Eastern Promise in London Thames Gateway

The media industry in Britain is renowned across the world for being fair, open and enjoying freedom of speech. British television shows are bought and transmitted globally, our newspapers are translated into hundreds of different languages and with the advent of digital media, anyone, anywhere can listen to a British radio station or watch TV via the internet.

Since the 60s, London has carved a reputation for cultivating original and free-thinking talent and has the kind of buzz about it that attracts entrepreneurs and media professionals. In the UK, London is very much the leading light of the media and creative industries and has an exciting and important role to play, employing a third of all media workers in the UK.

In fact, the capital's creative industries are second only to business services in terms of economic contribution, and a staggering £21 billion is generated every year by London based creative companies, ranging from film production agencies to art galleries and independent television producers.

So, with a changing and expanding audience, how has London's Media industry maintained its global dominance through a turbulent few years, as advertising revenues have fallen and with increasing scrutiny from the public?

A key turning point in Britain was the setting up of Freeview in October 2002. The company, owned and run by its five shareholders (BBC, BSkyB, Channel 4, ITV and National Grid Wireless), provides free-to-air digital TV channels, radio stations and interactive services through an aerial.

Satellite subscription rates have been falling and with the advent of Freeview, many broadcasters jumped at the chance to reach a whole new audience.

These new channels are thriving on a growing ethnic ‘minority' audience, who feel traditional media outlets are not so relevant to their communities. And with projections that by 2009 the ethnic minority population of working age will rise to 7.9 per cent of the UK population, the market is set to grow considerably.

Broadcasters such as Bangla TV, a television channel set up in 1999 for the Bengali community in the UK, are providing for this new market by attracting viewers from the estimated three million Bengali speakers in Britain. Bangla TV has its own studio, editing and transmission facility in Stratford, broadcasting 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

In addition to new TV broadcasters, radio stations aimed at ethnic groups have also enjoyed a boost, like Club Asia, which, in the last three years, say they have come to ‘define young Asian London'.

The station was launched in September 2003 and during its first year on air ‘was the fastest growing commercial radio station in London, becoming a household name amongst the Asian community'. Not to be ignored, the station has been instrumental in the emergence of rising new Asian music stars and it is widely recognised as being the UK's leading brand in the Asian youth market, with an estimated potential audience of 700,000 in London alone.

At Gateway to London, our work has included advising several local media companies find suitable properties, and help them relocate or expand.  In addition to the companies we have directly been working with, we have noticed a building level of interest and a cluster of small and medium sized creative industries, all catering for an Asian audience, locating in the region.

Bangla TV and Club Asia are two such companies, and they are joined by others. For example, the Ethnic Media Group, the UK's leading publisher of weekly newspapers, magazines, websites and digital newspapers for Britain's Black and Asian communities, is based at the Whitechapel Technology Centre in E1. Covering religious, community and lifestyle events to suit all tastes, the publications also feature hair and beauty shows, sport and music, business start-up and careers exhibitions, fashion and weddings, showbiz, Bollywood and the prestigious Asian Business Awards.

Giving competitors a run for their money, Sunrise Radio, another award winning station based in east London, is set to expand rapidly in the next year. Channel 4 Radio is bringing together a new group of stations, including Sunrise, in a national drive to reach over 1.5 million listeners and challenge the dominance of the BBC Asian network. The move could see a similar situation to that in 1982 when Channel 4 TV was launched, and changed the broadcast landscape forever.

The London Thames Gateway's readily available space, excellent transport links and proximity to a huge labour pool make it a magnet to investors and this is particularly true of media organisations. A broadcaster with its own studio, editing suites and transmission facilities needs large premises, preferably with good transport links and within reach of a diverse population to keep it in touch with its audiences. A newspaper office also needs space, while basing its journalists near to their stories and audience; the same applies to a radio station. These companies have diverse property requirements and flexible working space, in good locations near their workforce, all of which are catered for in London Thames Gateway.

If we look at Asian creative industries in London, research commissioned by the Mayor of London (‘Play it right, Asian Creative Industries in London', 2003) highlights the growing and significant contribution of the Asian business community and the potential it provides London, in terms of strengthening links with the fast growing economies in India and China. This growth translates in to higher demand for skilled workers, bringing jobs to the region and in turn, greater levels of investment.

A key feature of all UK media is its constant demand for skilled workers and reliance on word of mouth and networking for recruitment. Traditionally, media companies cluster around each other to take maximum advantage of the ever changing environment they work in. For example, independent production companies specialising in natural history have been drawn to Bristol as the BBC's natural history unit is based there. The same is already happening in London Thames Gateway with a range of broadcasters and production houses settling in Stratford.

We know that creative industries make a valuable contribution to the economy and the great news is, in east London, local councils are recognising this and working to make settling here more attractive, breathing new life into the region and providing alternative vocations for local people.

What is being done to encourage these media companies? Each borough now has its own Cultural Policy Framework - take, for example, Hackney, where over a thousand creative companies are based. Cultural and creative industries have replaced manufacturing as the prime industry and in 2003, the borough's cultural and creative sector employed 9,510 people in 1,520 companies with a turnover in excess of half a billion pounds (£580m) per annum.

Hackney's cultural sector is dominated by micro and small businesses, many with less than ten employees and managed by black and minority ethnic employers.  Not all organisations follow a traditional economic growth model and many stay small, providing niche services. Hackney Council is working hard to ensure infrastructure support is in place to provide these small businesses with advice and access to training and funding.

This is just one example of how the public sector is working to encourage cultural production companies led by ethnically diverse employers to get started. Other agencies offer skills and training, financial advice and opportunities to apply for funding specifically aimed to encourage and develop the growing ethnic media industries in our region.

Creative industries are providing a huge boost to the skills and economy of east London, partly attributable to the excellent work being done by local authorities, but also due to the diverse range of high quality affordable properties, from small studios to broadcasting stations, available across the region.

Gateway to London continues to highlight the ever growing clusters and to help find suitable premises for each company, whether they are new to the region or relocating due to growth. With an ever expanding and increasingly diverse population, the demand from ethnic media audiences is set to rise even further and Gateway to London looks forward to the region dominating the British ethnic media scene.