Founder Sally Pacy says the much-admired independent facility explored every option to survive, but the economics of today’s industry made closure inevitable

Fifty Fifty

Much admired 23-year-old post-production house Fifty Fifty is closing down.

All staff have been informed and it will officially shut its doors on Friday.

Broadcast Tech spoke to founder/owner Sally Pacy who told us: “It’s been an incredibly difficult time. We worked really hard behind-the-scenes to look at every realistic route possible to avoid doing this. But no option was viable – it’s where the industry is at now, it just doesn’t stack up. Costs are too high and the budgets are not there. Competition is intense and when the volume of work isn’t there, the battle to win that work is even harder.

“We’ve had a full facility all year and we still couldn’t make it work – the margins just aren’t there. We looked at everything, and when avenues proved unsustainable, we wanted to manage closing down with integrity and dignity. We have great people here, a really great team, and their response to what we’ve had to do has been amazing, helping transition projects to be finished elsewhere.”

Fifty Fifty won the Best Post Production House category of the Broadcast Awards in 2021, and was widely liked by peers and clients. It also won Broadcast’s Best to Places to Work in TV for the last two years. 

Fifty Fifty first opened in 2003 and remained independently owned throughout. Its facilities were in the heart of Soho, spread across three Georgian Townhouses and over three floors.

The company’s recent credits include The Vanishing, Untold UK: Jamie Vardy, The Assembly series 2, Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere and Harry Clark Goes to Rome.

In a statement, Pacy said:

After 23 years of Fifty Fifty it is with deep regret that we share the following news. 

As many of you will be aware, the post-production market has faced significant and sustained challenges for some time, and we’ve seen several highly respected companies close their doors. 

It is with sadness that we have to tell you now that Fifty Fifty will be closing too. We will cease trading at the end of this week, Friday 31 July. 

We have been exploring every realistic option available to us to keep the business open. This year so far, we have been running at full capacity, with every suite and every member of our team fully engaged in delivering great work. But as we approach the end of July, even accounting for projects currently in the building and work in the pipeline for autumn, the level of income and margin simply isn’t sustainable for us to continue trading viably. 

It has been an enormous honour and privilege to be part of this industry alongside so many talented people. We are so incredibly proud of what our team has built over the last 23 years — the relationships, the reputation, the culture, and the quality of work delivered together. This has only been possible because of the trust and collaboration we’ve had with our team, our clients, and our freelance and supplier friends across the industry.   

Thank you to everyone who has been part of the Fifty Fifty story.

If you have any opportunities for our fantastic team and would like to reach out to any one of them, please do contact us on info@fiftyfiftypost.com