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Podcasts The Frame
How might #Brexit affect the UK's film, TV and music industries?
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The Frame Tile
Jun 24, 2016
Listen • 10:52
How might #Brexit affect the UK's film, TV and music industries?
Right away some truths are clear: the value of the British pound has dropped and many in the creative communities both in Europe and in the U.S. are lamenting the referendum.
A reveller wears Union Flag Wellington boots on the second day of the Glastonbury Festival of Music and Performing Arts on Worthy Farm near the village of Pilton in Somerset, South West England on June 22, 2016.
A reveller wears Union Flag Wellington boots on the second day of the Glastonbury Festival of Music and Performing Arts on Worthy Farm near the village of Pilton in Somerset, South West England on June 22, 2016.
(
ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP/Getty Images
)
Festival goers hold placards to remember Jo Cox at an event on the Park stage during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 23, 2016 in Glastonbury, England. The Labour MP for Batley and Spen was shot and stabbed in the street on June 16 and later died. A fund set up in her name has raised over £1.23 M GBP to date.
Festival goers hold placards to remember Jo Cox at an event on the Park stage during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 23, 2016 in Glastonbury, England. The Labour MP for Batley and Spen was shot and stabbed in the street on June 16 and later died. A fund set up in her name has raised over £1.23 M GBP to date.
(
Ian Gavan/Getty Images
)

Right away some truths are clear: the value of the British pound has dropped and many in the creative communities both in Europe and in the U.S. are lamenting the referendum.

The UK vote to leave the European Union has roiled world markets and fueled debates about immigration and national identity.

With two years until the actual divorce is final, there are still plenty of unknowns.

But right away some truths are clear: the value of the British pound has dropped precipitously, and many in the creative communities both in Europe and in the U.S. are lamenting the referendum.

We address what Brexit means for the film and television industries first and then get into what it means for those working in the music industry.

The effect on U.K. film

Nancy Tartaglione covers the international entertainment business for Deadline and is based in France. She took a break from the Cannes Lions Creativity Festival to talk to The Frame about reactions she’s gotten about the Brexit vote.

She first commented on Harvey Weinstein's take on the new legislation. 



Tartaglione: He called it a disaster and a huge mistake. He said that he believes that the vote was not an economic vote, it was about immigration and that people voted out of fear. 

The vote also has massive implications for the kinds of freedom that U.K. film crews previously had to move across E.U. borders.



Tartaglione: If you look at U.K. productions when Disney, Marvel or Lucasfilm or anybody is working at Pinewood, they have a lot of U.K. crews. If you're going to take a production to Hungary or Romania and you want to take the fantastically skilled U.K. below the line people with you, there may be questions about work visas and this that and the other.

E.U. arts funding gave close to $44 million to British films in 2014 and 2015. With the decision to leave the E.U., that kind of financing may not be available to British film studios going forward. 



Tartaglione: The U.K. could end up with status that allows it to access that funding, but you have to ask a question, in terms of when all of these negotiations and re-negotiations are going down:  Is Brussels going to want to give money to a country that just said basically, "See ya?"

The effect on U.K. music

The U.K. music industry faces many of the same issues as those of the film and television industry. As we speak, the Glastonbury Festival — one of the largest music festivals in the world — is underway in England.

Earlier today at the festival, Damon Albarn, lead singer of the bands Blur and Gorillaz, slammed the Brexit vote to the support of festival-goers.

In general, the Festival's reaction to the Brexit vote is one of dismay:

Jem Aswad, a senior editor at Billboard, joined The Frame to talk about the Brexit vote’s consequences for the music industry. He commented that the music industry was largely against the movement to separate from the EU.



Aswad: The BPI conducted a poll before the vote and two thirds of the people in the British music business did not want it to happen. Most of the music business trade organizations said they were opposed to it.

Among the main concerns, Aswad said, are the costs and limitations that U.K. artists will soon face while touring Europe.



Aswad: The whole concept of the E.U is open borders. What this means is that there are now a lot more restrictions and complications, not just with the people traveling, but also with the cargo that's coming in. There's a lot of paperwork and processing that has to be done that didn't have to be done before. The real deciding factor, though, is the exchange rate, and how financially difficult it is for people to remain there and for people to tour overseas.

An additional perspective Aswad shared, taken from a recent Billboard article, looks at the foundation created by European immigrants at the music industry's distribution level. It says that, for independent distributors like Proper Music, whose 120 warehouses rely on migrant workers, that foundation could easily crumble once Brexit goes into effect.