Screen Yorkshire secures extra £7.5m funding
Screen Yorkshire has secured a further £7.5m funding pot from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The funds will be invested into Yorkshire-based film, television and digital content through the Yorkshire Content Fund.
In a bid to attract bigger projects to the region, Screen Yorkshire will also consider applications seeking an investment in excess of £1m for a single film or TV series. It forms part of a wider strategy to further boost the region's media industries, and create more jobs and training opportunities. All funds will become available with immediate effect.
Productions that have recently shot in Yorkshire include BBC One's Death Comes to Pemberley (Origin Pictures) and The Great Train Robbery (World Productions). Feature film '71 (Crab Apple Films / Warp Films), an action thriller about a young British soldier in Belfast in the 1970s, also shot in the region last year.
Commenting on the news, David Thompson, head of Origin Pictures and producer of Death Comes to Pemberley said: "It is great news that Screen Yorkshire have been able to extend their fund. They are playing an invaluable part in the UK film and television industry, providing crucial equity funding in a marketplace where investment is hard to find. For producers, the organisation is efficient and straightforward to deal with in terms of deal making, with little red tape. As a production base, Yorkshire has a rich pool of locations for both contemporary and period productions".
It's certainly an exciting time for production activity outside of London. At the Salford Media Festival in November, it was revealed that there was a boom in regional production, and earlier this month Ofcom announced it was planning to triple Channel 4's licence quota for TV production in the nations from 3% to 9% by 2020.
