What is the Business of TV newsletter?

I’ve been a consultant for over a decade, and fortunate enough to work with brands across TV, film, digital, the arts and publishing sectors. My clients have included The Booker Prizes, Channel 4’s Emerging Indie Fund, Beano Studios, STV and Film City Futures, and I’ve worked with many production companies of all shapes and sizes. Previously, I was at Microsoft working for the studio making interactive TV for Xbox; Channel 4 working across multiplatform TV shows, channel4.com and 4oD; and I started my career as a news journalist for the BBC.

I usually work with two types of clients. Firstly, those that are looking to develop a plan for how to crack the internet. These clients can be anything from large publicly listed companies to charities as well as individuals. They get in touch with me to help them evaluate what is working (and what isn’t) with their current online strategy, and then come up with an ambitious but realistic plan that will help them achieve their goals - and this process often involves pitching and securing buy-in and funding for the initiative. This can range from relaunching an organisation’s entire online strategy to focussing more narrowly on a specific area: building and launching new website propositions, FAST channels, YouTube, social and online communities, monetisation via ads or subscriptions, podcasting, content distribution, games, newsletters. All put together as a digital plan that will help them build audiences and make money.

My second group of clients are the owners of TV & film production companies, who are seeking help in developing and implementing strategies to grow their businesses. As well as finding ways to develop their production operation and tighten up their USP and brand position in the market, I also help them navigate the myriad of platforms and tech out there, understand how consumer behaviours are changing, where to start with new sources of finance or ways they can build TV and content brands in an online world.

If you fit in to either category (or neither!) and are interested in how I can help you, do get in touch either directly hello@businessoftv.com or connect on LinkedIn.

As part of this work, often I get asked ‘where can I find out more information about industry trends?” or ‘who can I follow online to keep me up to date?’.

My answer is a long list of interesting accounts to follow, publications to read, podcasts to listen to and online channels to watch. And at that point, their faces sink and you can see them thinking ‘how on earth do I have the time to do all of that as well as run my business, be in production, pitch and develop ideas, fire fight whatever is the latest problem…’

So that is what the Business of TV newsletter aims to solve. A single weekly newsletter that gives busy TV, film and digital content professionals a selection of interesting articles, insights, podcasts and more. I choose trends that (I think) are of strategic importance in the medium to longer term; those which may have an impact on our industry in the not too distant future. I do the sifting and trawling for you, meaning you have more time to run your company and make top notch TV shows, films and digital content (which then everyone enjoys watching, so thank you).

The core audience is UK-based TV/film and digital professionals (although anyone is welcome!), and this newsletter includes insights into the global market - especially the US and streamers - which are likely to have an impact on the UK TV production sector.

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If you have ideas or suggestions for how this newsletter could be improved to help you cut through the noise and get the information you want, drop me an email hello@businessoftv.com or connect on LinkedIn.

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All about how TV, film and digital content producers navigate the challenging world of media and TV. Trends, business models, new technology and changing audience behaviours.