Sargent-Disc was delighted to support this year's Broadcast Production and Post Forum, which included the Production: State of the Nation panel event.

Over two days the Broadcast Production and Post Forum featured a selection of keynote speakers, engaging panel discussions, case studies, masterclasses and networking opportunities. Introduced by Director of Sargent-Disc, Laurence Sargent, the well attended Production: State of the Nation event was chaired by CEO of MB-Insight Conor Dignam who led an experienced panel in an interesting discussion on the current climate of UK production.

The panel featured Laura Mansfield - MD at Outline Productions, Leanne Klein - Chief Executive at Wall to Wall, Agnieszka Moody - Director at Creative Europe Desk UK and Richard Watsham - Director of commissioning at UKTV.

Discussion opened on the topic of budget cuts and risks. The panel agreed that the overall trend over the past few years of budget cuts has pushed the financial risk for productions to sit largely with the production companies. There was a call from the panel for broadcasters to be prepared to invest in innovative and creative, high quality content required for the current market. Although production companies often have to fund lengthy development and pre production for projects themselves, there is still the drive to take the risks. Laura Mansfield called the UK a "hot bed of innovation" which, despite challenges, is currently producing world class content attracting investment from the US.

The topic of producing content with international appeal featured heavily throughout the discussion and Agnieszka Moody explained how Creative Europe Desk UK can help UK production companies with funding to achieve this. The current grants, which have been secured until 2020, are available to encourage productions across Europe to collaborate and produce content for a shared audience. Currently available are two 'pots' of funding, one for development and one for production, with the criteria that three European countries must be involved in the project. In line with the huge growth area of high end film and TV drama, Agnieszka announced the available funding for high end TV drama has doubled in the last year, and productions with a €10m production budget can apply for grants of up to €1m.

Discussion turned to the acquisition of independent production companies by US studios. Leanne Klein explained that the acquisition of Wall to Wall by Warner Brothers Studios has not changed the content they create, and was keen to point out that it was their creative content which attracted Warner Brothers to them. The benefit of having US studio backing is that they are now supported by a powerful distribution network which has a positive impact on the success on the content they create. The panel reitterated that the aim of Commissioners is still to find ideas, and they do not view UK independents or US studio owned production companies any differently.

Are we in the so called 'Golden Age' of television? The panel were unanimous in their response that it is an exciting and vibrant UK industry with both challenges and opportunities. However, as Richard Watsham pointed out, we must remember that although TV drama is flourishing there are other ares which are lagging behind. The future for entertainment and formats is less certain with both in need of investment and innovative ideas.

Thank you to an excellent panel for such a dynamic and thought-provoking session!