The United Kingdom was the country that kick-started the industrial revolution. From around the 1760s, factories began popping up all over England, producing textiles, metals, construction products, paper, and other mass-produced items.
Over time, the globalisation, automation, and specialisation of the world have changed the fortunes of industries in Britain. Towns and cities that once thrived on the production and export of coal, metals, mass-produced cars, and clothing have been forced to adapt. In their place, services, specialist manufacturing, and technology have flourished, creating a new set of thriving industries in Britain.
Here are some of the strongest.
TV and Film
Hollywood may be the world’s biggest exporter of movies and television shows in the world, but the United Kingdom holds its ground in this area too. Just recently, many huge blockbusters have been scripted, filmed, and produced in the UK including Dunkirk (2017), Clash of the Titans (2010), and Hot Fuzz (2007). We also can’t forget that Britain is home to James Bond, Doctor Who, Peaky Blinders, and Downton Abbey.
It’s also home to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which broadcasts news around the world. In fact, its BBC World News brand is one of the most trusted in the United States and around the world.
The success of British TV and film production was greatly helped by the Television Act 1954. Until then, the BBC had a monopoly over the medium. Channel 4, a commercially funded but publicly-owned broadcaster, was launched a few decades later.
Together, subsidiaries of BBC, ITV, and Channel 4 are huge producers of television shows and movies that are broadcast around the world. This includes 12 Years a Slave (2013), Attack the Block (2011) and Hell’s Kitchen.
Pinewood Studios, located in Buckinghamshire, has been producing movies and TV since 1936. In fact, the facility was used by the Polish Air Force Film Unit in the 1940s for the production of documentaries.
Financial Services
Although changes to the UK’s global changing arrangements have resulted in some of the country’s biggest financial companies moving some operations abroad, the UK remains one of the biggest hubs for trading, financing, and insurance.
In 2019, financial services accounted for 6.9% of the UK’s total economic output, which equates to around £132 billion. Around £41 billion of this was exported to other countries and it created 1.1 million people employed in the sector. That accounts for around 3% of all the jobs in the country.
Relative political and legal stability, a convenient time zone, a favourable regulatory environment, and a long history of financial trading have helped to turn the UK, and London specifically, into a major player on the world stage.
It’s not just the international firms that thrive in the UK despite the Brexit transition, smaller and privately-owned financial services and insurance companies also thrive in the country by focusing on local markets and specific demographics.
iGaming
iGaming encompasses online casinos, sports betting, bingo, poker, lotteries, and other forms of online and mobile betting. The industry only began in the late 1990s after the internet began to penetrate our homes and governments passed laws to allow companies to operate.
The current British legislation, the Gambling Act 2005 has allowed the UK's iGaming industry to become one of the strongest in Europe and the rest of the world. The rules also allow them to advertise and sponsor events and sports teams, which has resulted in the industry investing in a lot of football clubs and leagues at almost every level of the pyramid.
This has allowed Great Britain to amass the largest number of regulated iGaming operators in the world. But with so much competition, online casinos must ensure they offer a great experience to their customers.
One way that they do this is by creating different variants of classic games. For example, this means that it's possible to find half a dozen or more different versions of roulette in one place, each designed to cater to a different type of player. Despite having minor deviations in rules, these roulette games share the same basic mechanics with 37 or 38 pockets, a wheel, and a board to place bets on.
The success of iGaming in the UK has seen many of the biggest brands list on the London Stock Exchange rather than in their own countries. It's also resulted in many brands entering markets in other European countries, North America, and Australia.
Submit a Comment