Disney, Warner Bros., Sky Bosses Talk UK Investment, Local Content

Everyone agrees: the UK is and will remain a production hotspot. TV heads from Warner Bros. Discovery, Sky, Disney and Paramount Global hailed the knock-on impact of investment in the UK and wider European markets at the Royal Television Society Convention in London on Tuesday.

The conversation, which featured Nami Patel, senior vice president of strategy and corporate development for The Walt Disney Company EMEA at Disney, and Sarah Rose, president of Channel 5 and regional head of UK at Paramount, repeatedly focused on investment in the UK’s thriving creative sector.

“We've spent about £3.5 billion in this market over the last five years,” Patel said. “We're aiming to spend about £1 billion a year over the next five years.” He continued: “This market is still very vibrant in terms of attracting investment. We've actually supported about 32,000 jobs through our investment over the last five years.”

“Great successes like Deadpool and Wolverine,” the Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman blockbuster filmed at London’s Pinewood Studios, “the knock-on impact of that investment is huge and it really supports the creative industries. I think you have to acknowledge that there are challenges. We’re also working at a grassroots level [level] and working in partnership with the British Film Institute and the BFI and the National Film and Television School to try to develop skills to bring and attract new people into the industry. It's evolving and it's fast.”

Warner Bros. Discovery UK and Ireland president Andrew Georgiou has said that the Max streaming service, formerly HBO Max, will “definitely” launch in the UK in 2026. The question, he continued, is which partnership will prevail for that to happen. “There are good reasons why we are discussing the launch with Sky,” Georgiou said, alluding to the fact that Sky has been the home of HBO content for years now. Sky Studios CEO Cécile Frot-Coutaz added: “We have a long-standing and successful partnership with Max and we are hopeful.”

Georgiou took the opportunity to praise WBD’s coverage of the Paris Olympics after the company signed an exclusive TV rights deal across Europe: “There was 100% growth in linear viewership,” Georgiou said. “We’ve shown the Olympics in 47 markets, in 19 different languages… It’s a huge logistical operation and challenge for us. It’s exceeded all of our expectations across all of our platforms. Our results have been fantastic.”

The quartet discussed how content geared toward local stories often comes out on top. “If you ask Netflix, I'm sure they'll tell you that they've tried to recreate Squid Game a thousand times and they don’t succeed,” Georgiou said. “It’s a truly local story that found a global audience… Local content is what drives a lot of these streaming platforms.”

“It all comes back to the creator and their truth and what they’re trying to tell,” Frot-Coutaz added. “One of the things that streamers have done is that some of these shows that probably never found an audience before have found an audience… That’s the good thing, but it’s also rare for that to happen. At the end of the day, most of what you’re going to do is for your audience in your country.”

The RTS London Convention will take place all day on Tuesday at Kings Place in the UK capital.

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