“We Can Choose to Fall Apart or Rise Together”

Inside RTS Cambridge 2025’s Full-Capacity Reckoning with the Future of Television

At Cambridge, the industry's biggest names stopped pretending business as usual is good enough—and started asking the questions that actually matter.

For two days in September, Cambridge became something else. Not just a cathedral of academia, but a TV think tank with bite. The Royal Television Society Cambridge Convention 2025, chaired by BBC Director-General Tim Davie, ran under a question, not a statement: “Where Do We Grow From Here?”

Held at West Road Concert Hall, it was loaded with contradictions—legacy broadcasters vs. platform power, public interest vs. algorithmic chaos, and creative freedom vs. economic constraint. What united everyone was this: growth, if it’s just about volume, is broken. And if media doesn’t redefine what it’s here to do, no one will care who’s doing it.

This wasn’t an industry stroking itself with buzzwords. It was a wake-up.

“This country is staring down two alternative paths”

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy set the tone hard and early. She didn’t start with vague policy talk—she opened with a moral frame:

“We can fall apart or we can rise together.”

She called for legislation to force platforms—YouTube, Netflix, TikTok, all of them—to give visibility to UK public broadcasters in their algorithms. It’s not a fringe idea. If PSBs don’t get seen, they don’t survive. The question isn’t whether this regulation is necessary—it’s whether it’s already too late.

“What does success really look like?”

Tim Davie didn’t waste time asking for more content. Instead, he asked for more clarity.

“What does success really look like in today’s media landscape?”

He introduced research from Public First, “The Creative Engine,” showing the creative economy is an ecosystem—one built on freelancers, regional talent, and long-haul investment, not just big-budget series. Davie’s point was surgical: if we keep chasing hype, the infrastructure dies.

Growth, in this framing, isn’t about acceleration. It’s about direction.

Platforms are the new editors

Across the agenda, the real villain wasn’t Netflix or TikTok. It was the invisible hand of the algorithm.

“The challenge is that the algorithm is now the editor,” said one Channel 4 strategist.

If you don’t control curation, you don’t control your reach. And if PSBs can’t guarantee their shows appear on homepages, they become invisible no matter how good they are. The call from Cambridge: it’s time to make platforms show their maths—or regulators will do it for them.

“We are a modest-sized business inside a global streaming service”

John Landgraf, FX boss, dropped the line that summed up how many UK players feel:

“We are a modest-sized business inside a global streaming service.”

He wasn’t just talking about scale—he was talking about autonomy. Cambridge put this tension into sharp relief: how do you thrive when your platform partner is also your overlord? And how do UK companies protect their IP, their identity, and their business model inside ecosystems they don’t own?

“It’s a no-brainer”: Tax credit expansion gains traction

Possibly the most unifying idea at the convention? Expand the High-End Television (HETV) tax credit.

From All3Media to the BBC, the sentiment was clear:

“It’s a no-brainer.”

The credit would let UK productions compete with international streamers—and keep premium dramas made in Britain, by Brits, for global audiences. But beneath the unity was a real question: will the benefits be hoarded by mega-producers, or trickle down to indie studios and freelancers who need it most?

AI, but make it funny (and real)

Chris McCausland turned the AI panel into something raw and grounded. A blind comedian using generative AI to help develop a documentary? That’s not theory—that’s today.

“AI isn’t some future threat. It’s here—and I’ve already used it to make TV. Also to prank my friends.”

The session showed AI isn’t just a tech issue—it’s a trust, ethics, and identity issue. It’s about whose creativity gets automated and who gets left behind.

“We didn’t wait for a greenlight”

The breakout session wasn’t led by execs—it was led by creators like BrandonB and Jade Beason, who’ve built successful content businesses without broadcasters.

“You can be the pitch, the platform, and the publisher,” said Beason.“We didn’t wait for a greenlight,” said BrandonB.

This wasn’t a side conversation. It was a shot across the bow. Gen Z and younger millennials aren’t knocking on the industry’s door. They’re building a new house next door.

“Due to a grant”

David Tennant, in conversation with the BBC’s Charlotte Moore, wasn’t there to sell a project. He was there to say thank you.

He got into drama school “due to a grant.”

One sentence. And yet, it landed like a slap. Every conversation about infrastructure, funding, and policy comes down to one truth: opportunity starts with access.

What growth actually looks like now

RTS Cambridge 2025 didn’t hand out answers. It redrew the battle lines. And it forced everyone—executives, creatives, policymakers — to confront five uncomfortable truths:

1. Visibility is power. If you’re not visible on the homepage, you don’t exist.

2. Ownership matters. IP control is the only path to long-term creative leverage.

3. Public service can’t survive on nostalgia. It needs legislative teeth and strategic boldness.

4. Infrastructure is creative capital. Grants, tax credits, training schemes—these aren’t extras.

5. London isn’t the centre. Cambridge proved that. So did every voice from the regions demanding decentralised commissions and more local equity.

If RTS Cambridge 2023 was about content overload, 2025 was about making that content count.

The next question isn’t whether the UK media industry can grow. It’s whether it knows what it wants to grow into.v