Industry Strengths

Manchester is Europe’s second largest creative, digital and media hub and the industry is growing faster here than anywhere else in the UK. With strengths in everything from film and TV to games development, the diversity of the sector puts Manchester City Region in a great position to take advantage of new opportunities brought about by media and technology convergence.

Over £3.5 billion of investment has been made by both the public and private sector in the last few years to ensure that the industry continues to develop and thrive here. Major recent investments include the 200-acre MediaCityUK site at Salford Quays, the first purpose-built, large scale convergent media complex in the UK. The development features the largest HD studio in Europe and flagship tenants include the University of Salford and the BBC, which is relocating five departments out of London; Sport, Radio 5 Live, Future Media and Technology, Children’s and Formal Learning.

Another key development is The Sharp Project, an innovative virtual super studio located to the east of Manchester city centre. The project is a £5 million creative and digital hub providing low cost workspace and access to cutting edge technology. The 200,000 square foot building includes a choice of suites to suit all budgets, from incubators and managed workspace through to fully-fitted production studios.

The building will also be part of a global virtual super-studio, a network of digital production centres linked by common technology and based on a ‘follow the sun’ model, where using a network of worldwide support, there is always a centre open during business hours anywhere on the globe. With Manchester as the UK hub, additional studios in Canada, Perth, India and China will open up new links with the animation industry worldwide and give those located in Manchester access around the world to new markets and partnerships.

From TV production to animation, website design to e-commerce, advertising to multimedia communications, Manchester’s creative industries are thriving. Employing over 64,000 people across 5,800 businesses, the creative, digital and new media sector can be found in most districts and suburbs.

Manchester City Region certainly has the talent to support these growing businesses with more than 6,000 students studying for creative and media-related courses at any one time at the region’s five universities and another 6,000 studying computer-related courses.

University courses provided include television and radio production, virtual reality, animation, computer and video games, multi-platform technologies and special effects design.

Manchester also benefits from all the main telecoms carriers and all of the UK’s fibre networks converging at its heart. MaNAP (Manchester Network Access Point) is a major internet traffic hub that serves the UK’s access to worldwide networks and provides the only internet exchange point in England outside London.

With all of these key assets already in place, Manchester has never been so well placed to support the growth of creative businesses.

To find out more about the creative, media and digital industries in Manchester City Region, please contact:

Catherine Walker, Head of Business Development

Catherine.Walker@midas.org.uk