For many independent production companies in the North, the film and TV industry “crisis” described by some freelancers has been years in the making.
As we zoom out during our special focus week on freelance life in film and TV, a wider picture begins to form with deeper challenges, even if they’re being felt in very different ways across the industry.
One producer who has experienced this shift first-hand is Nadia Jaynes. When she left her top TV role at Buccaneer Media to go freelance in 2019, she hoped to build a more sustainable career in the North. After seven years of commuting between London and Manchester, she’d had enough.
“I thought, ‘I can’t do this anymore. I wanted to stay in the North,’” she says.
She set up Little Monk Pictures in Manchester just as the pandemic hit. What initially felt like a gamble became a “happy accident” when London-based agencies were unable to travel North, creating a sudden gap in the market to offer production services locally.
From there, Little Monk developed into an independent production company working across drama and comedy projects, even earning a place on Pact’s Future30 list in 2021 and securing investment through the BBC Indie Fund. But that success hasn’t protected the business from wider pressures.
“Drama and comedy development is incredibly expensive,” she explains. “If you’re a true indie and not under a major label, without serious financial backing it’s very hard to compete.”
Like many freelancers and indies, she has had to lean back into production services work. For “survival”, she has also returned to freelancing for other companies, often taking jobs in London.
“It’s really tough to survive otherwise. A lot of friends with similar set-ups are doing the same, I’m lucky I’ve got a good network. Budgets are going down, but expectations are going up. It’s become a daily conversation and it’s a really different industry right now.”
She describes an industry reshaped by shifting viewing habits and a sharp slowdown in commissioning, particularly in unscripted television.
“A lot of channels are showing repeats instead of making new programmes. That side of the industry is really struggling. In drama and comedy, we’re competing with US networks and streamers, but with shrinking budgets. The hit always falls on the indie producer.”
That pressure is even higher for those without financial buffers. “I’m a single parent. I don’t know how people survive not working for 11 months.”
“It’s like their heads are partly in the sand”
Cat Lewis, founder and CEO of Manchester-based Nine Lives Media, has delivered hundreds of programmes over the years, including the recent TikTok: Murder Gone Viral, whose first series had over 13m viewers and became one of ITV’s “highest-rated” non-scripted returning series.
But she explains the film and TV industry is undergoing a “seismic change”.
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“We’re also the biggest independent supplier to Panorama, so we’re fine, but I have had to lower my annual overheads and make sure we do a really good job on the productions we have got.”
Lewis previously led a successful campaign to urge Ofcom to tighten its ‘Made Outside London’ programme criteria to protect jobs across the regions. But now, she says indies are being forced to adapt.
Describing how the industry is struggling with a “huge revolution”, she points to shifting viewing habits, where even major soaps such as Coronation Street have plunged to their “lowest-ever” ratings.
“If you think about all the infrastructure around those programmes, and the advertising they’ve supported, it really is quite terrifying,” she explains.
The latest viewing figures from ITV do offer some context for how audiences are now engaging with soaps. The Corriedale crossover was the broadcaster’s biggest programme in January, attracting 5.9m viewers across TV and streaming, while the two soaps together (Coronation Street and Emmerdale) generated 65m streams over the month.
But the impact of those shifting habits is being felt far beyond the soaps. While freelancers appear to be bearing the brunt on the surface, Lewis says independent producers are also under growing pressure as commissioning models evolve and audiences turn to platforms such as YouTube and Netflix in the same way “they used to watch the BBC.”
“It’s no surprise that terrestrial channels are struggling. What’s frustrating for us running indies is that broadcasters appear to be employing the same number of people. It’s like their heads are partly in the sand.”
“We are in the middle of a revolution. What we should be asking is, how do we change? We need to adapt. I’ve been adapting — expanding our remit beyond just making television and beyond just broadcasters as clients.”
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It leads us to how Nine Lives Media is adapting and YouTube now playing an increasingly important role. She paid credit to her former staffer Sunny Kang, who joined straight out of university and set up a YouTube account 13 years ago, later launching the dedicated channel A True Story, which has since become a significant revenue stream.
“It took 10 years to get 40,000 subscribers but we weren’t doing anything with it other than posting pre-title teasers. But three years ago, it meant we could immediately start monetising it. What started as a marketing tool is now much more than that.”
The company has since struck non-exclusive deals with other producers to host content on the channel, which has now amassed more than 125m views and 359,000 subscribers with that number growing by around 1,000 a week, all while generating £500,000 in revenue.
“It’s been really good for us as an independent company because it gives us another revenue stream,” she explains. “Terrestrial channels are not as prominent anymore and more people are going to Netflix and YouTube. We are competing globally in a digital world, that’s why the success of my YouTube channel shows we can compete.”
The shift in viewing habits, PSBs and regional support
“No one watches telly anymore”, or words to that effect, came up repeatedly in my conversations with freelancers and indies for this focus week. It’s not just having knock-on effects on work at every level of the industry, they’re also questioning the future viability of public service broadcasting.
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Recent figures from the independent ratings body Barb revealed YouTube reached 51.9m UK viewers in a month, compared with the BBC’s 50.9m across all its channels. In response, a BBC spokesperson said: “The UK watches significantly more BBC TV than that of any other provider. In 2025, UK audiences watched 351 million hours on the BBC each week, which is far ahead of anyone else. When we focus on reach, we look at a minimum of 15 minutes as an appropriate measure for longform content and by that measure the BBC continues to lead the way.”
The BBC also recently announced a ‘strategic partnership’ with YouTube focused on investments in new programming. At the same time, ITV already has an existing commercial partnership with YouTube to maximise reach and viewing options. ITVX, the broadcaster’s streaming platform, recorded its ‘biggest-ever’ month for streaming in January 2026 with 383m streams.
In response to concerns about the changing media landscape, a Channel 4 spokesperson said: “Channel 4’s Fast Forward strategy is transforming us into a digital‑first public service streamer by 2030, with major growth on YouTube where two of our channels already have over 1m subscribers.
“We’re concentrating investment on bold, distinctive British content that performs on streaming and reaching young audiences wherever they watch.”
With pressure mounting on both indies and freelancers working across the TV and film world, the role of public service broadcasters in supporting regional indies and freelancers is more vital than ever.
“Our commitment to the UK’s independent production sector – especially across the North of England – remains strong. Our Leeds commissioning base continues to expand, and northern productions such as Hollyoaks, Our Farm Next Door, Sandi Toksvig’s Hidden Wonders and Russell T Davies’ upcoming Tip Toe highlight the depth of our regional investment,” said a Channel 4 spokesperson in response.
“We also deliver targeted support to indies and talent through schemes like Business Boost, the Emerging Indie Fund, 4Producers and our Accelerate career‑progression programme. In 2025 alone, Accelerate funded nearly £1m in northern placements with indies and local talent, alongside more than 100 placements nationwide.
“Amid global industry change, Channel 4 is taking decisive action to ensure we can continue backing British creativity, nurturing skills across the UK, and delivering standout content for decades to come.”
While ITV Studios has production companies across the North, from Quay Street Productions to Lifted Studios, the BBC currently invests in initiatives such as the Small Indie Fund for TV and Digital, ringfencing £1m a year. Last year, 33 companies received £1.3m from the fund, including 9 in the North.
93% of the BBC’s development spend went to indies last year and 36% of network TV spend was in the English regions, of which roughly 22% was in the North of England.
Last year, the BBC also announced changes to its commissioning approach outside London to strengthen local spend in BBC commissions to tackle the ‘real challenge’ for many independent production companies and freelancers. The BBC and North East Screen have also recently shortlisted 12 companies for the Digital Accelerator, backed by £600,000 of investment from the BBC and North East Screen Industries Partnership, designed to help North East producers develop digital-first content for 16–24-year-old audiences on platforms such as YouTube, TikTok and Twitch.
Different approaches for survival
For Lewis, the danger of “declining TV ratings” is that indies could be driven toward the increasingly dominant global streaming platforms, gradually being reduced to “producers for hire”.
“Content is still king, it’s just the way that we carry on making it,” she explains. “It’s going to be much more difficult for independents like mine to own their own content, which will make it difficult for them to earn as much revenue as they need to keep going.
“Streamers want to own everything and don’t give any prominence to the independent production company’s name. You’re lucky if you get a credit, it’s a very different world.”
But not all indies are responding the same way. James Dann, founder of New Take Films, explains his production company prioritises branded content and international documentaries, from a recent film fronted by David Baddiel to shoots in Toronto. And that’s, perhaps, been the key to his success so far.
“Things are actually really good for us right now. We focus on making documentaries and short-form branded films for international clients, and I only pick up the odd TV job if I’m asked to,” he explains. “We’ve just made our last three documentaries for Soundly, a Norwegian company.”
Having that “international outlook” reflects a broader reality for smaller indies navigating a ‘shrinking’ UK market, but he believes that’s where indies and freelancers could be better investing their time into.
“The budgets are infinitely bigger than anything in the UK. Don’t just sit there, scroll and apply for stuff all day, because that’s not how it’s done. 90% of our work comes from being proactive in the industry, booking in coffees and jumping on international calls,” he explains.
“It’s not to knock anyone, there is good stuff happening in the UK and we do have clients here.”
But even with that pivot, Dann has noticed the pressure elsewhere in the industry. “The last time I put up an ad asking for an assistant to help me carry some lights in Liverpool for an hour, I was inundated with 109 messages in total from senior executives, some who might even be 20 years my senior. But when you don’t reply, because I don’t have the capability to, they get so angry at you because there’s no work in TV, film or elsewhere.”
As the TV industry has become “difficult” more and more people are now applying for work across branded content and documentary work.
“People need to do what they’ve got to do, but it means so many more people are applying for jobs. There seems to be a huge amount of misery and some people feel like they’re owed a living.
“I’m not seeing any form of hustle, I’m just seeing a lot of words. You need to be proactive, make contacts and make connections. Go out there and make stuff. I’m not saying it’s easy but there’s no other way.”
Alexander Roberts, co-founder of Manchester-based The Chase Films, takes a more measured view. Having built a career balancing film, commercial and corporate projects, he says adapting to the highs and lows of the industry has always been key.
“We’ve always tried to maintain that balance. Film is more long-term but we also do corporate projects which we enjoy. We love running a business.”
But Roberts acknowledges that funding for UK film remains “really difficult” to secure, even with strong scripts and a stellar cast of talent.
His co-founder, Mark Gill, is now an Oscar and BAFTA nominated director for his work on co-writing and directing England is Mine (starring Jack Lowden and Jodie Comer) and The Voorman Problem (Tom Hollander and Martin Freeman).
“That’s always opened lots of doors for us,” he says. “On Voorman, we had Martin Freeman attached and Tom Hollander, it was a really good script. When we were looking for a bit of funding to help progress it, we were told: ‘Well you’re going to get it made anyway, so we don’t need to invest’.”
“I think the nature of the industry is you need to be a driven individual who’s going to make this stuff happen. Lots of things sit in development for years. It’s always a long game!”
Tomorrow our focus week wraps up with some of the solutions Northern indies and freelancers think the industry really needs right now, from skills, investment, a streamer levy and even a shake-up of the entire freelance model in the industry.
