Sky's UK drama spend dwarfed by amount it pays for foreign shows and by BBC drama budget
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ThE MaStEr
2010-10-12
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BBC drama chief questions Sky's commitment to homegrown drama
Ben Stephenson says Sky's UK drama spend dwarfed by amount it pays for foreign shows and by BBC drama budget
BBC1's Sherlock: Ben Stephenson says US television's commercial model would prevent this type of mini-series being made there.
BBC drama chief Ben Stephenson has criticised BSkyB's commitment to homegrown drama and labelled as a "myth" the common refrain that US television is better at making drama than its UK counterparts.
Stephenson said Sky's spend on UK drama was dwarfed by the BBC's drama budget and also by the amount the satellite broadcaster ploughs into acquiring foreign shows.
The corporation's head of drama commissioning, writing in the new issue of the Radio Times, said US television's "commercial model" meant it would not be able to come up with recent BBC hits such as Sherlock or Five Daughters because they were committed to producing long-run series.
His comments come after Sky snatched the rights to US drama Mad Men, which had previously aired on BBC4, and which it will use to launch its new channel, Sky Atlantic, along with its expensively acquired HBO catalogue.
Stephenson accused the "media elite" of cynicism when it comes to British drama. "I particularly enjoyed a headline that said that Sky's recent investment in drama was 'another nail in the coffin for free-to-air drama'," said Stephenson.
"[This was] a statement that surprised me, and I am sure my friends at ITV and Channel 4, considering that while their investment is welcome, it's only £30 million – a figure dwarfed by the couple of hundred million the BBC spends on original drama and the many hundreds of millions Sky spends on buying foreign shows."
Earlier this yearShameless creator Paul Abbott argued that the UK should follow the US model and have 26-parters on UK television. Speaking at the Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival in August, Abbott said the UK "lacked the balls" of the US industry. Stephenson called this view "naive".
"There is a fashionable, but naive, mythology about US television," he said. "Of course they make great television. But with a few exceptions they make just two types: 13-part series and 24-part series. Why? Because it's the best commercial model for them to recoup their investment".
"Get out of the room if you want to write anything else. No Five Daughters, no Sherlock, no Dive, no The Silence, no The Song of Lunch. All of those writers would be told – make it 13 or 24 parts, or nothing. Steven Moffat would not be able to write Sherlock how he wants to. He'd be replaced by someone who could write 24 episodes."
Stephenson argued that the UK provided a vibrant market for a writer who does not want to labour on "one idea for five years".
"Where are the singles, the two-parters, the three-part mini-series, the six-part series?," he said. "Where are the pieces for writers who don't want to write one idea for five years, who don't feel they can spin their idea into syndication with 100 episodes? They simply aren't there. US broadcasters are driven by the need to make money. The BBC has a unique ability to be different – let's embrace this."
Stephenson said the BBC's drama output would remain "defiantly British" and would "not have an eye on the American market, or become obsessed by co-production – we are going to serve our audiences by telling our writers' best stories".
He argued that the BBC's licence-fee funded nature meant it was able to look at models of drama that do not rely on commercial gain.
He said the BBC was the "only place where television drama isn't dictated by putting advertisers first. That does not mean commercial channels don't make brilliant drama – they do – but the BBC is the home of risky drama for everyone no matter what your taste, age or class.
He claimed UK writers' "genius for drama" was being "overshadowed by our critics' admiration for imports from the United States ... it's worth reminding ourselves of what makes our homegrown drama special."
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