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Staying on topic from spring’s newsletter which highlighted the Royal Television Society’s evening on how the media effected the election results, this time we’ve switched it around; what impact will the government's July 2015 budget have on the media industry?
We’ve also had a number of company updates and events this summer, so read on for more info and to hear about our new role opportunities.
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The first all-Conservative budget arrived this month and George Osborne has presented the budget box to much debate and discussion. With many changes set to come our way, how will it impact the media industry?
We spoke to our good friend Simon Flamank over at Bob&Co who has accumulated a few key points, and don’t worry, we have positives for you to take away from it…
- Supporting Innovation
The government is investing £23million into 6 next generation digital economy centres. These will be across the country in London, Swansea, Newcastle, Nottingham, York and Bath. These centres will create opportunities within the digital economy across sectors including the creative industries (huzzah), finance, healthcare and education.
- Tax Reliefs
New tax reliefs are to be introduced, continuing the support of high-end productions across television, animation, video games, theatre and children’s television. This will be an expansion of the tax relief from earlier this year.
- Apprenticeships
The Tories have said that they are committed to increase the quantity and quality of apprenticeships in England to 3 million starts and taking on board the change in student grants, at least there’s a counter action to help graduates get on the career ladder.
- BBC License Fee Cut Down
We’ve covered this in more detail below, but in summary the BBC has agreed to take on responsibility to fund the over-75s licence fee concession and help to contribute to public spending reductions.
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After a week’s worth of secret meetings and the hashing out of negotiations, last week the Tories revealed in their budget that the BBC will now be covering the TV license fees for those over the age of 75.
Shouldering this fee inevitably lands the Beeb with a financial impact, with it being approximated at £250million by the time we get around to 2019.
To battle this, the government has agreed to allow the BBC to increase the usual £145.50 license fee in line with inflation and to begin to modernise the license fee by incorporating catch-up TV services…it looks like EastEnders catch ups on the iPlayer may not be a free commodity for long…
Of course it’s good news to hear over 75s will not have to fork out for their TV license but another possible side effect will see the BBC having to make other major changes, with channels and radio stations under threat from the financial cuts.
The BBC Trust have already said this will have “some impact on the nature of the BBC’s services†and Director General of the BBC, Tony Hall, has been quoted as saying “I’m not saying there won’t be hard choices, there will be†in relation to the possibility of axing channels.
The week prior, the BBC announced 1,000 job cuts due to the £150 million fall in funding as the number of people not paying their license fee continues to increase.
While these changes will begin to roll out over the next few years, they have agreed that the BBC will have full responsibility of the over-75s policy by 2020…so who knows…we could be in for another rehash in another 5 years…
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A thanks is in order to the British weather (for once) as it managed to co-inside London's hottest day in 9 years with our client summer drinks party at the start of this month.
We hired out the lovely Chandos House terrace garden and adjacent room with a number of our clients joining us for drinks.
And for any events people out there, we can highly recommend the venue, with a beautiful garden and lovely venue spaces and staff, all just a few minutes walk away from Oxford Circus.
Thanks to all those who came and allowed us to snap them in the photos featured below, with clients from the BBC, Associated Press, Avalon, Vubiquity and Arts Alliance along with Warner Bros, NBCUniversal, Deluxe, Endemol and more joining us on the day.
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