New Media in North England

North England has key strengths in production, communication networks, computer games design. Manchester is the 2nd most important centre for digital communications companies in Europe, with MediaCityUK as the flagship.

Europe's Largest Media Community

Innovative and Cutting Edge Facilities Draw New Media Companies

Find out more about the creative, digital and media industry in the region with our electronic brochure.

MediaCityUK will be the largest purpose-built media community in Europe, providing opportunities for more than 1,000 businesses from the creative, film making, media and digital industries to thrive by bringing together connected organizations in one place, buying and selling each other’s services. It is a $3 billion development led by the UK’s largest private company, Peel Holdings.

MediaCityUK offers many benefits to creative businesses:

• Focus on creative output and audiences rather than facilities, wires and boxes
• 21st Century technology and facility
• Scale economies
• De-risked technology decision-making
• Opportunity to test new business models and collaborations
• Opportunity for businesses to transform
• Direct access to onsite R&D
• Magnet for top talent
• Flexible commercial model: fully managed service, plug and play, tenancy

Operations include the largest studio block in UK which will have 7 HD TV studios and 2 audio studios, one dedicated to BBC Philharmonic

The Sharp Project facilitates local, regional, national and international networking and collaboration between tenants, helping to nurture small businesses with an emphasis on the specialisms of animation, CGI and visual effects. It has:

• 250,000 sq ft not-for-profit development.
• Production space and sound stages, a 4,000sqft green screen visual effects studio, catering and events facilities and office space.
• A ‘counter-corporate’ location for likeminded creative companies that will complement rather than compete with MediaCityUK.

Strong Infrastructure Offers Companies a Firm Foundation

In order to support MediaCityUK, the region is investing in a very high speed fibre telecommunications network throughout the North of England called NorthernNET (symmetrical connections of 100 Mbps, ‘burstable’ to 1Gbps downstream). This will allow content downloads 50-500 times faster than home broadband, with capacity to upload new data 200 times faster than currently available ADSL connections.

In addition to that will be the Media Access Bureaux, 20 sites across the North of England to allow SMEs access to superfast broadband and equipment to manage, edit, store and distribute content, as well as direct access to major buyers with commercial opportunities. It will be a shared technical infrastructure to reduce capital costs and increase these firms’ capacity to invest in opportunities for collaborative R&D. It will provide firms with opportunities to collaborate and develop market and supply chain opportunities in other sectors of the knowledge economy.

Support Organizations Foster Growth

Regional support is offered through Northwest Vision and Media who lead, support and promotes the region’s digital and creative firms through

• Supply chain initiatives to link the mass of micro- and small enterprises to the very large media owners who procure and distribute ‘content’
• Strategic intelligence on trading and employment
• Demand-led skills development and training programmes
• Encouraging collaboration between companies and across sectors
• Representing and championing the region’s Digital & Creative Industries regionally, nationally and internationally