Steven Knight, creator of the Peaky Blinders franchise and writer of the next James Bond film, has called on U.S. streamers to make financial contributions to growing UK creative talent.
The British writer stopped short of calling the intervention a “streamer levy” — an idea that has been kicked around in the UK for many months — but said it would be beneficial for the likes of Netflix to financially foster future generations of writers, directors, and craftspeople.
Giving evidence to UK Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Knight said: “There might be an argument to be made to already empathetic streamers that this country is so great for you because of the training that’s done.
“What about the idea that there is something set up — that could even have the streamer’s name in it — which is basically helping financially to maintain what we’ve already got and make it better. That would be a sensible proposition, and I think the streamers are sensible people.”
Knight stressed that if the idea disincentivized streamers from investing in UK production, it would be dead on arrival. “You’d have to be organized in such a way that that it’s acceptable to everybody,” he added. “The word ‘levy’ suggests compulsion. Isn’t there a way that we can make it apparent that this is a good idea for everybody concerned?”
The streamer levy proposal was popularized by Wolf Hall director Peter Kosminsky last year amid a funding crisis for British drama. It was later endorsed by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee (CMSC), which recommended a 5% streamer levy to the UK government and said this should be enshrined into law if the industry fails to introduce it within a year.
British ministers have been lukewarm on the idea, however, and specifically ruled out a streamer levy as a way of supplementing the BBC‘s income.
Knight, who was giving evidence to the CMSC about the BBC’s future, said Peaky Blinders would never have been made without the British broadcaster’s backing in 2013. “It’s the BBC that tends to take a chance on things like that,” he said. Knight added, however, that budgets are now tighter at the BBC, which was why film Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man went to Netflix.