Fair Pay and Fair Play in the UK Voice-Over Industry

This 8-month project examines the the impact of platform services on remuneration and contracts in the UK voice-over industry.

Project Description

Lending a Voice: Fair Pay/Play in the UK Voice-Over Industry

Dr Mathilde Pavis in collaboration with Dr Huda Tulti

Sponsor: ESRC IAA Business Boost Fund (£3,000)

Project length: 8 months

About the project

Voiceover work for radio programs, documentaries, audio-books and adverts is starting to be advertised online at a much lower rate than fees offered through traditional agencies. This change can be attributed to the proliferation of ‘Uber-like’ online recruitment platforms such as Fiverr, Upwork, PeoplePerHour or Quidjob.

These platforms are now targeting creative professionals, like voice-over talents, with a view to ‘uberize’ the creative industries. Clients can now directly from their platform purchase services such as logo design, video-making or radio idents produced by professionals or amateurs based anywhere in the world.

This pilot research project seeks to the study the impact these platforms have had on the remuneration and contracts in the UK voice-over industry. To this end, the research team launched an online survey to collect data on the contractual practices and remuneration levels. The survey ran between 10 January 2019 and 1 April 2019, and collected over 200 responses across the UK.

The research team discussed the survey results with the industry in a roundtable meeting on 22 May 2019. Participants in the meeting included representatives and members from the UK Intellectual Property Office, the World Intellectual Property Organization, Equity, Voquent, Another Tongue, Spotlight and voice-over actors.

This project is carried by Dr Mathilde Pavis and Dr Huda Tulti in collaboration with Dr Joe Pye.

Select Outputs

Mathilde Pavis, Joanne Pye and Huda Tulti, ‘Lending a voice: Fair Pay/Play in the UK Voice-Over Industry’ [2019] (forthcoming)

Mathilde Pavis and Huda Tulti, Peer-to-Peer recruitment platforms: Survey of Terms & Conditions [2019] (forthcoming)

Photo: Pixabay