The UK’s independent television sector booked £3.81 billion ($5.1 billion) in revenue last year, according to the annual census from Pact, the British producers’ trade body. That is a £149 million rise on 2024, or 4.1% growth — respectable in a market that has spent two years talking about a commissioning freeze.
The interesting part is not the headline number. It is where the money came from.
International money is doing the heavy lifting
International TV revenue reached £1.57 billion in 2025, up £214 million or 15.8% year on year, and now accounts for 41.1% of the sector’s total. Pact says this is the first increase since the post-Covid rebound of 2022 — meaning the category had been flat or falling for two straight years before this.
The driver, per Pact, is subscription streaming. Netflix, behind UK-shot titles including The Gentlemen and Black Doves, and Amazon’s Prime Video, home to Clarkson’s Farm and L.O.L. Last One Laughing U.K., have both expanded their commissioning budgets in the market, pushing inward investment to an all-time high.
The domestic side is going the other way
Revenue from UK domestic television fell 4.7% and dropped below £2 billion for the first time in five years. Pact attributes this to a modest pullback from public service broadcasters such as the BBC and ITV, plus a steeper decline in multichannel spend.
Some structural markers from the census:
- International commissions made up 35% of all primary commissions.
- UK PSB network commissions fell 10 percentage points to 58% of the total.
- PSB commissions still deliver £1.42 billion, which Pact puts at 85.9% of the relevant revenue base.
- Secondary rights revenue grew 12.7% to a record £575 million.
- Non-TV revenue — features, artist management, event production, advertising — added £34 million.
Pact CEO Nigel Warner said the census “underlines once again the strength of the U.K. production market in attracting inward investment, but also its vulnerability to declining domestic spend,” and called for a new funding settlement for the BBC. He also flagged that pressure on newer and smaller indies remains severe.
Why this matters beyond Britain
The UK is running the experiment that every mid-sized production market is watching, India included. When global streamers become the marginal buyer, headline production volume can hold up while the ownership economics underneath change completely.
Streamer commissions typically come with tighter rights terms than a traditional broadcaster deal. That is why the growth in secondary rights revenue to £575 million matters more than the top-line figure: it is the clearest signal of how much of the sector’s income still comes from producers owning and re-selling their catalogue rather than acting as work-for-hire suppliers.
The scale effect is the second warning. Big indies with international sales arms and library depth can service a Netflix or a Prime Video order. Newer, smaller companies generally cannot — which is exactly the squeeze Warner describes. When domestic PSB spend contracts, the entry-level rung of the ladder is what disappears first.
What to take from it
For anyone tracking production economics on either side of the world:
Watch commission mix, not spend totals. A market can post record investment while the number of distinct commissioners shrinks. Concentration risk is invisible in a revenue chart.
Track secondary and non-TV lines. Pact’s data shows UK producers actively diversifying into film, live events, management and advertising work. That is a rational hedge when the primary commissioning market is volatile, and it is a template Indian production houses have already been building toward.
Public broadcaster health is a sector-wide input. The BBC and ITV are not just buyers; they are the volume floor that keeps mid-tier suppliers alive between international jobs. When that floor drops, streamers do not backfill it evenly — they backfill it at the top.
The UK sector grew last year. It also became more dependent on a small number of foreign buyers to do so. Both things are true, and only one of them is under British control.
Source: Variety
