europe because it became financially attractive to do so and this could easily happen again if the UK government takes its eye off the ball. 

Fortunately, the current government does seem to be aware of the importance of supporting the industry.  It seems unlikely that a Labour government will change this policy but pressure must be maintained on them in future years.

 

 

Of course, the biggest challenge facing the industry is supplying sufficient well-trained, talented crew in all departments.  In June 2022 a Screenskills report predicted that the High-End TV industry would be worth £7.7bn by 2025, requiring between 15,130 and 20,770 extra crew to meet demand.  With Brexit preventing the easy movement of experienced people from mainland Europe, really good quality training of local people is absolutely essential to maintaining the high reputation of the UK film and TV industry. 

2023 into 2024 was, however, a disastrous period for thousands of freelancers.  The amount of work available was a fraction of what had become normal.  This surfeit of available talent will hopefully be short-lived so maintaining an effectively supply of well-trained people will once again become an issue.

Definitions:

 

There is understandable confusion about the difference between a studio and a stage.  In the movie world a ‘studio’ can mean a company that makes feature films (Universal, Disney etc) or it can mean a site with a number of large rooms in which films are made.  The site is usually referred to in the plural – thus ‘Pinewood Studios.’  However, each large room is not commonly referred to as a studio but is called a ‘stage’ and if it is soundproofed it is more accurately called a ‘sound stage’.  Confusingly, in the television world a studio is what the large room itself is called. 

A site containing several television studios is, I suppose, referred to as a ‘studio centre’.  Thus, Television Centre now has three ‘studios’ but Shepperton Studios has thirty-one ‘sound stages’.

To be really picky, one should refer to a show being made IN a television studio and ON a sound stage.

 

Even more bafflingly, ITV Productions changed its name to ‘ITV Studios’ several years ago, followed in 2016 by the BBC’s in-house programme-making department, which is now called ‘BBC Studios’.  ‘BBC Studios’ do not own any actual studios.  (I know – that’s completely bonkers but true.)   They are free to make their shows wherever they wish – which for a number of years used to include ITV’s own TV studios, which were called The London Studios.  Sadly, these no longer exist so ITV now make many of their programmes in the BBC studios at Television Centre.  I do hope you are keeping up with all this. 

The BBC’s TV studios in London are run by a company called BBC Studioworks – and they often hire their studios out to programmes that are being made not only for ITV but also for Channel 4 or Sky.  Confused?  I’ve hardly started.

 

I have defined a television studio as one with a flat lino or resin floor upon which camera dollies can move freely without using tracks.  It will also have a control gallery suite with all the necessary electronics and communications but not necessarily its own cameras.  One or two studios prefer to hire these in on a day to day basis. 

The studio will in most cases have a lighting grid with monopoles (sometimes called telescopes) or motorised bars (sometimes called hoists or ‘boats’) enabling fast pre-rigging and easy changes to the rig on the day.

 

A great deal of television drama is shot using a single digital camera and interiors are frequently shot on sound stages.  Within the remit of this website, this does not make such stages ‘television studios’ – they still remain sound stages.  I hope this makes some sort of sense as a sound stage is a far more basic and simple space than a television studio.  A sound stage is in essence a soundproofed large room with a power supply available for lighting, and a simple but very strong overhead grid – usually steel ‘runway’ beams several feet apart – although many stages converted from industrial premises don’t even have this.  The floor may be wooden or concrete but certainly not smooth enough to run a camera dolly along without tracks.

Having said the above, I have included film studios as television drama is so important to our economy as well as our culture – especially with the rise of Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+ and other streamers in recent years.

 

Incidentally – I do on occasions refer to an OB ‘scanner’.  This is industry jargon for an outside broadcast control vehicle, which contains production control, sound control and vision control for several cameras.  However, it is a term that is hardly used any more – most people now refer to these vehicles as OB ‘trucks’.

 

 

Measuring studios:

 

Film stages are usually measured in feet and square feet, possibly due to the historic influence of the US film industry.  A film stage is basically an empty box, in which sets are built and  then lit.  The position of the set within the space is not absolutely critical – unless it will only just fit or has to line up with things like a tank in the floor or variations in the grid height.

TV studios work differently.  The lighting rig is put in before the set is built.  The lighting director will have designed the rig, working from scale drawings given to him or her by the set designer.  It is therefore essential that the set is built in the studio exactly where the LD expects it to be. 

To assist the scene crew, most TV studios have footage markings along each wall.  In some newer studios these are in metres or half metres but most older studios have markings in ‘metric feet.’  This curious measurement was invented by the BBC in the 1960s and is an ingenious way of enabling scenery to be built using metric measurements whilst retaining the concept of ‘feet.’  Each metric foot is 30cm long.   You may recall your old school ruler having 12 inches on one side and 30cm on the other.

An old BBC ruler indicating 300mm metric feet.

 

TV studio sizes are still almost always measured in feet and square feet.  Confusingly, the gross size of a studio is usually stated in actual square feet but length and width are usually measured in ‘metric feet.’  This is because most TV studios have a clearly marked fire lane running around the outside of the working area.  This is normally about 4 feet (1.2m) wide.  The working area is measured in metric feet – so might be 90 x 70 (a very useful size.)  In fact, a studio marked as being 90 metric feet long is actually only about 88ft 6 inches. But let’s not worry ourselves over that.