Stop, Start & Continue: How to Ride the Great TV Reset
Inside Indielab's Content Futures 2026 and the strategic rethink facing UK indies
Most indie producers will likely agree it no longer pays to be 100% faithful to an industry that’s shape-shifting virtually every quarter. Just last week, The Times declared a “tragedy” for traditional TV as new figures by UK ratings body Barb revealed YouTube had overtaken the BBC in monthly reach since October, when the organisation first began measuring the video-sharing platform.
In addition, Amol Rajan announced he was leaving the Today programme “to jump into the Great Digital Narnia of the Creator Economy, and build my own company”, as he put it.
While the BBC remains a market leader across other significant viewership metrics, it’s undeniable that what once felt like conjecture about an all-powerful YouTube-fuelled creator economy and digital shift is quickly becoming a market reality that requires a little getting used to.
But how do you stay across market shifts in traditional commissioning, and gauge which additional revenue streams are actually viable in a volatile market? It’s a question stumping indies of all shapes and sizes, including established companies that enjoyed success with traditional partners but are struggling to penetrate the new wave of platforms.
This year, Indielab’s TV Accelerator returns as Content Futures, a fresh offering that will cater to those indies - including Indielab alumni - looking to reposition and recalibrate in a changing market where tariffs are tighter, decision-making takes longer, and separating fact from fiction around commercial returns from digital is becoming mission critical. The programme is open nationally and regionally, with half the cohort expected to be based outside London.
To break down what you can expect from Content Futures, which is accepting applications from Tuesday, here’s Indielab CEO and programme director Victoria Powell to discuss her view from the ground and what’s driving the strategic accelerator.
Read on to learn about:
· Why even established production companies are looking to reinvent
· How generative and agentic AI will guide Content Futures
· Why understanding international co-productions and alternative funding models could save your business
· Why audience data is critical to smart development
· How indies need to balance business from traditional commissioning while expanding their IP digitally
Too Big to Fail? Think Again
Waiting for the industry to bounce back stopped being an option for most companies around 2024. It’s the rare indie that hasn’t been forced to consider what reinvention looks like for them. And Powell has received calls from big, multinational players looking to do exactly this.
“We’ve been approached over recent months by major studios who are operating all over EMEA to come in and deliver strategic workshops for their very successful, established labels,” she explains, noting that Indielab has been tasked with helping them understand how to better diversify and monetise IP and talent.
The surge of outreach was a wake-up call.
“This is not a problem that’s happening just for smaller indies,” says Powell. “This is an issue that is happening across the sector around the need to fundamentally adjust for changing market dynamics and understand how to continue to make great TV programmes, but also monetise them and understand how to get the best value out of IP and talent across multiple, diversified revenue streams, with a broader set of finances and funding partners.”
Powell notes the need for a “stop, start, continue” mindset about the industry and how people are operating, because commissioning is slower and far more selective. Indeed, UK trade body Pact’s annual Production Survey results in September revealed that public-service broadcasters are continuing to spend less on new IP. Just 29% of PSB spend in 2024 went to new commissions (returning programmes claimed 71%), down from 36% in 2023 and 34% in 2022.
While genres such as drama enjoyed record levels of spend, those scoring greenlights are an exclusive group: 75.5% of all drama spend went to companies with revenues of more than £25 million.
Certain genres of programming “just aren’t being commissioned in the same volume, or have almost ceased to operate in the same way,” says Powell. Meanwhile, “other areas are expanding, and there are opportunities in moving into [them].”
Takeaways: Established indies are looking for more support; all companies, regardless of size, need to adjust to changing market dynamics.
Understanding Audiences & AI
Content Futures is designed around four key pillars: strategic direction and growth planning; partnerships and routes to market; industry insight, data and applied technology; and an indie showcase and market positioning.
A major focus of the edition is how to finance production in the current climate, whether that’s by way of an international co-production or an alternative funding model, such as a brand partnership. Companies will also be connected to distributors and other funding partners that now present further avenues for financing beyond the usual stable of broadcasters.
Elsewhere, while AI and technology received dedicated sessions in the previous TV Accelerator, the new programme features a strand that embeds both generative and agentic AI (autonomous AI that requires minimal supervision) across the entire edition.
“We’re really looking at workflows and how you move with the development of the technology and continue to stay in an open, learning mindset,” says Powell.
A practical analysis of data and technology to better understand audience demand is also a crucial element of this year’s offering, as well as a new frontier for Indielab.
“A vital part of the make-up of a production company is really understanding, engaging, growing and evolving with your audience,” says Powell.
As such, a new plank will examine how to leverage audience insight to better inform development. Streamers and broadcasters have been parsing audience analysis and data for years to guide their commissioning. Now, both scripted and unscripted indies can generate their own data, from free open sources, to turbocharge ideas and pitch smarter.
“It’s about helping indies understand how to use open-source data about audiences to drive creative development more successfully,” says Powell.
Takeaways: Knowing how to set up an international co-production could be vital for growth; generative and agentic AI will inform an entire Content Futures strand; understanding audience demand via open-source data analysis is critical for all indies.
Pulling Back the Curtain on Digital Revenues
There’s a delicate balance in maintaining the development engine geared towards PSBs and traditional commissioning (essential business that still keeps the lights on at most indies) while exploring IP optimisation across new, buzzy avenues such as branded entertainment, podcasting and vertical dramas.
Powell hopes to separate reality from hype in a Content Futures session that will “pull back the curtain on understanding what the actual revenue models are and what’s creating value, and where, within digital and branded entertainment revenue streams”.
“The reality is, in the digital space, there are around 15 creators that are making an enormous amount of money. But the median income rate for a digital creator is only £10,000,” says Powell. “There’s got to be a bit of reality about what is making actual revenue when moving into any of these spaces - where the value lies and what the mechanics of those business models are. A lot of that potential still stems from traditional TV IP and talent, which is good news for our indies.”
Will vertical drama provide a lucrative reality check for some? The burgeoning format will certainly be a key focus, particularly as British producers gear up to crack the market.
“I think it’s only a matter of time before drama and scripted producers in the UK have managed to figure out how to really access that market and bring the incredible talent and quality of content production we’ve got in our drama landscape,” says Powell.
“Branded entertainment does represent a real opportunity for some indies in both digital and traditional TV, but understanding how the brands and consultants operate and the type of formats that work is key,” says Powell.
Ultimately, Content Futures is designed around honing producers’ expectations and addressing market realities, with a focus on where real opportunity lies, says the Indielab boss.
“It’s a really interesting but very critical time in the sector,” Powell notes. “Our programme right now is looking at that dynamic between squeezed budgets and lower commissioning on one side, and opportunities [on the other]. But what are the commercial realities of those opportunities? Where and how can production companies navigate and diversify into that world, bringing with them our amazing talent and sector?”
Takeaways: Indies must demystify what’s actually creating value in digital; British scripted producers are gearing up to crack the vertical drama market.
Indielab Content Futures Accelerator opens on 20 January. Find out more here.