What does Britain export?

We’re all used to the idea of container ships arriving from Asia loaded with cargo, or tankers and pipelines delivering our energy imports. Students often ask me “what do we export”? Rather than giving a technical answer, there are a couple of very interesting examples here that got me thinking….

The first story illustrates the UK’s strong position in the cultural marketplace. UK television exports are up 9% this year, with British TV shows helping to generate £1.34bn in overseas sales last year, research by the Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television (Pact) shows. Finished programming - the UK’s largest source of TV income - earned the industry £549m. Format sales, where broadcasters buy rights to a show and make their own version, rose 25% to £119m. The likes of Britain’s Got Talent, Strictly Come Dancing, Dancing on Ice and Spooks have all been re-made into successful versions in other countries. It somehow amuses me that Americans are often prone to moan about how their TV has been taken over by ‘British shows’. I think we can mainly thank Simon Cowell for that.

Exports to the USA, the UK’s largest market, represented 41% of the total export revenue, rising 3% to £485m. Top Gear was sold to 170 countries while natural history programme Life was sold to 158. Revenue from producing UK formats abroad, where a UK-based company makes a local version for a foreign broadcaster - for example I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! - more than doubled to £41m. Other hits included include Come Dine with Me, Four Weddings and (bizarrely, to my mind) Coronation Street is also shown in more than 40 countries, including Canada, where it is the number one soap opera.

So much for services: what about an interesting example from manufacturing?

UK space companies have defied the recession, growing by an average of 10% a year from 2007. The space business is now said to have a turnover worth some £7.5bn, with employment rising at about 15% a year. The best performing areas are in so-called downstream activities - services such as satellite broadcasting and telecommunications. But even the upstream sector - such as satellite manufacturing - recorded a very healthy performance, averaging annual growth of 3% over the period 2006/07 to 2008/09. Some hopeful analysts estimate that the UK space sector could create up to 100,000 new UK jobs in space-related activity and grow revenues to £40bn a year.

I think it’s revealing that future success in both these areas is dependent on continued business and government investment in R+D and highlights the continuing, growing importance of education and skills in the workforce: another vital area of public/private partnership.

Read the full story space sector story here and accompanying video clip here.