Current UK's Chief Executive Jane Mote on BSkyB closing us down: "New doc voices need an outlet"

On the 11th of January 2012, Current UK announced that BSkyB had withdrawn support for the channel and that we are now very likely to stop broadcasting by mid March 2012.

In her article in Broadcast magazine our Cheif Executive Jane Mote asks: "what channel will give producers the freedom to be bold now?"

New doc voices need an outlet

The barrier to entry has come down firmly against fresh documentary voices in the British TV industry with Sky’s decision to pull funding from Current TV at the 11th hour, with no notice or negotiation.

The UK’s only dedicated documentary channel – which is rooted among nearly 300 new storytellers nurtured over many years – is almost certain to close.

There’s no point in whingeing. Of course Sky has the power to do this and, frankly, independent channels like ours remain small, leaving us helpless to take it on. So much for plurality.

But what happens next to the new voices that struggle to get a platform on the hundreds of remaining channels in the UK? Morgan Spurlock will be okay; he’s a big enough name to get a job with McDonald’s – sorry, I mean Sky Atlantic – and I’m certainly not going to judge. He needs to earn his crust after all.

But those Brits starting out will have to try to get in on the reduced strands on the PSBs, where competition is so fierce and format freedom so rare that is hard to get your story heard – especially for the outspoken and opinionated, who may not be commercially valuable and are too problematic for those worried about igniting political interference.

Our supporters, viewers and producers alike are worried that there is nowhere left for (using their words) “brave, challenging, thought-provoking, unbiased and risk-taking TV”. No doubt Sky will create or buy an ‘off-the-rack’ channel that purports to do something similar. But Current’s roots run deep in the British documentary ecology and supporters believe it cannot be replicated at a stroke.

Andy Glynne, chief executive of the Documentary Filmmakers Group, the biggest UK collective of documentary film-makers, says he’s turned from being a loyal supplier to Current to being an advocate – for two reasons. First, unlike many broadcasters, we don’t pay lip service to new talent.

“Current supports rather than intimidates, trusts rather prescribes, and allows genuinely new film-makers from all walks of life to get started,” he told me. Second, he believes Current takes risks with form and content, allowing a freedom to both explore and defy convention with docs.

“It’s this risk-taking, and the inclusion of authorial voices, that seems to be ebbing slowly out of the genre, especially in today’s leanings towards the format,” he says.

His views are echoed in so many different voices and styles on our message boards. There is a real sense of grief here. Viewers and producers have lost a home, a place where they were guaranteed a gem of a story or a sympathetic ear to listen to them and nurture their stories.

Their grief offers hope. We are down but not out because we’ve sown seeds of belief that TV can be truly open to new voices, ideas and opinions.

We have 20,000 Twitter followers and some very loyal supporters and viewers – revolutions have been won with less. The important thing is, as Bob Helvey says in Ruaridh Arrow’s film How to Start a Revolution: “As long as we don’t surrender, we never lose.”

It’s not over until the fat lady sings and I am willing to put on a few pounds if it means regaining the ground pulled from under democratic TV’s feet.

//Ends

Subscribers to Broadcast magazine can read the article here.