Filling an important gap in our understanding, this book constitutes a comprehensive account of this vital cultural industry for students, academics and researchers working in the areas of the cultural and creative industries, media and cultural policy and television studies.

1. Chapter 1:  Introduction: Situating Independent Television in the cultural economy.- 2. Part I: Independent transformations. The politics of independence: Contextualising independent television production in the UK - Chapter 2. The creation of the independent sector in the UK.- 3. Chapter 3. Creative Industries policy and the rise of the ‘mega-indies’; Independent television production in the age of New Labour.- 4. Part II: Working in independent television - Chapter 4: Creative labour and social change.- 5. Chapter 5 Working in the Indies: Precarity, value and burnout.- 6. Chapter 6 Networks, social capital and the burden of performativity.- 7. Part III: Cultural Value - Chapter 7 Independent Creativity.- 8. Chapter 8: Commercialisation, consolidation and cultural value: The restructuring of the British independent television industry, and the implications for production.- 9. Chapter 9. Conclusion: towards a moral economy of independent television production. 

This book is the first authoritative account of the UK’s independent television production sector, following the creation of Channel 4 in 1982. It examines the rise of a global industry, increasingly interconnected through format development, distribution, ancillary sales and rights. Drawing on case studies, interviews and policy analysis; the author considers the cultural politics behind the growth of the ‘indies’, the labour conditions for workers in this sector, and some of the key television programmes that have been created within it. Filling an important gap in our understanding, this book constitutes a comprehensive account of this vital cultural industry for students, academics and researchers working in the areas of the cultural and creative industries, media and cultural policy and television studies.

“As the first book-length academic study of the UK independent television production sector, this book will surely become a widely-cited resource for scholarship and teaching about present-day British television.  Grounded in theory and informed by interviews with practitioners, it offers a coherent examination of the changing contexts of labour and production within a sector increasingly dominated by ‘super-indies’.  So it deserves to be widely read by those interested in broadcasting history, the precarity of media work, and perceptions of profitability and value in UK media production.” (Peter Goddard, Department of Communication and Media, University of Liverpool, UK)“This is a timely book and a landmark analysis. It charts the transformation of British ‘independent’ TV as the delivery of audio visual content and its consumption transform apace, and the legitimacy of public service broadcasting is questioned afresh amidst deep fractures in collective identity. David Lee firmly situates independent TV production in the debate on creative labour and cultural value, exposing the contradictions lived by those working in the industry.” (Philip Schlesinger, Professor in Cultural Policy, University of Glasgow)“In studies of media industries it remains rare to find an analysis that takes history, structure, creative labour and questions of value equally seriously. In his study of the British independent television sector, David Lee achieves just that, providing a comprehensive account of the shifting dynamics of independent television production. This is an important book that will be of great value to students and researchers, as well as those who work in the industry.” (Anamik Saha is Lecturer in Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London and author of Race and the Cultural Industries)

First comprehensive history of the UK’s independent TV sector Presents qualitative insights into the nature of creative work in the UK indie sector Includes interviews with a wide range of creative workers, from those in junior roles to senior figures in the industry

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