It’s no secret that public sector broadcasters’ (PSB) business models are under pressure. A new report from media analyst Oliver & Ohlbaum (O&O) lays bare some of the figures: PSB linear ad revenues fell by 13 percent to £2.2 billion in 2025, while the BBC’s licence fee income is £1.2 billion lower than at the start of its current charter.
But it’s not just the PSBs themselves who will feel the pinch from falling income. O&O’s data analysis shows that despite significant investment from the major global streamers in British content, PSBs still account for the vast majority of British commissions. And as the UK government considers sunsetting traditional broadcast structure within the next ten years, O&O says this could be a crucial step to keep PSBs — and their investment in British content — sustainable.
PSBs leading UK production investment
The UK’s PSBs have specific obligations around the types of content they produce, and mandates to represent the UK as a whole, so their value in terms of commissions stretches beyond pure volume.
But PSBs do strongly lead the way in terms of the number of original British shows they commission, and the amount of money they put into UK production. Eighty-five percent of all UK original hours are PSB-commissioned, according to the report, while 71 percent of UK original content investment in 2024 came from PSBs.
As a result, 40 percent of UK production companies’ revenues come from PSB commissioning fees, which are their single largest revenue source.
Various datapoints across the report suggest that this money is fairly widely distributed across content types and distributors. Sixty-three percent of PSB drama commissions are new IP. Sixty-three percent of PSB hours are made outside of London, accounting for 58 percent of spend. And 235 independent production groups were commissioned by PSBs last year, with 75 percent of these classed as small production companies (with turnover of less than £10 million).
Putting PSBs on a more sustainable footing
As broadcasters’ finances come under pressure, though, this investment in UK production is likely to be hit. PSB investment in original UK content in 2024 sat at £2.78 billion, but this fell to £2.61 billion last year.
Alongside hits to ad revenues and licence fee income, O&O cited rising investment needs related to digital services, cost inflation, skills shortages, prominence on CTV platforms, and fragmented viewing as putting pressure on PSBs.
Solving all these challenges isn’t straightforward. But the UK’s proposed transition to IPTV could have a significant impact, according to O&O. “PSBs spend around £156m a year on DTT transmission while also funding IP services, creating duplicated costs as viewing shifts online,” says the report. “With DTT licences ending in 2034, a planned transition to delivering TV online (IPTV) could allow PSBs to redirect investment into content and services while supporting broader digital inclusion – putting the PSB system on a more sustainable footing and the wider ecosystem with it.”
Follow VideoWeek on LinkedIn.
