TIGA and ITN Productions have launched ‘The Next Level’, a news and current affairs-style programme exploring the role of the video games industry in the UK and how the sector can continue to succeed in the future.
‘The Next Level’ brings to life the innovations shaping the future of gaming, skills to support the games industry in the UK and encouraging the next generation. The programme also explores how games are now being used for education and well-being as well as the traditional gaming pleasures.
Around 34,000 people currently work in the games industry, including 12,600 in games development and employment in the sector is growing at over 7 per cent per annum. Working in the video games industry requires highly skilled and creative people, but with ever-changing technology, a large focus is on educating next generation. In 2015 TIGA introduced an accreditation process to ensure that universities and colleges can produce graduates with industry relevant skills. Two years later 17 university courses hold this accreditation. ‘The Next Level’ features a special report from Anglia Ruskin University which looks at how this accreditation is working for our next generation of game developers.
Drawing upon ITN’s 60 year heritage and expertise in storytelling, the news-style piece will be anchored by Natasha Kaplinsky to combine key interviews and reports with sponsored editorial profiles from Future Games of London and Cubic Motion.
‘The Next Level’ was premiered at the TIGA Games Industry Awards on Thursday 2nd November and now available on the TIGA website www.tiga.org
Dr Richard Wilson, CEO, TIGA, said: “TIGA’s focus is on growing the UK video games. Our ambition is to grow the sector’s headcount by 40 per cent by 2022 and to make the UK the best place in the world to develop games. Our programme, ‘The Next Level’, shows that the UK video games industry is a high technology, high skills, export focused industry. Our sector has the potential to grow significantly – provided that the Government creates a favourable environment for the industry and businesses and and universities work together to develop and enhance our highly skilled workforce. I am very grateful to ITN Productions for showcasing our industry on ‘The Next Level’ and for their panache, proficiency and professionalism.”
Simon Shelley, Head of Industry News, ITN Productions, said: “ITN Productions has been delighted to partner with TIGA to create ‘The Next Level’. We hope this programme will help to inform and educate about the importance of the gaming industry in the UK. We are extremely pleased with how this programme brings to life how skills can be developed to support the games industry and what is being done to encourage the next generation.”
About ITN Productions
ITN Productions is ITN’s bespoke production hub producing creative and commercially valuable content for the business, commercial, broadcast and digital sectors. Industry News forms part of this offering and is a communications tool for leading industry bodies and national associations produced in a broadcast news programme format, including interviews, news items and sponsored editorial profiles.
For more information visit: www.itnproductions.co.uk
About TIGA
TIGA is the network for games developers and digital publishers and the trade association representing the video games industry. Our core purpose is to strengthen the games development and digital publishing sector. We achieve this by campaigning for the industry in the corridors of power, championing the industry in the media and helping our members commercially.
For more information visit: www.tiga.org