Creative Capital Report - Irish Film Board

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Develop the Industry and Build Strong Companies 6 Importance of Early Stage Project Development Project development is critical to successful content creation and is the R&D driver in the industry. Project development relies on good creative skills, instincts and access to sufficient project development funding. Development funds currently provided through the IFB are essential to the delivery of high quality content. A commitment to multi-annual commissioning would also help television companies to escalate development with the certainty of commissioned work. Development is underpinned by strong creative teams and, in some cases, the involvement of key international talent. The Steering Group recommends the following actions: • IFB to instigate multi-project development funding for companies and individual content creators; • Broadcasters to initiate multi-annual commissioning of programmes. Finance – Banking Facilities, Angel Investors and Venture Capital Engagement Access to banking facilities is a key challenge in the audiovisual production industry. The type of funding generally available to companies is project-based, and companies rely on production fees in budgets for sustainability. Business supports have traditionally been limited. The current economic climate is obviously impacting on national production funding. In this challenging environment, greater emphasis must be placed on international sources of funding, and in this regard lines of credit from Irish credit institutions for guaranteed export sales are not only essential, but will enhance the overall appeal and competitiveness of Ireland as a centre for international production. To date the industry has not been seen as attractive to third party investors and/or venture capitalists. The combined effect of the measures proposed in this report will change the profile of the sector, and in the longer term, the underlying commercial viability of companies trading in the sector will attract private investment and this in turn will greatly enhance the long term viability of the sector. To this end there are a number of interventions which would greatly help content companies including: • Contract discounting facilities with Irish based financial institutions; • BES availability to encourage private investment in the sector;
Creative Capital Building Ireland’s Audiovisual Creative Economy 7 • Improved access to equity funding and venture capital funds. The industry needs ongoing access to working capital to maintain expansion and continuity of production. Strong relationships with the banking sector are important and should be a key function of enterprise development. The Steering Group is also recommending initiatives with Enterprise Ireland (EI) and the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) to broker relationships between content companies with international partners, and private equity and venture capital funds as part of an overall growth strategy. Promote Companies of Scale Companies of scale are better equipped to compete internationally and the Steering Group recommends that incentives could be introduced to promote and encourage local industry consolidation. The objective of this process would be to assist individual companies achieve sustainable economics of scale to order to facilitate the internationalisation of the local industry. Building New Partnerships in the Convergence Space Who are the new partners for Irish content companies and individual content creators? They are platforms, content aggregators, telecommunication companies, multi-nationals, advertisers, web developers and gaming companies. The presence in Ireland of many of the major media multi-nationals is a resource Irish content producers have not yet used to full advantage. It is recommended that mechanisms are put in place by government agencies to enable the audiovisual content industry to develop new networks and partnerships between Irish and multinational content aggregators, telecommunication companies, advertisers, web developers and gaming companies.
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Creative Capital Report - Irish Film Board

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