EXCLUSIVE: The British producer calling for an unscripted TV tax credit score is planning on taking his blueprint to the broadcasters and organizing a letter to new Tradition Secretary Lisa Nandy.
Derek Drennan’s petition for the brand new credit score has been signed by greater than 150 execs through LinkedIn as Deadline goes to press.
The Nest Productions founder and former Lime Footage exec advised us {that a} tax credit score for factual, actuality and leisure reveals no matter price range can be “large” for an trade that’s “struggling to completely fund initiatives.” “I’m working throughout 10 initiatives in the mean time which might be all deficit financed and I simply suppose if we had entry to a tax credit score then we’d have these packages a lot extra shortly,” he mentioned.
Drennan cited two unscripted initiatives he’s engaged on, each of which have benefitted from credit overseas. Paramount+’s Rylan Clark-hosted Courting Bare obtained 40% in opposition to native spend in Colombia and ABC’s Shaquille O’Neal-presented format Fortunate 13, for which The Nest is doing manufacturing companies, took benefit of the 20% Las Vegas rebate. “Why does [Lucky 13 producer] Studio 1 have to go to the U.S. to make that present utilizing that tax credit score?,” queried Drennan. “That cash could possibly be pumped into the UK economic system.”
The UK already has a wealth of tax credit for various genres together with a brand new 40% indie film credit score, a game-changing high-end TV (HETV) rebate for reveals above £1M ($1.3M) per hour and credit for kids’s TV, the latter of which might be obtained for reveals at any price range degree, akin to Drennan’s plan for unscripted. BBC comedy boss Jon Petrie, in the meantime, has submitted plans for a tax credit score for comedy reveals that don’t meet the HETV price range threshold.
Drennan plans to let the petition gestate for an additional couple of weeks or so earlier than contacting the broadcasters, commerce physique Pact and broadcasting union Bectu. He desires to leverage the ability of the trade to pen a letter to Nandy, the Labour Tradition Secretary, who has been busy assembly trade bigwigs reminiscent of BBC Director Basic Tim Davie and attending to know the sector since taking over the job.
“Lots of people in factual, actuality and leisure have by no means been a part of the tax credit score regime and but that is probably life altering,” Drennan mentioned. “My job is to say, ‘Properly you’ve obtained the broadcasters , let’s discover some cash’.”
Drennan’s petition got here a 12 months after Bectu launched a marketing campaign to standardize working circumstances within the unscripted TV trade.
