Importance of Screen Production to Global COVID-19 Economic Recovery

At the IPO-curated webinar (State of the SA Industry: Back to the Future), during the Durban FilmMart, one of the participants was Leon Forde, MD of Olsberg-spi, a creative industries strategy consultancy that provides high-level advice to public and private sector clients, specialising in the worlds of film, television and digital media.

Olsberg-spi has published Global Screen Production – The Impact of Film and Television Production on Economic Recovery from COVID-19. The study provides new insights into the potency of the screen production sector in contributing to economic recovery from COVID-19, and examines the scale and economic impact of film and television production globally.

The study finds that after several years of groundbreaking growth, spending on screen production reached $177 billion in 2019, driving total global economic impact of $414 billion. The study’s valuation of screen production focuses on scripted film and television and documentaries, but not sport, news or commercials.

The study also finds that the impact of COVID-19 on production has led to a loss of $145 billion in economic impact over the first six months of 2020 and a loss of 10 million global screen sector value chain FTE jobs – though the impact is likely to be temporary as production resumes.

The independent study was undertaken with the support of Media Business Insight, publisher of Screen International and Broadcast, and Netflix. It was endorsed by leading film commission associations and networks representing intergovernmental bodies around the world: Asian Film Commissions Network (AFCNet); Association of Film Commissioners International (AFCI); European Film Commission Network (EUFCN); and Latin American Film Commission Network (LAFCN).