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  • Budget for a UK TV drama series by a new production company ?

    Posted by Shravan Ram on May 10, 2014 at 10:50 pm

    If a new independent production company is set out to make a Low-moderate budget British TV drama series (like Black mirror) what would the approximate budget be ? ( The overall as well as the development budget)

    I need this for a marketing and research plan that I’m building.

    Thanks in advance !

    Mads Nybo jørgensen
    replied 12 years, 2 months ago
    4 Members · 3 Replies
  • 3 Replies
  • Mike Smith

    May 11, 2014 at 2:01 pm
  • Todd Terry

    May 11, 2014 at 5:29 pm

    Here in the US the range is pretty wide for the production costs of network programming.

    For reality-type shows, production budgets usually range $50,000-$150,000 USD per half hour. Something near the lower $50K range are definitely going to be the cheaper and more simple shows you might see on a cable channel. A broadcast network reality show might be significantly more than that.

    On the upper end, a prime-time network drama (Law & Order, Hannibal, NCIS, etc.), production costs are going to be in the $2-3 million range for an hour.

    And everything in between.

    I have to confess that I’ve never heard of Black Mirror so I’m not sure what type of show that is or where it falls in the production-value food chain.

    T2

    __________________________________
    Todd Terry
    Creative Director
    Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
    fantasticplastic.com

  • Mads Nybo jørgensen

    May 11, 2014 at 6:09 pm

    Hey Mike,

    Thank you, that is very cool and I didn’t even know that it was there. Do you know of any numbers from PACT?

    Shravan:
    In addition, Televisual and C21 is also good places to look for averages in production budgets. Just keep in mind that many UK broadcasters these days are prefer if you can provide up to 25% of the budget yourself, either through finance, pre-sales or other means.
    One broadcaster, in a not so distant past, asked a producer to provide not only the funding, but also bookings of the £1.5 Million worth of advertising in the breaks around his series. Go figure…

    On the other-hand, if you have a great idea, and you can produce on a tight budget, then there are a number of new entrants in the streaming market that will finance you.

    All the Best
    Mads

    @madsvid, London, UK
    Check out my other hangouts:
    Twitter: @madsvid
    https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk

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