Commissioning crisis biting harder outside of London !https://www.facebook.com/groups/184884511532126/permalink/7454143714606133/“Stats and numbers I find tend to reveal truths.
We know our industry is in trouble, and in Scotland that trouble feels even more pronounced.
Last year was the one of the worst years for commissioning and freelance employment prospects in... Read more
Commissioning crisis biting harder outside of London !
https://www.facebook.com/groups/184884511532126/permalink/7454143714606133/
“Stats and numbers I find tend to reveal truths.
We know our industry is in trouble, and in Scotland that trouble feels even more pronounced.
Last year was the one of the worst years for commissioning and freelance employment prospects in over a decade. The stats and numbers suggest that this year will be even worse, particularly in Scotland.
We are two weeks into March, usually a time when things start picking up a little as commissions are confirmed. This page has been deathly quiet. In the last 15 days there have been six post from production companies seeking staff to submit CVs for work, mostly for single jobs, 2 of them looking for more than one person. During the same period last year, the first 15 days in March (this remember is during the worst year for TV in over a decade) there were 21 job adverts, 4 were seeking CVs for multiple positions, the rest single roles.
On Talent Manager there have been 138 jobs posted in the last 15 days - one job was in Scotland, for an exec producer at BBC Studios. 90% of the roles advertised were in London. It’s not possible to see how many roles were advertised during the same period last year on TM.
One caveat - the recent industry round table event with bigwigs giving their take on the state of the industry suggested around 80% of current jobs are not advertised, with productions effectively head-hunting their teams from talent they have previously worked with. Given that 68% of freelancers are currently not working (according to the latest BECTU survey), in house talent managers will be less inclined to post adverts, because they simply can’t manage the mountain of applicants - some of you will remember the IWC job posts on TM late last year, where three job posts for a Susan Calman series looking for researchers, APs & PDs had approximately 600 applicants.
All of the above suggest that something is very broken with our industry and that here in Scotland we are faring much worse than the rest of the country. The lack of work means that we are going to lose lots of good people, as folk look to other industries just to survive. A closed off recruiting process means that new entrants to the industry are going to struggle to get a foot in the door, and potentially give up, or indeed move to London where all the work is, and the overall lack of commissions in Scotland means that production companies may go to the wall. We’ve already seen a leading post house fold this year. Unfortunately there seems to be very little that can be done to remedy the situation - the people making the decisions are far away, in London, whether that be the cabinet minister for Culture, or the high heid yins at C4 who have yet to decide if we in Scotland will get 8% of total commissions or stick with their preference of more London commissions.”
My instincts may be wrong, and there are potentially lots of commissions just around the corner, and opportunities for both experienced hands and new faces to get work, stay in work and pay their bills. I hope I am wrong, but the stats and numbers tend not to lie.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/184884511532126/permalink/7454143714606133/
“Stats and numbers I find tend to reveal truths.
We know our industry is in trouble, and in Scotland that trouble feels even more pronounced.
Last year was the one of the worst years for commissioning and freelance employment prospects in over a decade. The stats and numbers suggest that this year will be even worse, particularly in Scotland.
We are two weeks into March, usually a time when things start picking up a little as commissions are confirmed. This page has been deathly quiet. In the last 15 days there have been six post from production companies seeking staff to submit CVs for work, mostly for single jobs, 2 of them looking for more than one person. During the same period last year, the first 15 days in March (this remember is during the worst year for TV in over a decade) there were 21 job adverts, 4 were seeking CVs for multiple positions, the rest single roles.
On Talent Manager there have been 138 jobs posted in the last 15 days - one job was in Scotland, for an exec producer at BBC Studios. 90% of the roles advertised were in London. It’s not possible to see how many roles were advertised during the same period last year on TM.
One caveat - the recent industry round table event with bigwigs giving their take on the state of the industry suggested around 80% of current jobs are not advertised, with productions effectively head-hunting their teams from talent they have previously worked with. Given that 68% of freelancers are currently not working (according to the latest BECTU survey), in house talent managers will be less inclined to post adverts, because they simply can’t manage the mountain of applicants - some of you will remember the IWC job posts on TM late last year, where three job posts for a Susan Calman series looking for researchers, APs & PDs had approximately 600 applicants.
All of the above suggest that something is very broken with our industry and that here in Scotland we are faring much worse than the rest of the country. The lack of work means that we are going to lose lots of good people, as folk look to other industries just to survive. A closed off recruiting process means that new entrants to the industry are going to struggle to get a foot in the door, and potentially give up, or indeed move to London where all the work is, and the overall lack of commissions in Scotland means that production companies may go to the wall. We’ve already seen a leading post house fold this year. Unfortunately there seems to be very little that can be done to remedy the situation - the people making the decisions are far away, in London, whether that be the cabinet minister for Culture, or the high heid yins at C4 who have yet to decide if we in Scotland will get 8% of total commissions or stick with their preference of more London commissions.”
My instincts may be wrong, and there are potentially lots of commissions just around the corner, and opportunities for both experienced hands and new faces to get work, stay in work and pay their bills. I hope I am wrong, but the stats and numbers tend not to lie.
