The creative media industries and workforce in the East of England
Size and shape of the workforce
The East of England is home to over 430,000 businesses and 5.6 million people with a regional economy worth over £109.9 billion a year. Its proximity to London creates significant opportunities for the creative media workforce to benefit from the concentration of many sub-sectors in the capital.
Employment in the creative media industries in the East of England exceeds 35,200 people, representing 7% of the industries' UK workforce.
Women represent around 37% of the industries' workforce in the region, compared to 42% across the whole of the UK. Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups account for 3.6% of the workforce, which is slightly less than the 6% nationally. 6% of the workforce is reported as having a disability, compared to 8% in the industry UK-wide.
Computer Games
Skillset's Employment Census 2006 estimates that approximately 400 people work in the Computer Games sector in the East of England. More recent intelligence from regional games business network, Games Eden, suggests considerable growth since 2006 and that Cambridge itself is home to one of the UK's main games development clusters, with over 700 people working in its main games companies alone.
Games Eden has been formed to deliver events that encourage further growth in the sector through collaboration. Established by Screen East, Tiga and the East of England Development Agency, the programme is being delivered by Tiga, Cambridge Wireless and EMMA in collaboration with members businesses and FDMX.
Facilities
6,700 people are employed in the region's support facilities which include TV and film studios with a formidable track record. GoldenEye, Star Wars, Sleepy Hollow and the Harry Potter series were all based at Leavesden Studios.
In Borehamwood BBC Elstree has hosted EastEnders andHolby City, with Elstree Film and Television Studios productions including Gangster No.1 and Enigma. Other studios include Studio 2000, Epic Studios in Norwich, and the more specialist Underwater Studio in Basildon.
Film
Around 100 people operate in the key sub-sectors of film production. Figures are not available for employment in cinema exhibition at national/regional level. Companies include Warner Bros, Parallax East and the Content Providers.
The region has a range of multiplex and commercial independent cinemas. Screen East invests in projects that aim to increase audiences in rural and urban areas of the region that are underserved by cinemas.
The region is particularly strong on organisations focusing on archive work including the East Anglian Film Archive, Cambridge Imaging Systems, the Digital Content Market Place and the History of Advertising Trust.
Interactive Media
In the East of England there are 1,100 people working for specialist companies in the key platforms of web and internet, interactive television and offline multimedia. Others are also employed in these roles in other industry sectors.
Companies include Ideal World Shopping Channel and Tiscali TV.
Photo Imaging
Over 2,500 people work in photo imaging in the region and over half of these are photographers. Most of the businesses are very small, with 92% employing just 1-5 people (inlcuding sole traders), reflecting the high number of freelancers and sole traders in the sector.
Larger employers in the region include two big manufacturers, Fujifilm UK in Bedford and Kodak in Hemel Hempstead, while Grunwick is a photo finishing house based in Borehamwood. There are a number of schools photography companies in the region employing 8-15 people as well as franchised retail outlets and privately owned camera shops.
Publishing
Publishing has by far the biggest presence of any of the creative media industries in the region employing over 20,900 people. It's a very diverse sector, covering book publishing, newspapers, journals and periodicals publishing, news agencies and other publishing companies.
Key employers in the region include Pearson Education, Cambridge University Press, the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge News Group, Eastern Counties Newspapers and Essex County Papers. Other key stakeholders in the region include the National Council for the Training of Journalists in Essex and the Society of Editors in Cambridge.
Radio
Over 1,200 individuals work in publicly-funded, commercial, community and voluntary radio. BBC Radio has stations across the region and over 27 commercial stations broadcast across AM, FM and DAB. A further 10 stations have community licences.
Television
Around 900 people work in broadcast TV, cable and satellite and independent production in the region.
ITV Anglia and BBC East produce regional news and there are some strong independents in the region. In Norwich, Town House TV produces the daily Trisha Goddard Show for Five. Imago Productions make a diverse range of programmes including Fakeover for Discovery Home & Health and one-off documentaries for the BBC.
Eye Film & TV works across documentary, drama and corporate production and is also involved in training. Following a successful training programme involving young unemployed people in Lowestoft, Eye plans to launch a community-based IPTV channel in the town.
In Wortham, Bungalow Town Productions make and distribute award-winning feature documentaries for worldwide cinema and television, including international co-productions with organisations such as Sundance Channel, PBS and ITVS.
Higher Education
The Hertfordshire Skillset Media Academy is one of 17 industry centres of excellence across the UK focusing on television and interactive media. It comprises the University of Hertfordshire, the Film and Digital Media Exchange (FDMX), and West Herts College. It represents a dynamic consortium actively committed to promoting professional creative media education across the region.
Data taken from the Skillset 2006 Employment Census, Skillset/UK Film Council Feature Film Production Workforce Survey 2008, Experian 2007, Skillset/Equity Performing Arts Industry Workforce Survey 2005 and LFS 2005. For more information, please visit our Research section.