Deep pockets Rivals are pricing us out of drama, says Hall
The influx of international players such as Netflix and Amazon has created “superinflation” in the cost of making television drama, threatening to price the BBC out of the market, the director-general has claimed.
Lord Hall said the rising cost of drama meant that the corporation had missed out on “quintessentially BBC” shows such as The Crown, an epic series about the life of the Queen, which was bought by Netflix in a 20episode deal, said to be worth £100million.
The directorgeneral has announced that the corporation must save an extra £100million to help meet the rising price of drama and sports rights, taking the total cuts facing the broadcaster to £800million.
He said: “Drama is something that others with deeper pockets are very interested in, and you can see the rates for actors, for all the people who make dramas happen, going up. And it’s going up more than inflation. There is a superinflation there. We’ve got to manage it.
“We missed out on The Crown, and that’s a great pity because that would’ve been something, bluntly, that was quintessentially BBC. But as one member of their team said to me, ‘If we’re offered very big money we obviously can’t work with you’, and that’s exactly what happened.”
Peter Kosminsky, who directed the award-winning
Wolf Hall, said the influx of overseas productions meant that the cost of hiring filming venues such as historic homes had doubled over the past decade.
He said: “Between the National Trust and English Heritage, they set the price. They are pretty much the only game in town. For Wolf Hall we were shooting all over period buildings. The money we were paying for those locations has doubled within the past 10 years. It can be £25,000 a week now.”