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Indie Business Census 2015
Radio Independents Group
10 March 2015
Gill Hind [email protected] +44 20 7851 0913Julian Aquilina [email protected] +44 20 7851 0907
Context
Indie Business Census, March 2015 2
• Radio Independents Group (RIG) commissioned a survey of its members and the wider radio production sector to gain a fuller understanding of the strength and diversity of the independent radio.
• The results of the survey would feed into RIG’s submission to the BBC Trust in response to its consultation paper BBC Trust review of the BBC’s arrangements for the supply of television and radio content and online services in January 2015
• The online survey ran from 8 December 2014 until 13 February 2015, and they were 85 respondents in total
• Enders Analysis, as an independent research company, was asked to analyse the data on behalf of RIG
• We have aggregated the data so as to ensure complete financial confidentiality for all respondents and no RIG member or employee has had access to the individual results
• We have analysed the outputs across all respondents and have also broken down the respondents into three bands, sorted by commissioned radio production revenues:
– Larger indies (5)
– Medium indies (10)
– Smaller indies (70)
• Results are shown on the following slides
Office location
Indie Business Census, March 2015 3
London (within M25)38%
North West England15%
Scotland9%
South East (excl Lon-
don)8%
Wales6%
South West5%
Yorkshire and the Humber
5%
Northern Ire-land3%
West Mid-lands
3%
East Mid-lands
2%
East Anglia1%
North East England1%
Ireland1%
Other5%
Location of all offices by region
[Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
London (within M25)38%
England (excl London)
38%
Nations18%
Ireland1%
Other5%
Location of all offices
[Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
• The 85 companies have in total 110 offices– 38% (42) of these are in London– 76% (84) are based in England– 3 companies have offices outside the British Isles
• The regional BBC Radio hubs in North West England and central Scotland are well represented by indies
• Regions outside London, Scotland and the North West are less well represented
• Every company has a main office in the UK or Ireland• London is over represented, containing 47% of all indies
main office• There are only 12 main offices across the South West,
Yorkshire, the Midlands and East Anglia
Office location split by main and other
Indie Business Census, March 2015 4
London (within M25)
46%
North West England10%
Scotland11%
South East (excl London)
8%
Wales7%
South West5%
Yorkshire and the Humber
4%
Northern Ire-land2%
West Midlands2%
East Midlands2%
East Anglia1%
Ireland1%
Location of main offices
[Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
London (within M25)12%
North West England
31%
Scotland4%South East (excl London)
8%
Wales4%
South West4%
Yorkshire and the Humber
8%
Northern Ire-land4%
West Midlands4%
North East Eng-land4%
Other19%
Location of other offices
[Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
• 5 London-based companies have another office in the North West
• No companies have second offices in:– East Midlands– East Anglia– Ireland
Total turnover of all companies was £38.7m
Indie Business Census, March 2015 5
• 8 of the companies generated over 60% of their revenue from television production
– Removing their TV production revenues, the remaining figure comes to just under £1.0m
– These 8 companies only generated £400k in radio programme revenue
Com
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er
-
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000 19,800
249 1,188 240 261 1,537 562
8,385
1,957 1,346 71 10 337 287
2,440
Breakdown by revenue generating area (£’000s)
[Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
• 85 companies responded to the survey, of which 82 generated revenues
• Of these 82 companies, 77 generated revenue from commissioned radio programmes
• In total radio programme production generated £19.8m in revenue
– This was 51% of the total revenue of £38.7m
Revenue generating areas (RGAs)
Indie Business Census, March 2015 6
• 32 companies reported having revenue from outside the UK
• Inconsistencies in respondents answers make it difficult to state the exact revenue from outside the UK. Enders Analysis has therefore estimated the revenue
• We estimate that overseas revenue was £2.7m last year, of which £1.2m was radio commissions from 11 different companies
Com
mis
sion
ed r
ad
io p
rog
ram
me p
ro-
du
cti
on
Au
dio
CD
pro
du
ctio
n
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med
ia
Med
ia t
rain
ing
Rad
io/a
ud
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on
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Stu
dio
hir
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Liv
e th
eatr
e p
rod
ucti
on
TV
pro
du
cti
on
Vid
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on
Pod
cast
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clu
din
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'
Au
dio
books
Liv
e co
med
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rod
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Vid
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au
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gam
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Bra
nd
ing
/
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Oth
er
Ove
rseas
rev
en
ue
- 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 77
9 17 15 13 12
5
20 20 19 9
2 1 5
21 32
Number of companies involved in each revenue generating area
[Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
• Many companies generate revenue from areas other than commissioned radio programme production
• Most common are:
– TV and video production
– Podcasts and new media
– Training
Diversity of revenue sources among radio programme production companies
1 RGA 2 RGAs 3 RGAs 4 RGAs 5 RGAs 6 RGAs 7 RGAs 8 RGAs -
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
7,000
8,000
0
5
10
15
20
25
1,454
1,9661,719
2,995
1,142
7,282
3,163
80
3,577
5,205
3,663
1,541 1,450
2,657
120
1615
22
12
4 43
1
Breakdown of companies by Revenue Generating Areas (RGAs) (£’000s, number)
Radio revenue (LH) Other revenue (LH) Number of companies (RH) [Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
Indie Business Census, March 2015 7
• Of the 77 companies that have produced radio programmes 31 (40%) are involved solely in radio production or have just one other RGA
– 6 of the 15 with 2 RGAs produce TV programmes, and two are TV production companies that also make radio
• 22 companies have 3 RGAs, and again the Other Revenue figure is distorted by TV production companies that also make radio
• By and large the larger the production company the more diversified the revenue generation
Commissioned radio programming turnover by size of company
Indie Business Census, March 2015 8
13.4
3.4
3.0
Commissioned radio programming turnover (£m)
Larger indies Medium indies Smaller indies [Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
• There was a very wide range of turnovers reported by the respondents. We therefore split the companies into three broad bands according to the revenues generated through commissioned radio programmes:
– The top 5 were classified as “larger indies”
– The next 10 were classified as “medium indies”
– The remainder were classified as “smaller indies”, including those taking no radio programming revenue (i.e. 70 in total)
• The larger indies made up 67% of radio programme revenue
• The top 15 companies made up 85% of radio turnover
• There is a long tail whereby 80% of the indies comprise only 15% of the radio programme turnover
• The larger indies on average generated £2.7m in radio programme turnover last year, and £4.0m in total
• On average, the smaller indies that provided radio commissions generate just £49,000 turnover in radio programming
Total: £19.8m
Larger indies Medium indies Smaller indies -
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000 2,673
339
49
Note: Figures only include companies that commissioned radio programmes.[Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
Average commissioned radio programming turnover, per company in each band (£’000)
Breakdown of commissioned radio programme turnover by sector and location
Indie Business Census, March 2015 9
• It was difficult to accurately determine the percentage of radio commissions by value to the BBC. Respondents interpreted Q11 in slightly different ways. The majority appeared to base their answers on the total of radio programming + audio podcasts, others included percentages for all their activities
• Therefore the figures need to be treated with some caution
• However, our analysis would suggest that 91.4% of commissioned radio programmes by value were to the BBC, 4.4% to the commercial sector and 4.2% to other broadcasters
• Over 81% of commissioned radio programming revenue is generated from companies with their main offices based within the M25– This compares to 46% of companies being based within
the M25• 4.9% is generated with the North West• 4.5% in the South East• 3.2% in Scotland
London (within M25) North West England South East Scotland East Midlands Northern Ireland All other0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
81.2%
4.9% 4.5% 3.2% 1.9% 1.7% 2.5%
Share of commissioned radio programming, by location of main office (%)
[Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
Other
Unpaid internships / placements
Internships (paid)
Freelance, full-time equivalent
Short-term contract
Part-time permanent
Full-time permanent
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
63
49
27
428
60
47
271
Total number of staff
Medium indies Smaller indies Total*Note: Outliers for ‘Other’ have been removed. [Source: RIG Indie Business
Census 2015]
Staff employed within the independent radio production sector
Indie Business Census, March 2015 10
Other
Unpaid internships / placements
Internships (paid)
Freelance, full-time equivalent
Short-term contract
Part-time permanent
Full-time permanent
0 50 100 150 200 250
27
28
23
209
28
26
150
Medium indies Smaller indies TotalNote: Outliers for ‘Other’ have been removed.
[Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
• A total of 1,890 staff were listed among the 85 respondents*
– 29% are employed full-time, while 45% are freelancers • The breakdown of staff involved in radio production was
found to be very similar:
– 31% of staff are full-time and 43% freelance
• We note that it is likely that many respondents listed total numbers of part-time and freelance staff, without converting to full-time-equivalents
Number of staff directly associated with radio production only
Total Larger indies Medium indies Smaller indies0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
31%
43%
17%
31%
5%
8%
1%
6%6%
13%
9%
1%
43%
25%
65%40%
5%
3%
8%
6%12%
4%
4%
5%11%
Breakdown of staff involved in radio production only
Full-time permanent Part-time permanent Short-term Freelance, full-time equivalent Internships (paid) Unpaid internships / placements OtherNote: Outliers for ‘Other’ have been removed.
[Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
Medium: 121
Smaller: 250
Staff employed across the wider sector, but involved in radio programming production
Indie Business Census, March 2015 11
Total staff: 491
• The larger indies have a higher proportion of full-time radio staff (42%), which is probably due to the fact that there are sufficient projects to keep them fully occupied
• Freelance is the most common form of employment in medium-sized firms, making up 65% of positions
• Smaller companies are more likely than larger ones to pay their interns salaries
Larger: 120
Training/skills development
• Of the 85 companies that responded, 39 (46%) offered neither paid-for or on-the job training, though several commented that staff were already very experienced or the company was too small
• All the larger companies offer training
• 20 (23.5%) companies offer paid-for training courses, with a handful listing 4+ different types
• Over a third (38%) provide on-the-job training, with a higher proportion of companies listing multiple avenues
• Nine companies offer both paid-for and on-the-job training
• Digital editing is the most common form of training provided (mentioned by ~20% of companies)
Paid-for training On-the-job training0
25
50
75
100
125
150
87
134
Total number of people trained
Larger indies Medium indies Smaller indies
Note: Excludes one company stating that feedback constituted formal training[Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
Indie Business Census, March 2015 12
• On average, the larger indies have invested in studios four times as much as medium indies, which invest twice as much as the smaller ones
• This difference largely holds true for other capex
Capital investment over the last three years
Indie Business Census, March 2015 13
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
70 70
3336
58
74
120
163
128
Larger indies Medium indies Smaller indies[Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
14.1 14.0
6.6
3.6
5.8
7.4
1.8 2.4
1.9
Larger indies Medium indies [Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
• The average annual investment across the sector has been £752,000 for the last three years
• This breaks down into £226,000 on studios, £291,000 on other capex, and £235,000 on buildings
Average annual investment across entire sector, last 3 years (£’000)
Average annual investment per company, last 3 years (£’000)
Planned investment over the next two years
Indie Business Census, March 2015 14
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
130
48
3022
39
51
124
176
131
Planned annual investment across entire sector (£’000)
Larger indies Medium indies[Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
26.0
9.5
6.0
2.2
3.9 5.1
1.9 2.6
1.9
Average planned annual investment per company (£’000)
Larger indies Medium indies [Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
• Over the next two years, the sector plans to invest £750,000 per year, holding steady with the last three years, but with more emphasis on studios instead of buildings and other capex
• There is a vast difference in the planned amount of investment by large indies in studios (£26,000 per year), and that by medium and smaller firms (~£2,000)
• On the whole, large companies are also planning to invest more in other capex and buildings than the smaller firms
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70 66.8
8.6
1.6
47.7
2.4
7.39.5
0.8 0.7
17.9
1.5 1.6
Average number of commissions
Larger indies Medium indies Smaller indies Overall[Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
0
200
400
600
800
1,000
1,200
1,400
1,6001,521
128 134
Total commissions
Larger indies Medium indies Smaller indies[Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
• On the whole, one-off BBC commissions are spread out across companies of all sizes, with a total of 1,521 commissions across the board
• Comparatively, there are few long-running BBC (128) and commercial (134) commissions
• 81% of companies have at least one one-off BBC commission
• 35% have at least one long-running BBC commission• Only 14% have any commercial commissions• This shows the ongoing dominance and power of the BBC
in contract negotiations
Commissioned radio programme production
Indie Business Census, March 2015 15
BBC commissions across genres
• One-off BBC commissions appear across every genre
• However, over 30% of all one-offs are within Music and the Arts, while 15% are Factual
• Readings and Science each take a 10% share
• Larger indies are used for the majority of long-running commissions within the biggest genre, Music and the Arts
• Eight different companies make up the commissions within Comedy, while three do so for Readings
Indie Business Census, March 2015 16
050
100150200250300350400450500
19 35
230
473
64 43
102
17
72
1045
10
153
97
151
Number of one-off BBC commissions, by genre
Larger indies Medium indies Smaller indies
Note: One-off commissions are individual pro-grammes and ad hoc series (i.e. a 20 part narrative
series counts as ’20’, not ‘1’).[Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
6
1 2
46
64
2 2
33
3
19
13
Number of long-running BBC commissions, by genre
Larger indies Medium indies Smaller indies
Note: Long-running commissions are strands and returning series, each
counted as ‘1’.[Source: RIG Indie Business Census
2015]
Comparisons between networks
Indie Business Census, March 2015 17
• Radio 4/4 Extra are together responsible for almost half (48.5%) of all one-off BBC commissions, spread across a large number of companies of varying sizes and in different regions
• For long-running BBC commissions they make up 38% of the market, while Radio 1/1Xtra account for 16%
• Among the regional radio networks, commissions are typically taken by companies based within the relevant country
– Radio Cymru’s commissioning was all from companies located in Wales
– Radio Scotland commissioned 6 companies, 5 of which are based in Scotland
– Half of the companies commissioning for Radio Wales are based in Wales
– Radio Ulster only used one indie, which is based in Ulster
• It should be noted that BBC Asian network was not included in the survey
– While one company did comment on this, others may not have thought to
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
18
56
22
232
65 16
49
200
212
184
124
32 29
305
85
6 17
83
29
Number of one-off BBC commissions, by network
Larger indies Medium indies Smaller indies [Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
14
8
3
74
74
2 2
8
1 25
3 2 3
34
2
12
5
Number of long-running BBC commissions, by network
Larger indies Medium indies Smaller indies[Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
Diversity of supply
Indie Business Census, March 2015 18
• In total, 73 respondents were commissioned across BBC Network Radio (or 95% of all companies with any commissions)
• Radio 4/4 Extra uses 49 indie production companies – significantly more than any other network
R1/1Xtra Radio 2 Radio 3 R4/4 Extra R5L/Sports Xtra
6Music R Cymru R Scotland R Ulster R Wales0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
1617
14
48
10
23
6
1
75
76
14
54
5
12
1618
16
49
12
6
3
6
1
8
Number of indies with commissions for each network
One-off BBC commissions Long-running BBC commissions Any BBC commissions[Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
Distribution of companies across networks and genres
• 12 indies do not have any BBC commissions at all
• Almost half of the indies produced commissions for only one network
• Just 14 companies have commissions spread across 3+ networks
• Generally it is the larger indies that produce commission across 4+ networks
• 14 (of 16) indies that were commissioned by Radio 3 were also commissioned by Radio 4/4 Extra
• 9 (of 16) indies commissioned by Radio 1 were also commissioned by both Radio 2 and Radio 4/4 Extra
• Most indies (54) only produce programming across one or two genres
• However, even some of the smaller indies have commissions across 5+ genres
• No companies had commissions within both Art and Comedy
• Almost half the indies that are commissioned within Music & the Arts, and over half of those that produced History programming, also made commissions for Factual programmes
Indie Business Census, March 2015 19
0 networks 1 network 2 networks 3 networks 4 networks 5 networks 6 networks 7+ networks0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
12
42
17
46
2 1 1
[Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
0 genres 1 genre 2 genres 3 genres 4 genres 5 genres 6 genres 7+ genres0
5
10
15
20
25
30
12
2826
65
3 32
[Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
Number of companies, by number of BBC networks for which they have commissions
Number of companies, by number of different genres for which they have commissions
Distribution of commissions across networks, by genres
• Radio 4/4 Extra is by far the most diverse of all the networks, with commissions across all 15 genres
• No other networks reach across more than 8 genres
• However, each of the 6 main networks have commissions across 5+ genres
• Unsurprisingly, most commissions across Radio 1, 2 and 3 are within Music and the Arts
Indie Business Census, March 2015 20
R1/1Xtra Radio 2 Radio 3 R4/4 Extra R5L/Sports Xtra
6Music R Cymru R Scotland R Ulster R Wales0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
147104 100
737
112
8 17
83
184
27
Number of one-off BBC radio commissions, by genre and network
R1/1Xtra Radio 2 Radio 3 R4/4 Extra R5L/Sports Xtra
6Music R Cymru R Scotland R Ulster R Wales0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
21
128
47
79
0
12
5 5
Number of long-running BBC radio commissions, by genre and network
News & weather Current affairs Factual Music & the Arts Arts Religion Drama Entertainment Comedy
Formal education Sport Childrens Readings History Science
[Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
Commercial commissions across genres
Indie Business Census, March 2015 21
• Commercial radio is dominated by 3 companies, but by and large all their output is produced in-house:
– Global had no commissions
– Bauer had 2 commissions
– UTV Media had 1 commission
• The commercial sector is very small in comparison to the BBC (134 commissions compared to 1,649, or 7.5% of all commissions)
• 7 indies took on 44 commissions within Music and the Arts, for 14 different companies
• All 15 commissions within Childrens were for one station, as were all but one of the commissions within Sport
News & weather Factual Music & the Arts Entertainment Sport Childrens Science0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
1 1
44
1
71
15
1
Number of commercial commissions, by genre
Larger indies Medium indies Smaller indiesNote: Childrens programming is supplied free of charge
[Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
Radio awards and membership of trade bodies
Awards in the last twelve months
Gold Silver BronzeFinalist/
nominationNumber of
indies
Radio Production Awards
9 2 2 18 18
Radio Academy Awards
- 3 3 14 11
New York Festival Awards
18 11 4 2 11
All other awards (13 listed)
13 2 - 9 12Indie Business Census, March 2015 22
• 30 indies (35%) responded as having won or been nominated for any awards within the radio sector
• 5 indies accounted for 58 of the 111 awards (52%) listed in the responses
• 69 respondents are either current or ex-members of RIG
• 35 respondents are current or ex-members of the Radio Academy
• 8 respondents are members of both RIG and PACT
• 11% of respondents did not list any membership
• 20% of respondents have never been a member of RIG – they are all smaller/medium indies
[Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
67
31
111
7
2
4
2
32
Membership of trade bodies
Current member Ex-member [Source: RIG Indie Business Census 2015]
Disclaimer
23
About Enders Analysis
Enders Analysis is a research and advisory firm based in London. We specialise in media, entertainment, mobile and fixed telecoms, with a special
focus on new technologies and media, covering all sides of the market, from consumers and leading companies to regulation. For more information
go to www.endersanalysis.com or contact us at [email protected].
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© 2015 Enders Analysis Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this note may be reproduced or distributed in any manner including, but not limited
to, via the internet, without the prior permission of Enders Analysis Limited. If you have not received this note directly from Enders Analysis Limited,
your receipt is unauthorised. Please return this note to Enders Analysis Limited immediately.Indie Business Census, March 2015