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British Film and Television Industries (Communications Committee Report)

My Lords, it is a very great pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord McNally, who, as he said, was an enormous help in getting this committee up and running. I am flattered to be thought of as a possible godmother and I can think of no better godfather than the noble Lord. I take a slightly different approach in that I do not totally welcome this opportunity. Apart from the fact of our current economic plight, I should have thought that the day the election is announced is hardly the best time to try to persuade the Government to accept and finance our report’s recommendation to increase support for the important and financially valuable work of British film and television. Incidentally, as has already been said, it is one of the most successful examples of our creative industries. Although the Government’s response shows that they are grateful for much of what the report says, we shall clearly have to say it all over again when the next Government—whether the same or a different one—take office, but at least it is a splendid opportunity to rehearse. I want to mention two issues: the importance of education and skills training for the industry; and, particularly as we are now firmly within the digital economy, the need to look for further ways of encouraging the industry—and wider than the industry—to complete the digital conversion of local cinemas and, indeed, to take this conversion to local and rural community centres. First, I have a few more general points. As the noble Lord, Lord Puttnam, has said, among others, the Government’s 2007 film tax credit scheme for firms making culturally British films is now, after a few initial hiccups, working well. However, I hope the next Government will give serious consideration to our suggestion, not least in these difficult economic times, that qualifying films with budgets under £5 million should have their net rate raised to 30 per cent. Also deserving of attention is the idea to extend the export credit guarantee scheme, currently mainly geared towards manufacturing, to films and especially to foreign pre-sales of British films. Our report also endorses the UK Film Council’s commitment to promoting the UK as an inward investment destination for film production. In particular, we strongly support its proposal for the already highly successful Office of the UK Film Commissioner in Los Angeles to be given increased financial backing to do an even better job. It is good to see that the Government support that move. As your Lordships know, Channel 4 has been particularly successful in its contribution to the reputation of the British film industry. We have already heard of the success of "Slumdog Millionaire", just one testimony to the superb quality of films from that channel. The Government’s Digital Economy Bill will, I hope, give Channel 4 greater responsibility here by bringing film production firmly within its public service remit. Having not picked up "Digital Economy Bill" in what was said earlier today, I fear that it has maybe fallen by the wayside but I continue to keep my fingers crossed. There is also encouragement in the Bill for Channel 4 to make UK quality films and drama programmes for older children and young adults—again, widely to be welcomed. The BBC’s role in all aspects of film and drama production is central. It was rightly identified by PricewaterhouseCoopers as pivotal in the stimulation, development and sustenance of the UK’s creative sector, not least in so many aspects of its training role. We have already heard that from our chairman. Indeed, it would be interesting to know how many of those employed in the film and television industry have not been trained at some stage of their careers by the BBC. As well as itself making feature films through BBC Films, the BBC has a particularly important role in showcasing British films. "Man on Wire" and "The Duchess" are two of this year’s award winners. Both the BBC and Channel 4 spend between £10 million and £12 million a year on new British films. This sum should increase for the BBC as the effects of its strategy review kick in. Some amazing commitments within that review will take us all a little time to absorb. It promises an extra £10 million a year to be spent on high-quality, UK-produced children’s content. If this is combined with the BBC’s significant commitment to spend at least 80p of every licence-fee pound on content creation, we should see the possibility of considerable improvement for the international promotion of our British film industry. One sadness for me here is that those earlier plans for a possible joint enterprise between Channel 4 and the BBC’s commercial subsidiary, BBC Worldwide, which we have heard about already, is no longer on either channel’s agenda. Both channels could have worked together to promote, even more effectively and productively, successful films and programmes internationally. This is a great shame, not least when one remembers that BBC Worldwide over the past four years—we have already heard this, but, my goodness, is it not a significant sum?—has generated and invested back into UK creative talent some £1 billion. I turn now to the first of my two issues, which is the need for more education and training in the film industry. There is certainly a need to alert more children, earlier in their schooling, to the possibilities of exciting careers in the industry, and particularly to the value of achieving good results in maths and science. There are, of course, increasing numbers of students taking media studies at university. This has already been referred to. However, I take a slightly different view, because the adequacy of some of these courses is criticised with some justification in paragraph 286 of our report. There remains a considerable shortage of specialist skills. That was pointed out also by Pinewood Studios. One of our most interesting days—I could talk about this for a long time, but I will keep it short—was spent on a visit to Pinewood. It acts as a landlord, letting out its specialist services, stages and studios to producers and their staff for every kind and size of film and television project. Watching some of this was an inspiration. The studios’ income comes 50 per cent from film, 30 per cent from television and 20 per cent from rents paid by other on-site businesses. There is plenty of space for further growth. Seventy per cent of projects filmed there are American. They are attracted by the scale of Pinewood's facilities, the skills of the workforce and the cost-effectiveness of production. However, skills shortages persist. Judging by the glamour of film and television, and the importance that the Government give to apprenticeships, not least in their plans for raising the school leaving age to 18, this is one avenue that, if it were more effectively promoted, might well attract more students, including far more girls, who are still in a considerable minority among apprentices. From discussions with those in the industry, such as the BFI and others, I discern a vagueness about the exact range of skills that are needed. I will return to the different skills that we were shown on our tour. Facial and hair masks were made with each strand of hair sewn individually into the scalp. The mask could be worn only for one day's filming and then had to be discarded. The next day, you would have to put on another beautifully created mask. There is such a range of skills there, not just devotion. Pinewood might be the ideal place for at least part of an approved apprenticeship scheme, as well as similar HE courses and internships. My last point is about the distribution and exhibition of films. I do not know whether other noble Lords share my puzzlement, but I find it difficult to know when a television programme is a film and when it is not. Certainly, one has heard sensible arguments about why relevant UK TV dramas, with the same content quality as a film, should be treated in the same way as films—and not least, for example, given the same tax concessions—particularly in light of the huge pressure exerted by the internet on the advertising revenues of the TV industry as a whole. I return to the dominance of the US film industry and to its financial benefits, over so many years and covering most stages of a film's development, in particular its distribution and exhibition. Perhaps I am being overoptimistic, but we may be facing the possibility, in this digital and internet age, of a range of different film-viewing patterns that will make the USA's control of distribution rather less dominant. In light of the number of cinemas still to be digitally converted, our recommendation at paragraph 123 of the report urged the Government and the UK Film Council to find a way of completing the digital equipping of cinemas in the UK, and in particular to find ways of helping small independent cinemas. However, the Government’s response remains gloomy, no doubt because of the cost as it is currently being estimated per conversion. But is not one hope, particularly in rural areas, to fund local community centres and simultaneously help local cohesiveness with the necessary digital equipment? As the Digital Britain White Paper pointed out, there will be interest in viewing other sporting, cultural and arts events, as well as films, on these rather larger screens. I know we will all be able to look at everything on every form of thing we carry, whether it is a telephone or some of the latest equipment, but there will still be this need to see on these large digital screens the sort of areas we are now looking at. Indeed, I recently had an experience of seeing one such opera, "Der Rosenkavalier", at the admittedly central London cinema, the IMAX, live from the Met—a really brilliant experience which I highly commend to anyone. Equally, I have seen more than one excellent film at a digitally equipped local Warwickshire community centre. To end, I shall be leaving the Select Committee from tomorrow and I, too, add my grateful thanks to our quite amazing series of clerks and subject experts. As our chairman has said, our committee has certainly been productive and very hardworking, but it has also been a hugely enjoyable and interesting experience to be part of such a team. Above all, we owe a more than special vote of thanks to our chairman. He was the perfect choice for the job and it has been an enormous pleasure to be part of his team.