The State of Documentaries and the Media Industry: What Happened and What Happens Next?

For a genre of media that has always been popular, documentaries appear to be struggling in the current media landscape with documentary filmmakers discussing how they have been struggling for work, but why is this? Why have documentaries, and by extension the rest of the media industry, become such a difficult area to find work in?

It is no secret that media is not the most stable industry. It has been around for a while but has recently been facing struggles as a result of various global issues that has accumulated to a massive slowdown of work. Bectu (a union for freelancers in media and entertainment) called for “urgent action” due to an “unprecedented lack of work” (Bectu 2023). This has particularly worsened post-2020 where the lockdowns saw massive global ramifications not just in the media industry but globally (Centre for Economic Policy Research (UK) 2021), including the media industry (Motion Picture Association 2021).

This is not the only factor though, far from it. The competition of streaming services has also has had an effect on the quantity of content being demanded but still has concerns due to the way that payment royalties work now (the creator of Netflix’s massively successful 2021 Squid Game was not paid as much as expected as a result of the contract not basing pay off the performance of the show (Jeffries 2021)). As streaming has become a major part of the media industry, the sudden rush for content and competitive dominance has now led to massive slowdowns as they also face the costs of the pandemic, strikes and global inflation. The combination of factors has resulted in costs rising and has resulted in studios having to scale back staff to cut costs. Examples of which are as Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, Lionsgate and Netflix to name a few (Gomez 2024).

The International Documentary Association published a report that asked various filmmakers how they were coping within this crisis. They found that in 80 submissions, a common theme was depending on having multiple jobs with around half saying they have 2 or more jobs and only 3 people saying they are able to sustain from income from their films (Ding 2024). Others in the report said that they relied on partners for income or had to change to doing corporate work.

One major recent factor though is the 2023 Hollywood strikes that had a massive effect on the industry (Smith 2024). As mentioned earlier, streaming services are demanding more and more content to be produced, and this was all put on hold whilst these strikes took place and delays to projects resulted in a backlog and shakeup that has resulted in the current job situation. As I keep mentioning, this is not a sole cause for the state of the industry, but more so another contributing factor.

Looking back at Bectu and their newly published end of 2024 review of the industry, Philippa Childs (head of Bectu) mentioned that “2024 brought significant challenges for many Bectu members and the creative industries.” (Childs 2024). However, she then continued to add “But it’s also been a year of important progress and I am optimistic about opportunities to drive real change for our members and the wider sector in 2025.” (Childs 2024). This is a clear message that things may be improving in the new year now that there is a large awareness of the issues we are facing. Bectu’s message also discusses their role within the new UK government and the support they are putting out for freelancers whilst continuing to push them for more safety and security for the market.

A report from the British Film Institute (BFI) said that 69 documentaries were released in theatres across Ireland and the United Kingdom in 2021 which is up from 42 in 2020. However, this number is still down from the 104 on average in the 5 years prior to that (British Film Institute 2022). However, in 2022, the BFI reported that 98 feature documentaries were released in the UK and Republic of Ireland. In addition to this, the earnings had also increased from £2.1 million in 2021 to £5 million in 2022. (British Film Institute 2023). This shows that whilst documentaries are still behind the state in where they were and people in the industry are facing a career shift if work doesn’t pick up, there is a chance that the industry is slowly healing.

What these figures don’t appear to look at though is the constant demand of factual content on other places such as YouTube. Creating a documentary now does not need to be released through theatres to reach their target audience as platforms such as YouTube exist. The rise of content that looks at investigative or documentary style videos appear to do well on the platform which is why we looked to publish our documentary on YouTube as well. Our documentary looks at the human connection to physical music and as people become more interested in the ownership of music and sales continue to rise (BPI 2024), YouTube appears to be the best option for hosting it. Our audience for our documentary can be fairly wide-ranging  as a result of the platform we are publishing it on as well as the narrative, attracting people who are passionate about music or collect music themselves, those who used to collect music, and those who are looking to get into collecting music.

 As I look to the future of the industry and our documentary, it is clear that it is still a turbulent period for the industry with many still struggling. However, the rise of streaming services and video hosting platforms have created alternative ways for people to distribute their films and still create content. Additionally, as the importance of documentaries and entertainment continue to be clearer, there is still hope that the industry can resolve the crisis it is facing at the moment and make improvements for the future.

Bibliography

BECTU, 2023. Bectu calls for urgent action as television freelancers report unprecedented lack of work [viewed Dec 31 2024]. Available from: https://bectu.org.uk/news/bectu-calls-for-urgent-action-as-television-freelancers-report-unprecedented-lack-of-work

BPI, 2024. BPI Playback 2024: Women Dominate Charts, Physical Music Returns and Streaming Soars [viewed Dec 31 2024]. Available from: https://www.bpi.co.uk/news-analysis/bpi-playback-2024/

BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE, 2022. bfi-statistical-yearbook-2022. BFI Research and Statistics UnitAvailable from: https://core-cms.bfi.org.uk/media/33469/download

BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE, 2023. BFI Statistical Yearbook 2023. BFI Research and Statistics UnitAvailable from: https://core-cms.bfi.org.uk/media/39347/download

CENTRE FOR ECONOMIC POLICY RESEARCH (UK), 2021. GDP loss due to COVID-19 by economy 2020 [viewed Jan 1 2025]. Available from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1240594/gdp-loss-covid-19-economy/

CHILDS, P., 2024. A review of 2024 [viewed Dec 31 2024]. Available from: https://bectu.org.uk/news/a-review-of-2024

DING, S., 2024. How Documentary Filmmakers Are Really Making Ends Meet | International Documentary Association [viewed Dec 31 2024]. Available from: https://www.documentary.org/blog/how-documentary-filmmakers-are-really-making-ends-meet

GOMEZ, D., 2024. List Of Hollywood & Media Layoffs So Far In 2024: From Paramount To Warner Bros Discovery To CNN. In: Deadline. -12-02T17:51:38+00:00 [viewed Dec 31, 2024]. Available from: https://deadline.com/feature/hollywood-media-layoffs-list-1236007845/

JEFFRIES, S., 2021. Squid Game’s creator: ‘I’m not that rich. It’s not like Netflix paid me a bonus’. The Guardian, -10-26T05:00:08.000Z

MOTION PICTURE ASSOCIATION, 2021. 2020 THEME Report. Motion Picture Association [viewed Jan 1, 2025]. Available from: https://www.motionpictures.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/MPA-2020-THEME-Report.pdf

SMITH, D., 2024. ‘It felt like a historic moment’: the Hollywood strikes one year on. The Guardian, -05-18T08:28:01.000Z