Month: December 2021

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control on Monday shortened the recommended isolation and quarantine guidelines for Americans who contract or are exposed to Covid-19 from 10 to five days. The move drew swift criticism from many experts, who questioned the logic behind the decision.

“I don’t think there’s any big change in science that justifies a change in guidance,” said Lawrence Gostin, director of the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law. In his view, the guidance “has much more to do with societal function than to do with science.”

One of the biggest criticisms was that shortening the isolation and quarantine requirement should be augmented with a negative test requirement. Today, California did exactly that with its updated guidelines.

The state’s public health director Tomás Aragón late today issued updated isolation and quarantine guidance for people exposed to or infected with Covid-19. The California guidance mostly aligns with the new CDC recommendations, it contains “additional testing recommendations to exit isolation and quarantine and improved masking measures.”

The California framework says, “local health jurisdictions may be more restrictive” and allows that residents who have received booster shots “do not have to stay home but should test on day five.”

The new Golden State guidelines add that Covid-positive individuals can end isolation after day five if symptoms are not present (or resolving) and if an antigen test collected on day five or later is negative. It also says unvaccinated individuals — or vaccinated but unboosted people — who are exposed to Covid “should stay home for at least five days and also get an antigen test on day five.”

The framework encourages upgrading mask quality, given the transmissibility and prevalence of Omicron. It says, “all persons should optimize mask fit and filtration, ideally through use of a surgical mask or respirator.”

Hollywood’s guilds and unions saved the film and TV business in 2021. Working cooperatively with the industry’s companies, they adopted Covid-19 protocols that got production booming and their members safely back to work, all the while averting strikes that would have crippled recovery efforts.

And earlier this year, Hollywood’s unions were among the first in the nation to allow employers to mandate vaccinations as a condition of employment – which NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB players’ unions are still opposed to, as are unions representing police officers, airline pilots and teachers.

Hollywood’s current three-year bargaining cycle, delayed by the pandemic, is almost at an end, but the next one will begin in little more than a year. Guild leaders are already talking tough about the next cycle, while many of their members, who believe they have sacrificed so much, think it’s time for the companies to show their appreciation at the bargaining table come 2023.

How We Got Here

Early on in the pandemic, opportunities to strike were limited as production was already shut down. SAG-AFTRA and the WGA both negotiated their current contracts during the bleakest days of lockdown; the DGA got its deal in the very last days of the pre-pandemic, and IATSE negotiated a contract earlier this year that narrowly averted the first industrywide strike in its history.

The DGA, which had only struck once in its entire history – and then for only 15 minutes back in 1987 – began its negotiations with the AMPTP on Feb. 10, 2020, nearly three weeks before the first reported Covid-19 death in the U.S.

The DGA got its deal on March 5, 2020 – just two days before Tom Hanks revealed that he’d contracted the virus, and a week before the NBA suspended its season. Overwhelmingly ratified by its members, the DGA pact provided for significant gains in residuals from streaming shows, and more contributions to fund its pension and health plans. It also set the pattern of bargaining for the other guilds and unions to follow, which they did in short order.

DGA and other guild leaders were also moving quickly to address the impact the pandemic was having on their members. “A major concern we’re hearing most right now is about when we’ll be returning to work, and how we can be certain that it’s safe to do so,” DGA president Thomas Schlamme and national executive director Russell Hollander told their members April 16, 2020. “Rest assured, this is something we’ve been spending a great deal of time thinking about as well. While we don’t have an answer as to when production will resume, we are taking steps to address how we can be safe when it does happen.”

A DGA National Return To Work Committee, spearheaded by Steven Soderbergh, director of the 2011 pandemic thriller Contagion, had already been appointed to “do a thorough examination of the issues at hand, and to make recommendations to the board,” the DGA leaders said. “The committee is consulting with top epidemiologists in the field, and we will collaborate with our sister guilds and unions and the employers as we put together a comprehensive guide to help us all return safely to work.”

Indeed, collaboration between the companies and the unions would be the key to reopening.

SAG-AFTRA Negotiations & The Safe Way Forward

SAG-AFTRA was next up to negotiate a contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, the companies’ bargaining arm that would play a vital role in restarting the production pipeline and keeping it flowing.

AMPTP president Carol Lombardini hadn’t forced a strike since she took office in March of 2009, and during the pandemic, has bargained five major union contracts while at the same time representing the companies in the development of several incarnations of the back-to-work protocols.

The SAG-AFTRA contract talks began on April 27, 2020 – more than a month before the easing of the lockdown. SAG-AFTRA, and the Screen Actors Guild before it, hadn’t struck the film and TV industry since 1980, but with production already ground to a halt, a strike this moment was all but out of the question.

At the same time, four separate sets of around-the-clock meetings were underway to get production restarted. One involved the AMPTP and the unions, working together under the auspices of Industry-Wide Labor-Management Safety Committee Task Force. Another involved separate talks among the unions, and the others involved the DGA National Return To Work Committee and the SAG-AFTRA President’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Safety.

On June 1, the Task Force produced its 22-page Industry White Paper, Hollywood’s first guidelines for the Covid era. Its recommendations, shared that day with the governors of California and New York, included masks, rigorous testing, social distancing whenever possible, and disinfecting of worksites. The 10-week lockdown officially ended that day.

Schlamme told DGA members that “With science as their guide, the Committee consulted with top epidemiologists, medical experts, and risk analysts – and it quickly became clear that testing would be key to our return to work. In parallel, our sister guilds and unions – IATSE, International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Basic Crafts, and SAG-AFTRA – were undergoing similar processes. And we locked arms in unprecedented coordination and solidarity. Together, we worked with the employers on a White Paper for state governments to examine the resumption of production.”

Ten days later, on June 11, SAG-AFTRA reached an agreement with the AMPTP for a new contract that the guild said would boost members’ incomes by $318 million over three years and generate more than $50 million in additional funding for its health plan.

“We are living in transformational times,” said SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris, who chaired the union’s negotiating committee. “With all that is happening in the world right now, we accomplished something significant.” The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the U.S. had now surpassed 2 million.

The next day, the unions released their own more detailed protocols called The Safe Way Forward – a joint effort by the DGA, SAG-AFTRA, IATSE, the Teamsters and the Basic Crafts. Their 36-page report, which implemented the more general guidelines set forth in a White Paper, came out on the same day that L.A. County allowed production to resume.

Like the White Paper, the unions’ protocols stressed testing and social distancing, but also established a systems of on-set safety “zones” to protect cast members, who are the most vulnerable because they can’t wear masks or socially distance while performing.

In its introduction, The Safe Way Forward noted that “This document was conceived and initially drafted by a DGA committee of working members, based upon close consultation with infectious disease epidemiologists and other experts…SAG-AFTRA was simultaneously but independently working on its own protocols through its President’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Safety, its staff, and expert consultants.”

Working together and separately, labor and management had come up with a still-evolving set of plans just in time for filming to resume in California and New York. But they still had to codify their work into contract language. And that would take months.

The WGA, which hadn’t struck since 2007-08, was next up to negotiate a contract with the AMPTP. The WGA’s contract had been set to expire on May 1, 2020, but was extended to June 30 “due to the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

The talks began virtually on May 18 – while Lombardini was still in talks with SAG-AFTRA. The pandemic was in its first wave, and ten days later, the CDC would announce that the death toll had surpassed 100,000.

The WGA was fighting on two fronts. It was already a year into its historic battle with the major talent agencies over packaging fees and their ownership of production entities – an historic fight it would go on to win, ending packaging in June of 2022. WGA members were fired up, and ready to take on the studios as well.

Strike fears had been swirling for months. At the WGA Awards that February, WGA West president David A. Goodman told the audience that “It’s dangerously naïve to think that a strike is never necessary.” Then, to cheers from the assembled writers, he added: “I’ll point out that 30% of the nominees tonight are working on shows and features that wouldn’t be covered work if we hadn’t gone on strike in 2007.”

But then came the lockdown, which precluded any real threat of a writers’ strike. The WGA’s negotiating committee acknowledged as much after an agreement for a new contract was reached in the early morning hours of July 1. “Although the ongoing global pandemic and economic uncertainty limited our ability to exercise real collective power to achieve many other important and necessary contract goals, we remain committed to pursuing those goals in future negotiations.”

Those future negotiations will begin in early 2023, and WGA leaders are already taking a hardline stance. Last August, shortly before she was elected president of the WGA West, Meredith Stiehm said that she’s ready for a “fight” with the major studios over a bigger share of streaming revenue and to achieve a long list of other economic gains for writers.

“I think writers feel in our bones that this will be a crucial negotiation,” she said in her campaign statement. “Once again a new business model – vertically integrated streaming – is revolutionizing writers’ jobs, and being used to squeeze our pay. The downward pressure on income that we are all feeling is not a byproduct of the model, it is the goal.”

Stiehm, who was one of the leaders of the WGA’s campaign to reshape the talent agency business, said that she’s “ready to take on another battle if we have to. When the cause is right and true, I do not fear speaking up, standing up, and holding steady, for as long as it takes. I’m a good fighter.”

She noted, however, that “the companies are consolidating their power precisely to resist such changes. We know that to make these gains, it will probably take a fight. We’re up to it. This membership has shown time and time again that it is not afraid to solve problems.”

Her running mates – Betsy Thomas, who was elected secretary-treasurer, and Michele Mulroney, who was elected vice president – sounded a similar theme.

The guild’s 2020 contract talks and its victory over the major talent agencies, Thomas said, “Have given our union a duly earned reputation for being smart, tenacious, and, frankly, kick ass. We are to be taken seriously and feared – and heading into 2023, we need to be. I believe our next MBA negotiation will be our most important and difficult negotiation since our strike in 2007. Vertical integration and corporate consolidation have put us – and our sister unions – at a turning point. There are gains that we must secure in two years. We have the strength and the stature, but it’s imperative that we also have a well-conceived strategy and the courage to enact it.”

“The AMPTP’s two favorite words are rollback and NO,” Mulroney said. “We must not underestimate the tenacity and strategic know-how required just to hold onto what we already have. Including securing our Pension & Health Plans, as necessary. That’s job number one. Although we have plenty of specifics to fight for across all work areas, the 2023 headline for me is clear: We must ensure that the economics of streaming work for writers.”

Watershed Gains For Women

Earlier this year, women were elected presidents of SAG-AFTRA, the DGA and the WGA West, marking the first time that females have held the guilds’ top elected posts all at the same time.

Newly elected SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher is also looking ahead to contract talks in 2023. “I intend to build up the perception of SAG-AFTRA as one of power and strength to the envy of our industry peers and reservation of our employers,” she wrote in the latest issue of the union’s magazine. “We are relevant. We are stars. And we mean business!”

Joely Fisher, SAG-AFTRA’s new secretary-treasurer, told members that increasing employer contributions to the union’s ailing health plan should be a primary goal of the next negotiations. Fisher and Drescher were elected in September from opposing factions within the guild.

“When President Drescher asked how I wanted to be most effective, I told her that my sitting on the 2023 TV/Theatrical Negotiating Committee will be vital,” Fisher said. “As a member of that committee and in my role as secretary-treasurer, I will tirelessly maintain that we must raise the employer contributions to our health and pension plans. While difficult to explain in a sentence, we know that this negotiating point is the single greatest barrier we face to the lasting financial progress of our benefit plans.”

On January 1, 2021, trustees of the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan — which has been running massive deficits in recent years due to underfunding and skyrocketing health care costs — raised eligibility requirements. That move, in turn, led to an age-discrimination lawsuit fronted by the late-former SAG president Ed Asner that claimed that the changes fell hardest on the backs of seniors.

Lesli Linka Glatter was elected president of the DGA in September, and in October, when she announced the co-chairs of the 2023 negotiating committee, said; “We don’t yet know when our next negotiations will take place, but we are looking ahead as we carefully examine the creative and economic issues faced by our members working in film and television.”

The industries’ return-to-work protocols were codified in September of 2020 – a joint effort between the AMPTP, SAG-AFTRA, the DGA, IATSE, the Teamsters and the Basic Crafts. Set to expire in June of 2021, they didn’t include mandates for Covid-19 vaccinations, which weren’t widely available yet.

IASTE Vs. AMPTP, Vaccine Mandates & What’s Next

IATSE started its contract talks with the AMPTP in May of 2021, and they’d drag on for months in a battle to curb brutally long workdays and a bigger share of streaming residuals. But in the meantime, the unions were moving quickly to take the next step in the battle against the coronavirus – vaccination mandates.

SAG-AFTRA was the first to act. On June 24, 2021, its board of directors adopted strict new guidelines that allowed employers to make vaccinations mandatory as a condition of employment. Less than a month later, the unions banded together and reached an agreement with the AMPTP to allow for mandates on a restricted basis.

Covid cases in the U.S. had now passed 34 million, with over 600,000 deaths.

Unable to reach an agreement with the AMPTP for a new contract, IATSE leaders asked their members for strike authorization on Sept. 20, which was granted on Oct. 4 by an overwhelming majority – with 98% voting in favor. The AMPTP, however, said it remained committed to reaching a deal, and talks resumed. But ten days later, as the final deadline for a deal approached, members were told by their leaders to “Assume there will be a strike, and hope there isn’t.”

A deal was finally reached on Oct. 16, which IATSE president Matt Loeb called “A Hollywood ending,” saying “We went toe to toe with some of the richest and most powerful entertainment and tech companies in the world, and we have now reached an agreement with the AMPTP that meets our members’ needs.”

But after revving their members for a possible strike, IATSE leaders then had to calm them down to ratify the contract – with they did on Nov. 15 by the narrowest of margins. A majority of members from the 13 West Coast studio locals actually voted against the contract, but it was ratified under the union’s electoral college-type voting system.

Hollywood breathed a collective sigh of relief. For while leaders of all the other guilds and unions strongly supported IATSE’s demands for a fair contract, they knew that a strike would have thrown their members out of work just as production was returning to pre-pandemic levels. And after so much loss, jobs were returning. SAG-AFTRA reported record jobs and earnings through the first five months of 2021. To meet a house-bound nation’s demand for more entertainment product, producers had sped up the assembly line. A common complaint among IATSE members is that they’re working more brutally long hours now than ever before.

The AMPTP, meanwhile, still has two contracts to negotiate to complete the current bargaining cycle. Talks with the Animation Guild, and with Teamsters Local 399 and the Basic Crafts – which include IBEW Local 40, Studio Utility Employees Local 724, Studio Plumbers Local 78, and Studio Plasterers Local 755 – will resume in January after a holiday hiatus.

Barring unforeseen problems with those negotiations, 2022 should be a year of labor peace for the film and TV industry. But watch out for 2023, as the guilds feel that they have a lot of catching up to do.

After a 2020 dedicated to being stuck in our living rooms, things vaguely started returning to normal in 2021 (don’t mention the ‘O’ word) and there was plenty of time for breakout hits and established ratings giants.

Here, Deadline takes you through the five most-watched TV episodes of the year in the UK (excluding news and sport), with consolidated seven-day Barb ratings data supplied by overnights.tv. While drama and mainstream entertainment dominate as ever, there is also an appearance for that royal interview. Read on.

Line of Duty – 15.2M (BBC1 – Sunday May 2)

It may have been the most hotly-anticipated TV drama of the decade. The sixth-season finale of Jed Mercurio’s police thriller epic was admittedly met with a mixed reception from critics and viewers alike but the show had been watched by around one-quarter of the British population by the following weekend, guaranteeing it first place in the most-watched list. Bucking the trend of numerous shows that have lost viewers as the seasons roll on, Line of Duty’s popularity has grown series-by-series since it launched on BBC2 with Thandiwe Newton leading AC-12 a decade ago. World Productions’ show is that rare thing: a Sunday night drama that families still gather around the TV to watch at 9PM before inspiring ‘watercooler moments’ in the office the next day (well, ‘Zoom watercooler moments’). The finale may have disappointed, as quiet oaf Buckells was revealed to be the answer to the agonizing question of  “Who is H?,” but Mercurio is yet to completely dismiss the idea of a seventh series. There’s no reason to think another run would be any less impactful than this one.

Oprah With Meghan and Harry 13.9M (ITV – Monday March 8)

A furious bidding war broke out when CBS announced it would be airing an Oprah Winfrey sit-down with Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle just months after the pair made the explosive decision to move to the U.S. and ditch many of their royal duties – a move seen by some as the biggest act of royal deceit since the abdication of King Edward VIII. ITV won out ahead of the likes of Sky and Discovery and the network’s circa-$1M ($1.3M) gamble was richly rewarded as almost 14M tuned in for the bombshell interview – the year’s second most-watched TV show. The interview was irresistible, with revelations such as an unnamed royal questioning son Archie’s skin color emerging, news that is still dominating the UK press agenda almost one year on. Meanwhile, viewers were given an inside look at Meghan’s relationship with sister-in-law Kate Middleton, discovered she had experienced suicidal thoughts during her time in Buckingham Palace (which sparked a chain of events that led to Piers Morgan storming off the set of ITV’s GMB) and peaked into her and Harry’s hip new L.A. lifestyle. UK broadcasters will be keeping a keen eye on the next big interview to come from across the pond.

Strictly Come Dancing 12.2M (BBC1 – Saturday December 18)

This BBC blockbuster talent show has been an established part of the UK TV winter schedule for nigh on two decades and this year’s show touched the nation’s hearts in ways most unexpected. The December 18 finale showcased the best of UK diversity, contested between Strictly’s first ever deaf contestant, debut all-male couple and an up-and-coming Black presenter (although, sadly, AJ Odudu had to pull out due to injury). In the end, EastEnders actor Rose Ayling-Ellis took home the crown with partner Giovanni Pernice, ahead of John Whaite and Johannes Radebe. Ayling-Ellis lit up the competition week-by-week, dazzling viewers with the likes of her and Pernice’s 30-second ‘silent dance,’ which became a viral hit. The whole series once again acted as a welcome antidote to dark times and there was of course the regular mix of stunning performances, outrageous judges’ comments and guest appearances that have turned what may seems a niche hobby format into one of the BBC’s brightest shows (and one of BBC Studios’ most sellable formats) of the millennia. Long may this camp talent show wow audiences and smash societal taboos.

I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! 10.8M (ITV – Sunday November 21)

Owing to a series of unfortunate events, I’m A Celeb did slip a bit this year in the ratings but it’s testament to the Ant and Dec-hosted stalwart that some episodes still managed to top 10M consolidated viewers and the opener ranks fourth on the most-watched list. As with Strictly, a soap actor took home the crown, with Emmerdale’s Danny Miller winning first prize having struck up an unlikely bromance with former football star David Ginola. While, as ever, ITV Studios’ series was highly entertaining, not least due to Ant and Dec’s regular political outbursts, the year’s 21^st season was beset with problems. The destructive Storm Arwen caused four consecutive live shows to be cancelled as the contestants were whisked to a safe place and popular contestant Richard Madeley had to leave early due to poor health. After two years in a Welsh castle, a move forced upon ITV Studios by the Covid-19 pandemic, producers now need to decide whether next year returns to its more expensive but established Australian home.

Vigil 10.4M (BBC1 – Sunday September 26)

Sneaking in just ahead of ITV’s Masked Singer is this submarine thriller from the makers of, you guessed it, Line of Duty. The claustrophobia-causing procedural from Crown writer Tom Edge grew its audience significantly through the run – no mean feat for a debut series – and was injected with plenty of anxiety-inducing moments lifted straight from the World Productions/Jed Mercurio playbook. Vigil stars Doctor Foster’s Suranne Jones as DCI Amy Silva (pictured) of the Scottish police service, who is called to investigate a death on board a fictional submarine, bringing her into conflict with the Royal Navy and MI5 and leading to a set of devastating discoveries. Having sold to Peacock in the U.S., more international deals will likely be forthcoming in 2022, while Edge has already teased a second series.

Best of the rest

6. The Masked Singer – 9.9M (ITV): The second run of the hit Korean format’s UK remake rated far higher than the first and looks to have established the wacky mystery show as an ITV Saturday night winter fave.
7. The Pembrokeshire Murders – 9.5M (ITV): This mini-series thriller starring The Hobbit’s Luke Evans kicked the year off with a bang for ITV.
8. The Great British Bake Off – 9.3M (Channel 4): As ever, Channel 4’s only show to make the top 10 – it’s little wonder the network has signed on for another three years of soggy bottoms and Hollywood handshakes.
9. Call The Midwife – 8.7m (BBC1): This Sunday night favourite never disappoints for the BBC and has guaranteed its future home after a brief Netflix-inflicted scare.
10. Death in Paradise – 8.5M (BBC1): Similar to Call The Midwife and still going strong after a decade.

Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty today of five of the six felony counts brought against her related to her work and relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein died in jail in 2019. His death was ruled a suicide.

Maxwell was convicted today on the following charges:

1. Conspiracy to entice a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts GUILTY
2. Enticement of a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts NOT GUILTY
3. Conspiracy to transport a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity GUILTY
4. Transportation of a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity GUILTY
5. Conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors GUILTY
6. Perjury related to testimony given in 2016 GUILTY

According to the New York Times, Maxwell could be subject to as many as 40 years in prison for count 6, four years for count 4 and five years each for the remaining charges.

She is the daughter of the disgraced British media baron, Robert Maxwell who died mysteriously in 1991.

As we enter 2022, the UK TV industry is desperate to put nearly 24 months’ worth of Covid-19 disruption behind it. But with the Omicron variant still raging, it could be a while until this comes to fruition. Industry execs have plenty else on their plates over the coming year, with British broadcasting under threat from the government like never before, the skills crisis showing no signs of abating and the sector desperate to overcome long-standing issues with bullying, harassment and poor working conditions. Below, Deadline analyzes the five key issues to keep an eye on in what could be a monumental year for the future of UK TV.

Channel 4: To Sell Or Not To Sell

It’s crunch time for the nation’s third-largest broadcaster. The government will soon decide whether to privatize the publicly-owned commercial operation, potentially leading to the biggest overhaul in the network’s history in the year it turns 40. By this time next year, the deed could be done. If sold, a once-in-a-lifetime process to find a buyer for the Gogglebox and It’s A Sin (pictured) broadcaster will get underway and Channel 4’s remit, which requires it to produce certain amounts of programming in less commercial genres, may be in tatters – one of numerous concerns from a fearful UK production sector and worried industry observers. ITV, ViacomCBS, Sky and Discovery have all been talked up as potential buyers and Deadline hears that ITV has started laying the groundwork for a charm offensive of the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, which could veto any move due to competition concerns. Privatization is not a done deal, however. The plan’s key architects, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden and Culture Minister John Whittingdale, were removed from their posts in September, replaced by two ministers whose focus seems to lie elsewhere. While many believed Dowden and Whittingdale would have made a decision by now, new culture secretary Nadine Dorries recently signalled it could be some time until we get an answer, stressing to a government committee that she has 60,000 consultation responses to wade through. The government insists privatization will futureproof Channel 4 for the digital age but critics say Boris Johnson’s Conservatives believe the network has a left-wing bias and have been repeatedly angered by the slant of its news coverage. Then-Channel 4 Head of News Dorothy Byrne branded Johnson a “liar and a coward” during her 2019 Edinburgh MacTaggart address, comments the Prime Minister won’t have forgotten in a hurry. Away from privatization, programmes chief Ian Katz is under mounting pressure as his tenure crosses the four-year mark without a great deal of noteworthy hits. In 12 months’ time, the nation’s younger-skewing irreverent broadcaster could look completely different in what is likely to be British broadcasting’s defining story of 2022.

Hard Times For The Beeb

But Channel 4 isn’t the only UK network heading into 2022 with its future resting in the hands of government. The BBC and UK Culture department are currently in the trenches negotiating over how much individuals will be charged for the licence fee over the next five years before charter renewal, and it is the government which gets final say before the pair head into the integral 2022 mid-term charter review. Multiple reports have indicated that the government wants to keep the fee flat for at least the next two years rather than allowing it to rise with inflation, which is the BBC’s preference. If this comes to pass, the nation’s largest broadcaster has already warned that “significant” cuts to its program budgets will have to be made. The corporation is on track to save a whopping £1BN ($1.3BN) in 2021 as part of a mammoth savings program kicked off in 2016 and any bad settlement means this level of saving will likely need to be maintained or even increased over the coming years. A worrying report last week found that the majority of these savings are now coming via content cuts. With super-inflation continuing to impact drama and documentaries, the BBC could find itself completely priced out of these markets if the licence fee remains static, struggling to compete with the streamers. Ironically, the government’s desire for more “distinctively British programming” will also be negatively impacted, as the BBC will be forced into co-producing more and more of its shows with international players in order to finance them. The broadcaster has a top year of drama planned including the latest Peaky Blinders (pictured) and BBC3’s highly-anticipated Conversations With Friends adaptation but, if its purse continues to shrink, viewers could start noticing very soon…

Solving The Skills Crisis As Covid Rages

It was all execs could talk about over the summer and looks set to extend well into 2022. As shows have lurched back into production following the 2020 hiatus, finding skilled talent to crew up has become harder and harder. Deadline has heard numerous stories over the past months of crucial roles such as Production Managers being pinched halfway through filming, often lured by higher wages from the deep-pocketed streamers. UK training body ScreenSkills has launched a series of training programs and is attempting to convince people from other Covid-impacted industries to move into TV, but training takes time and the skills crisis is here now as streamers move more and more shows to Britain and studio space springs up everywhere. Amazon’s second Lord of the Rings season, which will shortly be filming in Berkshire’s Bray Studios (pictured), will require a crew of well into the hundreds and may worsen the situation. All of this comes with the Omicron variant raging, wreaking havoc on UK productions and meaning the stringent protocols that producers have to abide by aren’t set to be lifted anytime soon. Several producers have reported morale being at an all-time low following months of abiding by these protocols, which are incredibly time-consuming and tend to suck the fun out of TV production. And then there is the continued push to improve the diverse make-up of the nation’s skills base, which similarly requires time, effort and investment and comes almost 18 months after the Black Lives Matter protests led to a great deal of introspection into the way in which the sector treats those from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds. Taken together, the UK skills base feels like a tinderbox ready to blow.

Big Year For Banijay; More M&A Coming?

A big year incoming for global producer/distributor Banijay’s push into the UK market. Around 18 months on from the completion of its $2.2BN Endemol Shine Group acquisition, the super-indie says it has now completed its Endemol integration in the UK and is ready to make some hits and sell some shows from a now-enormous 120,000-hour-strong catalogue. Grand plans next year include Hells Kitchen creator Natalka Znak’s indie Znak TV being subsumed by Banijay, creating an “entertainment powerhouse” as Znak also takes control of stablemates Remarkable and Initial, giving them an injection of creative renewal. Meanwhile, UK Executive Chair Peter Salmon will depart in April after six years, replaced by BBC Factual boss Patrick Holland in a crucial role that ties the multiple labels together. Watch out for the likes of Shine’s regency format Pride and Prejudice: An Experiment in Romance for Peacock and Kudos’ BBC1 drama SAS: Rogue Heroes (pictured). Elsewhere in UK M&A, Sony Pictures Television’s acquisition of His Dark Materials producer Bad Wolf will begin to take shape and Deadline hears there could be one or two more big deals on the horizon, as production houses seek greater scale in the big-budget TV world.

Overcoming Bullying And Harassment

While the skills crisis rages, a great deal of effort is being pumped into improving working conditions and overcoming long-standing bullying and harassment issues, and this is set to remain firmly spotlighted in 2022. Broadcasting union Bectu recently produced a six-point blueprint on the subject, calling for all shows to have a Safeguarding Officer and the creation of a pan-industry complaints policy and external reporting body, amongst other recommendations, which chime with the BBC’s new guidelines that Deadline revealed the broadcaster sent to producers over the summer. How many of these recommendations will be in place by this time next year remains to be seen but Bectu will no doubt keep the pressure up. The focus has emerged after a set of high-profile incidents including 20 women accusing Kidulthood creator Noel Clarke (pictured) of sexual harassment, the accusations levelled at Just Tattoo Of Us creator Ross McCarthy and those revealed by Deadline’s exclusive investigation into London indie Spark Content CEO Marc Hayward (all three deny the main allegations put to them). The industry is aware that it has legacy issues to overcome but implementing change at a time when broadcaster budgets are squeezed and producers are simply trying to make ends meet is anything but easy. The Film & TV Charity is doing great work in this area and 2022 will see the organization’s Let’s Reset campaign move into full swing, aiming to directly address the underlying causes of mental health, encourage discussion and challenge people’s preconceptions nearly two years after the charity produced shocking research that found more than half of TV’s behind-the-camera workforce had considered suicide. The real work to overcome these issues is only just beginning.