Strengths

Strengths and benefits of the digital media and creative industries sector in Scotland

With a growing community of highly successful games studios, Scotland is ranked third in Europe’s top 50 locations for games production.

Scotland has a reputation for its home-grown talent in the digital media industry, specifically within games, film, TV and animation and digital design.

Scotland’s growing reputation has been enhanced by the hosting of events such as the MTV Music Awards, the Edinburgh International Film and TV Festival and the MOBO Awards.

Skills and expertise

  • A creative, digitally-sound workforce, with more than one-in-five of Scotland’s graduates having technological expertise 
  • Scottish universities are producing high calibre graduates educated in the latest technologies 
  • An experienced workforce, thanks to Scotland’s dedicated centres of excellence for computer games and digital development

Supportive infrastructure

  • Scotland provides a supportive business environment with a favourable regulatory framework 
  • The Scottish Government is committed to developing a dynamic business environment, expanding our talent and skills base and increasing innovation 
  • A wide variety of funding is available to businesses located in, or businesses wishing to locate in, Scotland – see ‘how we can help’ for more details 
  • State-of-the-art facilities exist at creative clusters such as Glasgow’s Digital Media Quarter or Dundee’s Seabraes Yard 
  • Scotland’s flexible labour laws allow rapid upside and downside flexibility, with retraining programmes available 
  • Industry bodies, such as Publishing Scotland, exist to support the creative industries, while Creative Scotland is the national body to provide support to arts and cultural media

Collaboration

  • Close community of expertise ensures cross-organisational collaboration, for example, Dundee has a cluster of games development companies all working in close proximity to one another 
  • Research and development collaborations exist between the digital media sector, the wider electronics industry and academia

Cost-competitive

  • Staff and property costs in Scotland are competitive, especially when compared to other digital centres of excellence, such as New York, London and Los Angeles 
  • Digital media and the creative industries contribute over £2.4 billion annually to Scotland’s economy, a figure which is predicted to grow by 10-20 percent a year 
  • Public sector funding available, such as grants to leverage investment – see our ‘how we can help’ section for more on this 
  • Low barriers to entry mean it is quick and easy for businesses to establish themselves in Scotland