Netflix takes the crown

Netflix has consolidated its position as the UK’s strongest broadcaster in the eyes of the indie community as its standing soars among producers.

The LA-headquartered streamer, which doubled its UK content spend in 2020 to £750m ($1.04bn) and was first voted the country’s top commissioner in last year’s survey, was selected by nearly 40% of respondents, up from 24%. Two years ago, only nine respondents selected Netflix as their top pick.

The rapid increase puts the SVoD well ahead of the BBC, which achieved double the combined scores of Sky and Channel 5 in joint third place.

One indie describes Netflix as “knowledgeable, respectful and funded”, with another stating: “Netflix has got the money and a great team.”

The SVoD’s budgets are praised, along with its development process, which is described by one respondent as an “extremely clear structure”. 

Netflix pushed heavily into the unscripted space in 2020, with successes including Talkback’s Too Hot To Handle – recently handed a double-series recommission – and international versions of Studio Lambert’s Channel 4 series The Circle.

Another supplier says Netflix retained its quality during a large-scale move into the factual entertainment space, with drama output maintaining a high bar. Highlights included The Crown’s Golden Globe-winning fourth series and other British shows such as Dracula – a co-pro with the BBC.

Netflix is showing little sign of slowing down, and is recruiting for a two-strong documentary series team, as well as adding former Minnow Films exec Reva Sharma to its feature docs team..

However, the SVoD is only considered the fourth-best broadcaster to work with and was comfortably beaten by the BBC in first place.

The BBC and Channel 4 are praised by respondents for being supportive during the Covid-19 crisis but the outlook for the latter from indies is less rosy – selected by almost half of respondents as the weakest broadcaster and also topping the ‘most difficult broadcaster to work with’ chart.

The year proved particularly trying for C4, which works with more indies than any of its commercial rivals and was walloped by the collapse in the ad market that accompanied the first lockdown – resulting in tariffs being drastically reduced.

One survey respondent says the broadcaster is “failing to cut through” in the primetime entertainment space, while another lambasts a lack of “coherent creative vision”. However, C4 is in the midst of a wide-ranging digital-first restructure as it targets greater ad revenues from VoD player All 4, and indies give the strategy cautious backing.