Report: 40% of small indies at risk of closure

Growth acceleration outfit for the UK’s indie sector, Indielab, has published new analysis that shows that 40% of UK’s small independent TV producers are at risk of shuttering.

Analysis of Companies House filings by Indielab finds that 40% of the UK’s small independent television production companies are on course to be at risk of closure within two years, if current trends continue.

The analysis tracked net assets – the financial reserves a company can draw on to survive a gap in income – across three years of accounts for 203 active small indie producers. It found that 114 companies (56%) saw their reserves fall over the period. Within that group the declines were often severe: 83 companies (40% of the panel) lost more than 30% of their reserves, and 63 (31%) lost more than half.

The typical (median) small indie now holds just £42,000 in reserves. Indielab says that buffer would not cover the cost of a single delayed commission, a production overrun, or a series put on hold after delivery.

The key findings of the analysis are:

56% of small indies (114 of 203) saw reserves fall over the three-year period; the median decline among them was 63%.
40% of the panel (83 companies) lost more than 30% of their reserves; 31% (63 companies) lost more than half.
Median reserves now stand at £42,000.
At the current rate of decline, Indielab’s analysis suggests 40% of small indies are at risk of closure within two years.
Not all the picture is bleak: 42% of the panel (85 companies) grew their reserves over the same period, by a median of 63%.

This analysis follows Oliver & Ohlbaum (O&O) report for Everyone TV, which found that 76% of all indie groups commissioned by the UK’s public service broadcasters (PSBs) in 2025 were small producers and warned of “spiral of decline” in UK production if PSB commissioning continues to fall.

Victoria Powell, CEO, Indielab, said: “We have been through the Companies House filings of 203 active small independent producers – the same segment the O&O report says makes up 76% of all indie groups commissioned by PSBs. The picture is stark. Small producers are the most exposed part of the ecosystem: when commissioning spend falls, they feel it first and hardest, and our data shows the sector’s health is being eroded, year on year.”

“Not all of the picture is bleak,” Powell continued. “Forty-two per cent of the companies in our panel grew their reserves over the same period. What distinguishes them is not luck they’ve built resilient business models suited to today’s market. The question for the sector is how to help more companies get there, and that requires sustained investment in the skills, knowledge and support that enable small producers to build for the long term.”

“We have seen many notable closures across the sector in the last two years,” Powell added, “including Dare Pictures, Duck Soup and Proper Content, and we know of many more companies that have quietly closed or mothballed outside of those headlines. Our data strongly suggests this trend will accelerate.”

“This matters beyond the balance sheets of individual companies,” said Powell.

The O&O report makes clear that the small indie pipeline is where the next generation of significant producers comes from. If small companies don’t survive long enough to grow, that pipeline narrows and UK television loses the breadth, diversity and creative risk-taking that makes it valuable, at home and internationally.

“Two things need to happen,” Powell said. “First, the PSB environment needs to be protected — government must work with the sector on reforms that strengthen, rather than weaken, public service broadcasting. Indielab supports that call. Second, the small indie sector needs specific protection and support within that environment. PSBs with a statutory duty to support independent production need to consider what that duty really means in practice, and whether they are currently meeting it.”

“The accounts of 203 indie TV companies should be a wake up call to the sector. If the ecosystem crumbles, it will be the result of a failure to act while the evidence was sitting in plain sight.”