The Evolving Landscape of the Camera Rental Sector (Jun24 Update)

Challenges, Opportunities, and Optimism for the Future By Barry Bassett & STUART NEATE, Directors, VMI.TV Ltd

The production kit rental sector has faced an unprecedented period of uncertainty, disruption, and transformation in recent years. From our perspectives, as Directors of VMI.TV Ltd, a camera rental company with a long history of serving the television and film industries, the mood within the industry has shifted considerably over the past twelve months—from deep pessimism to cautious optimism. Here is a short appraisal of the emerging Industry as of June 2025.

Back in March, we published an article entitled “The Future of Production Kit Rental – Evolving to Survive” in which I shared my concerns over the fragility of the rental sector. At that time, the outlook appeared bleak; no fewer than eight of our direct competitors had folded in the previous year. We genuinely questioned whether VMI itself could remain viable in the long term.

Yet, there is truth to the old adage: no matter how dark the storm, the rain eventually stops, and the sun does come out. For us, that brighter weather arrived with the summer. Business improved markedly, bringing with it renewed confidence and a more positive atmosphere throughout our organisation.

It would be easy to remain focused on how hard the radical changes sweeping the industry have made the business to run, but such thinking is not constructive. At its core, the rental business is simple: we must provide services that our clients genuinely value. The moment we fail to do this and when our offerings cease to be relevant, we risk becoming obsolete.

Encouragingly, we are seeing an visible increase in production levels and this, together with a reduction in the number of competitors have made the market less fiercely contested than before, though this doesn’t allow room for complacency. Rental companies that wish to survive and flourish must remain agile, constantly engaging with their clients and continue to innovate with the services that they offer. Doing the same thing, year after year will make our services stale and without innovation, clients may decide that they simply don’t need us anymore, or go elsewhere.

The need to remain relevant keeps us up at night.

Current Pressures Reshaping the Industry

Many of the concerns I raised in March remain pressing today. The nature of production kit rental faces distinct challenges that set it apart from other segments of the television and film industry.

First, the declining demand for rentals is a stark reality, as camera tech has become increasingly affordable, increasingly facilitating crew to purchase and use their own gear instead of renting from traditional houses like ours. The collapse of several rental businesses has saturated the market with affordable used equipment has accelerated this.

The post-pandemic production boom of 2021 led many rental houses, including VMI, to their expand inventories in anticipation of long-term growth, but the sudden cooling of that market left the industry with an over saturated rental market, with many rental companies carrying excess stock and too much debt.

Industry-wide production slowdowns are nothing new but major structural changes and strategic shifts have compounded these difficulties. The SAG-AFTRA strikes in Hollywood halted scripted work globally, though when this halted, streamers such as Netflix and Amazon Prime had already becoming more selective, commissioning fewer projects than before and at lower budgets. Meanwhile, as our children consume terrestrial broadcast differently to when we were their age and have shifted toward digital platforms, this has necessarily resulted in declining advertising revenue, which once a primary driver of production spending. This means that there are now less productions being commissioned and at lower budgets than before, meaning less rental revenue for us rental houses, so we have to shrink our costs to survive.

Technological change presents another double-edged sword. In the early 1990s, camera manufacturers like Sony would compete on clear technical performance milestones with resolution and noise reduction featuring in their advertising, “… offering 720 horizontal lines of resolution for the very first time!” (Sony DXC-M7 camera, early 1990s). Compare that with today, when all professional cameras meet a minimum standard of 4K (even your mobile phone!) and often much higher. When you consider that a 10+ year-old camera like the Sony PMW-F55 can still satisfies Netflix and Amazon requirements, it is easy to understand why owner-operators are able to keep their own equipment for longer and use it to generate their own income, instead of renting.

Manufacturers are nonetheless eager to launch new models annually. But for rental houses like VMI, this means walking a financial tightrope. It is harder to justify spending £1m+ per year on the newest tech, risking obsolescence before it has paid for itself —or do we “sweat” our existing assets longer and risk falling behind client expectations? The number of recent business failures in our sector shows how difficult this trade-off can be.

A very important new issue has become the importance of owner operator wanting to rent their own equipment to production. This is not a new issue but it has become so prevalent of late, that rental companies finds themselves swimming in ever shrinking pools, when the DP is supplying the camera/lenses, the AC the Teradek, the focus puller the Wireless Lens System, the gaffer supplying the lights… I remember one memorable hire when the production company kept reducing their comprehensive package with subsequent emails until it shrank to just a trolley – and then they asked to book a test room. When we queried why they needed the test room to test a trolley, they reluctantly volunteered that the DP was flying in from new York with his kit, which was being supported by the AC and focus puller with their kit and they wanted to make sure that everything worked together. We weren’t very impressed.

The Unique Value of Rental Companies

This is all about relationships. Whilst camera equipment is fundamentally ubiquitous, service is not and neither is the strength of equipment specialisation of individual companies. VMI specialises in documentaries and scripted drama/features, whilst others specialise in multi-camera or unscripted productions. Working with companies who can offer great support, together with a wide range of equipment, experience and personnel, who are able to fully customise equipment packages to suit individual production teams is a huge bonus to the crew and gives great confidence to production.

Clients value companies that offer not only great service and technical know-how but also deep inventories and the ability to fully customise packages for specific productions. Furthermore, rental houses offer security that no owner-operator can match because when a private DP’s sole camera fails, production will halt. Rental companies generally hold backup gear on the shelf, ready to deploy and with drama productions costing £60,000 an hour or more to shoot, this level of reliability is indispensable and production needs to value and ‘price-in’ this surety.

Leading on Sustainability

Another area where rental companies like VMI add value is sustainability—a rapidly growing priority in the industry. Since 2021, VMI has taken extraordinary steps towards becoming Net Zero by 2030. In 2022, we achieved Albert-certified Carbon Neutral status, offsetting emissions via rainforest protection projects. By 2023, we had halved our 2019 carbon footprint—two years ahead of target—and are now net energy exporters thanks to extensive solar installation for four months of the year. We’ve eliminated landfill waste, single-use plastics, and the majority of our vehicle fleet has migrated to EVs/hybrids.

This commitment has earned VMI accolades such as the Hero of Net Zero award at COP26 and multiple Business Awards. But more than awards, this focus reflects our belief that environmental leadership is essential to our long-term viability.

Advice to Filmmakers

My advice to filmmakers is simple: build strong, collaborative relationships with rental partners. A trusted rental company may one day give you favourable terms on a speculative pilot, knowing that they will likely win your next big production. This mutual respect and understanding keep the ecosystem healthy. Without a viable rental sector, the production industry risks losing a critical support structure.

Looking Ahead with Optimism

Whilst the industry has experienced a seismic shift since COVID, we are all looking to see what the future actually looks like. I am writing this BLOG a couple of good months into the summer of 2025 and are mindful of the adage, ‘One Swallow doesn’t make a Summer’, but we are all buoyed with the most cautious optimism for the future that we have had in a long time.

In my opinion, peer-to-peer lending and owner-operator models have their place, but they cannot replace the depth, service, and reliability that professional rental houses provide, so providing rental companies remain innovative, agile, and client-focused, they will continue to play a central role in the future of film and television production.

Barry Bassett and Stuart Neate, VMI.TV Ltd. June 2025