Ofcom: Spending on British Original Content Down 6 Percent

LONDON: In its annual report on the public-service broadcasters BBC, ITV1, Channel 4, Five and S4C, Ofcom has found that spending on first-run, U.K.-originated content fell by 6 percent between 2008 and 2009, with an overall decline of 16 percent since 2005.

At the BBC, between 2005 and 2009, spending on first-run TV was down by 9 percent on BBC One, 15 percent on BBC Two and 17 percent on the digital channels. This reflects an overall drop of 13 percent, from £1.42 billion to £1.24 billion.

For ITV1, Channel 4 and Five, spending on new, first-run programming fell by 20 percent from £1.38 billion in 2005 to £1.10 billion in 2009. While actual spending on first-run U.K. content was down, its share of overall revenues increased from 43 percent to 52 percent during the same period.

The report also notes that the five main PSB channels have lost overall market share in multichannel homes, from 58 percent in 2005 to 55 percent in 2009.