EXCLUSIVE: Ian Katz grew visibly emotional last week when he acknowledged there is a “gap” between Channel 4 feeling it had “made the right decisions” and “a situation where you have contributors who have been through a show and feel very let down.”

The Channel 4 programs boss was facing questions from the press on the Married at First Sight UK (MAFS) scandal, which has dominated headlines for a fortnight now.

A recent report using real-time reaction data taken from British TV productions, exclusively shared with Deadline, spotlighted a similar gap for behind-the-camera crew.

The Talent Trust, which compiled the Set Culture Report, termed this the “silence gap” and said it is hugely detrimental to the welfare of those making British TV. Around 40% of those surveyed for the report did not feel respected or treated with dignity on the production they were working on. Of those, more than three quarters (76%) didn’t feel they could speak up without worrying about unfair repercussions, hence a “silence gap.” More than half who didn’t feel respected worked behind the camera.

“Traditional duty-of-care models are heavily reliant on retrospective or reactive reporting, such as hotlines or on expecting a vulnerable individual to step forward,” said Talent Trust CEO Elizabeth Peyton-Jones. “However, more often than not, production sets are dealing with a complex psychological trap. For many creatives, the fear of being ‘cancelled’ or blacklisted from the industry is often more powerful than their fear of remaining in an abusive environment. Taking their word that ‘everything is okay’ in a high-pressure setting ignores the severe power dynamics at play.”

On TV sets, Peyton-Jones said “management and head offices are frequently perceived to avoid dealing with acute friction points rather than actively safeguarding their teams.” She pointed out that “younger creatives often do not trust traditional, corporate reporting lines,” instead choosing to “bypass internal mechanisms entirely and take their experiences directly to social media or external investigations after the fact, where they feel they have a safer platform.”

$67,000 cost

Fear of repercussion is by no means a new phenomenon, but the figures, which are generated during a production via anonymous feedback surveys, rather than after it has concluded, are stark. Deadline is reporting the research as chatter about welfare on UK TV productions abounds after two women who featured on MAFS said they were raped by their on-screen partners, with another alleging they were the victim of a non-consensual sex act. All partners have denied the charges and Channel 4 has commissioned two external reviews. This morning, BBC News reported complaints of a “toxic” culture on MAFS from behind-the-camera crew, which its production company has denied.

The Talent Trust stressed that its data “focuses on sector-wide macro trends rather than individual active commissions” and that it does not comment on specific incidents.

Instead, the Talent Trust’s research probed how much is lost on a production when this “silence gap” is formed and trust is lost.

According to the report, 71% of those who felt unsupported on productions said safety policies weren’t properly followed. This leads to tangible consequences. The Talent Trust crunched the numbers and found that a lack of support leads to hidden waste of more than £50,000 ($67,000) across a 30-day production, with this loss coming from higher overtime and burnout costs, along with technical errors. Proper support protects crew speed, risk mitigation and a reputation as a “smooth set,” which means people want to return for future seasons or to work with the same production company, the Talent Trust said.

When safety fails on set, each insurance claim per incident costs on average between £6,000 and £12,000, added the trust. When crew is lost mid production, this costs another circa-£3,000 to £8,000 per person.

The trust concluded by stressing that preparation is key. When people felt respected, it said, “return intent” of behind-the-camera crew was far higher, while “burnout flags dropped.”

The Talent Trust was previously commissioned by Channel 4 to research a number of productions following the suicide of John Balson, a true crime producer who in the months leading up to his death had been working on Channel 4’s In The Footsteps of Killers.