Distributor Survey 2010

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Findings from the annual survey of the UK’s Top Distributors 2010.

This supplement contains Broadcast’s sixth annual survey of the UK distribution sector, which this year includes 30 of the UK’s leading rights management groups.

Given the economic climate and concerns about the lack of UK commissioned programming in 2009-10, the results are reassuring – with two-thirds of our companies growing revenues and quite a few still posting decent profits. For the most part, this robust performance is because distributors have broadened both their content base and their geographical scope. As a result, 90% are confident about the coming year, despite all the talk of a double-dip recession.

At the same time, however, there are rebellious murmurings about production deficits – with one company complaining that broadcasters “treat us like banks”.

Other issues that come up in our survey are:

• The return of mergers and acquisitions

• The weakness of digital rights revenues

• The need to diversify out of completed programme sales

Overall, though, the survey paints a valuable and positive picture of the UK-based distribution business – which is now the most important outside the US studio system.

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