British Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has firmly rejected proposals for a levy on streaming platforms operating in the U.K., despite recent recommendations from a parliamentary committee suggesting such a measure could help support the country’s television drama sector.
In an exclusive interview with Variety at the inaugural World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit (WAVES) in Mumbai on Thursday, Nandy underlined the U.K. government’s reluctance to impose additional financial burdens on streamers at a time when investment in British content is flourishing.
“We’re really excited about the prospect of attracting more investment into the U.K., particularly the big streamers have significantly increased the amount of content that they make in the United Kingdom,” Nandy said. “We don’t want to do anything to deter that investment. We want to make the U.K. the most attractive place in the world to invest.”
Nandy specifically highlighted the success of Netflix’s recent hit series “Adolescence” as an example of the positive impact streamers are having on British content creation.
“We would be very reluctant to introduce additional levies at a time when business is booming,” she said. “The U.K. is open for business, and we’re able to attract huge amounts of investment that help to create good jobs in every part of the country.”
A central focus of Nandy’s visit to Mumbai was the upcoming India-U.K. cultural cooperation agreement, which she detailed during her keynote address. Nandy pointed to the film industry as a primary area for collaboration.
“One of the things I was keen to focus on today was the film industry. The U.K. film industry is booming. We’re attracting investment from all over… but so is obviously the Indian film industry. It’s one of the greatest in the world, with huge reach, and we think there’s amazing potential for us to do more together,” she said.
Nandy highlighted the U.K.’s existing tax incentives, including the independent film tax credit that came into effect recently, which aims to address the year-on-year decline in British independent film production.
While expressing confidence in the new tax credit, Nandy was clear that it represents just one part of a broader solution. “We don’t think independent film tax credits are the silver bullet. There’s no one solution, but there are lots of things that we can do to support the whole ecosystem,” she said.
She also addressed additional challenges facing independent filmmakers. “There are other issues as well, like the lack of studio space that’s suitable for independent film companies. So we’re working with Pinewood and others to make sure that there are more of those small to medium sized spaces available for independent companies to be able to make their films.”
Nandy talked about the importance of technological innovation that would help the indie sector. “Technology is really going to democratize the film industry, because it makes it far easier and cheaper for smaller startups and indies to make high quality films and to compete with bigger studios,” she explained.
When it came to the current crisis in the U.K. TV drama sector, she acknowledged challenges while maintaining optimism about the industry’s overall health.
“I certainly acknowledge that there are challenges for the TV industry, and particularly for smaller, independent production companies,” she said, citing the pandemic and the actors’ and writers’ strike in the U.S. as factors that have impacted commissioned work. “It’s something we take really seriously.”
Despite these challenges, Nandy said that “U.K. TV production is amongst the best in the world. It’s not just programs like ‘Adolescence.’ We’re really good at popular entertainment… shows like ‘Gavin and Stacey,’ ‘Wallace and Gromit,’ ‘Derry Girls.’ This isn’t just a London story. This is a whole of the United Kingdom story.”
Regarding the U.K.-India co-production treaty, which is now 20 years old, Nandy emphasized collaboration over competition as the way forward, especially with India now offering generous incentives such as 40% cash back up to $3.5 million.
“What we’re keen to do is to take that to the next level through collaboration between Britain and India for our mutual benefit, so that we’re not competing, we’re collaborating in order to produce better quality content, much more creative content to our mutual benefit,” she said.
Nandy concluded by pointing out the broader cultural exchange between the two countries, mentioning musical collaborations like Ed Sheeran’s work with A.R. Rahman and noting that Mumbai was the biggest-selling date on Sheeran’s global tour.