ITV and Sky told to do more for British film The report seeks to encourage more British films with box-office draw such as The King's Speech, starring Geoffrey Rush A government-commissioned report into the future of the film industry has called on ITV and Sky to invest more money in British films. The 56-point report by the Film Policy Review Panel, which included Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes among its panellists, also proposed an annual "British film week," a new programme to bring film education to every school and a renewed commitment to combat piracy. Its publication on Monday followed comments by David Cameron last week that public funding of film should focus on "helping UK producers to make commercially successful pictures that rival the quality and impact of the best international productions." However Lord Smith, who chaired the panel, said the report did not favour mainstream commercial films at the expense of arthouse offerings, saying it advocated "as wide a range of films as possible, from the overtly commercial to the overtly arty and much in-between." The prime minister's comments prompted fears of a shift in focus towards trying to produce box office hits at the expense of small-scale, independent productions. Smith said the remarks had been taken out of context. "Some of the reporting of what he was supposed to be about to say was perhaps unfortunate in giving the sense that he was only interested in a particular kind of movie," said Smith. That was not what he said. He understands just as we do that there is a whole range of movies and types of movie that we are supporting. He is very clear on that. Smith said the British film industry was going through a "golden period" but warned against complacency. He said the aim of the report was to help ensure the success of the past 12 months - dominated by Oscar-winning global smash The King's Speech - was sustained "not just next year, but the next year and the year after that." Smith denied that the report was prioritising commercially-minded offerings, but a key theme of the report was the need to take the importance of the audience as a starting point. Smith said UK broadcasters should spend more money on British films and singled out ITV and BSkyB for not investing enough. "There are two broadcasters doing very little to support British film - ITV and Sky - who we believe should be doing more both in terms of investing in British production and in their acquisition policies," Smith said. We have suggested the government sits down with each of the broadcasters to see if an agreement can be reached to ensure greater investment in and acquisition of British films. We have also suggested that if agreement turns out to be impossible it is something the government might turn its attention to in the Communications Act which is proposed for some time in the next year or two. We hope that won't be necessary and broadcasters would want to step up to the plate voluntarily. Among the report's other key points was a proposal to launch a programme to extend the appeal of the big-screen experience to rural and isolated communities. Under the proposal, communities that do not have a cinema could be provided with projection equipment for film societies and community halls. The report also proposed new funding mechanisms for producers to be able to reinvest money from successful films into further production. The reinvestment proposals, said the report, would "only make a significant difference to the small number of films that generate substantial recoupment, which are precisely the ones which are more successful and which we need to encourage for the broader benefit of audiences." There was also a proposal that aimed to get producers and distributors to team up at an early stage in the production process, and for the joint sharing of rewards between producers, writers and directors. "We want to get a culture of rewarding success," Smith said. If you make a successful movie you have a chance of making another one. We are not trying to dictate an artistic vision. We are trying to set in place a range of financial and legislative arrangements which will enable a broad range of movies to be made. We are not making a distinction in the review between something called mainstream and something called ... something else. The government will make a formal response to the report in a few months time, said culture minister Ed Vaizey, who commissioned the report. Vaizey said the government was likely to accept the vast majority of its recommendations, some of which could be incorporated into the forthcoming communications bill. A spokeswoman for the BFI said: "Against the backdrop of a record year for British film and film talent, we welcome this report which rightly places audiences at the heart of future UK film policy."