Art for Art's Sake or Selling Up?

This article explores the discrepancy between the vision of the broadcast producer as a creative in pursuit of `art for art's sake' and current trends within the broadcasting sector, where large `super-indies' dominate and smaller producer-owners become rich by selling up. At a theoretical level, the article explores how representations of the producer as artist frame the historic and current policy debates, so that `liberating the creative' has become the key policy object. At an empirical level the article shows how, in response to regulatory changes, a slow-growing market and the influence of external financial backers, the sector has become dominated by acquisitive super-indies, who buy small and medium-sized firms from willing sellers who treat their firm as a real option to be cashed in the future, because selling up can make them a millionaire.