Case studies
WORKING WITH POLICYMAKERS & MEDIA SECTOR LEADERS
We work for both sides of the policy conversation. Our clients include regulators and public bodies, alongside the organisations they regulate and the trade bodies that represent them.
That combination is unusual and useful. We know how evidence is assessed inside a regulator or a government department, what a consultation response has to do to be taken seriously, and where the genuine room for manoeuvre lies. Equally, we understand the commercial realities that make some policy options workable and others merely well intentioned.
Our work is published, cited and submitted as evidence to parliamentary committees and consultations across the UK, Europe and beyond. Clients come to us when an argument has to persuade people who are not obliged to agree with them.
TAX CREDITS: PROVIDING THE EVIDENCE & WINNING THE ARGUMENT
In 2023 we were asked to review the challenges facing UK independent film and the impact of tax relief support. Independent British film was being squeezed from both directions: production costs inflated by high-end international investment, and a domestic distribution and exhibition market that no longer returned enough to make the numbers work.
Our analysis quantified the gap, showed why the existing relief was not sufficient for lower-budget films, and set out what a targeted enhancement would deliver and cost. The evidence supported the industry campaign that led to the introduction of the Independent Film Tax Credit, giving qualifying lower-budget British films a substantially enhanced rate of relief.
We have also provided the evidence base for audiovisual tax relief arguments in several territories around the world. Governments do not respond to special pleading; they respond to a credible, costed case about jobs, investment and additionality. That is what we build.
SOCIAL & ECONOMIC IMPACT STUDIES
We measure the economic and social contribution of media, creative and sporting activity – and, just as importantly, what would happen without it. Recent studies include the economic impact of publicly funded public service media on commercial online news services in Finland, Lithuania and across Europe, the value of book adaptations to the UK's creative industries and to reading for enjoyment, screen sector clusters and regional growth, and the economic viability of commercial radio in Ireland.
Good impact work stands up to hostile scrutiny. We are careful about the counterfactual, transparent about multipliers, and clear about the difference between activity that is genuinely additional and activity that has simply moved. We would rather give a client a defensible number than a flattering one.
Alongside the economics, we assess the outcomes that matter to policymakers but resist easy monetisation – plurality, participation, skills, regional balance and cultural value – and we set them out in terms a minister or a committee can use.
TV PRODUCTION: FINDING THE RIGHT POLICY FOR YOUR TERRITORY AND YOUR STAKEHOLDERS
There is no single correct production policy, only the policy that fits a territory's market structure, broadcasting system and ambitions. We have advised on terms of trade, IP retention, investment obligations, prominence, tax incentives and public service commissioning across the UK, Ireland, Europe and Australia.
Our work covers what has actually happened when these levers were pulled: 20 years of UK terms of trade and the independent sector it created, the impact of the Communications Act 2003 on production from and in Scotland, how Australia's policy environment supported drama investment, and the effect of changing content investment on the health of the UK production sector.
We start from the evidence of comparable markets rather than from a preferred model, and we are explicit about trade-offs – between producers and broadcasters, between national and regional interests, and between short-term production volume and long-term sector ownership.
CUTTING THROUGH THE REGULATORY NOISE AND WRITING COMPELLING REPORTS
Most regulatory debates are not short of material. They are short of clarity. Consultations attract hundreds of submissions, each with its own definitions, datasets and assumptions, and the risk for any client is that a sound argument disappears into the noise.
We write reports that decision-makers read. That means one clear argument, evidence that supports it, methodology transparent enough to be checked, and no more length than the case requires. Our published work – on streaming and the future of UK TV, the role of national broadcasters, geo-blocking and sports content, copyright and AI, and Ofcom's proposals on commissioning codes of practice – is written to be quoted accurately by people who did not commission it.
We also tell clients when the evidence does not support the position they hoped for. It is a more useful service, and it is why our reports carry weight when we do make the argument.
GLOBAL COMPETITION CLEARANCE – TRUSTED AND SUCCESSFUL SUBMISSIONS, OUTSTANDING TRACK RECORD
Competition rules shape media and sport more than almost any other policy area: how sports rights are sold collectively, how exclusivity and territoriality work, how content is supplied and how platforms distribute it. We have prepared successful submissions to competition authorities in multiple jurisdictions on behalf of rights holders, broadcasters, producers and investors.
Our contribution is the industry economics. Market definition arguments in these sectors turn on questions authorities cannot answer from first principles – what audiences substitute, how rights values are formed, what happens to a competition's revenues if selling arrangements change – and our data and sector history let us evidence those answers rather than assert them.
Having worked for regulators as well as the regulated, we can also advise on which arguments are worth making, which are not, and what an authority is likely to need before it can say yes.