Straight to download?

After my legnthy post yesterday about iTunes finally selling TV shows in the UK - well 28 shows from mainly American broadcasters - but you get the idea - it got me thinking about the future of indie producers.

Some of the biggest and post popular shows on British Television are made by indies - or at least VERY large production companies not owned by the broadcasters.

For example Spooks, Hustle, The Amazing Mrs Pritchard and Life on Mars are all made by KUDOS.

How Clean is your house, Grand Designs, The IT Crowd and the Bill from Freemantle Media.

Cowards, The Last Chancers and The Estate Agents from Angel Eye.

Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned, TV Burp and Time Gentlemen Please from Avalon.

Ideal, Gavin and Stacy, Sensitive Skin, Saxondale, The Mighty Boosh and Nighty Night from Baby Cow.

My Hero and The Hairy Bikers’ Cookbook from Big Bear Films. Hartswood Films make Supernova, Coupling, Men Behaving Badly, Jekyll and more.

Hat Trick produce shows like Worst Week of My Life, Kumars at No 42, Game On, Father Tead, Drop Dead Gorgeous and of course Have I Got News for You.

Objective Productions produce Derren Brown, Perfect Night In, The Real Hustle and Peep Show.

Catherine Tate, Lenny Henry, Vicar of Dibley, The Thin Blue Line and more come from Tiger Aspect Comedy in addition to Murphy’s Law, Fat Friends and others from their drama department.

A combination of shows covering every genre imaginable that have made a massive impact on British televisual culture and culture generally. These shows would do REALLY well, even archive episodes from older series as buy to own downloads on iTunes.

It’s more than possible, if they can get the rights from the various other holders - for someone like KUDOS, Freemantle or Hat Trick to sell their shows, after the TV run through iTunes and by-pass the broadcasters.

It’s also possible, at some point in the future, for the bigger production companies to make shows that will ONLY be available through iTunes - shows traditional broadcasters pass up but would still have an internet market.

The problem of course, is still one of the cost of shows in the UK - if iTunes bring them down to 99p then it will set the Broadcast world alite - until then it’s going to be a damp sqiub.

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