COURSE OVERVIEW
Turn your creative idea into a successful business.
This six-month, part-time course teaches the business side of film, TV and games, helping you develop the finance, legal and creative leadership skills needed to turn great ideas into commercial reality.
You'll develop your own business plan or strategic proposal, enabling you to advance your career - whether that’s within an organisation, or starting and growing your own company.
Content Tabs
The media industry is changing fast. Understanding how it works behind the scenes is essential for anyone looking to build a new business or progress their career within an existing company. This course teaches you how the business actually runs: how decisions get made, how projects are financed, and how creative ideas become profitable enterprises.
You'll develop your knowledge through practical application, working on your own business idea or strategic challenge throughout the course. Whether you're planning your career progression, exploring new commercial opportunities for your organisation, or preparing to launch your own production company or studio, this gives you a structured route to understanding how creative ideas become investible businesses.
You'll learn from producers, studio executives, investors, lawyers, and entrepreneurs with experience across film, TV, games, and digital platforms. They'll share how businesses really work and the things they wish they'd known when they started out.
The course is built to fit around your working life, with:
- 16 weekly evening seminars online (6:30-9pm GMT) with industry guests and specialist tutors
- 3 weekend workshops (Saturday-Sunday) at NFTS London, Soho or online
- 4 one-to-one tutorials online, tailored to your goals
- 4 optional deep-dive sessions online on specialist or emerging topics
Students on The Business of Film, TV & Games course also receive complimentary access to the CPD-accredited Royal Television Society (RTS) Mini MBA in Television and Streaming Media.
With 25 modules packed full of case studies and exclusive insights from over 100 industry executives and leaders, it’s a unique opportunity to deepen your knowledge and sharpen your edge in today’s media landscape. https://www.rts.academy
You'll build practical, transferable knowledge across every stage of the film, TV, games, and digital media value chain to transform ideas into valuable intellectual property.
Creative Development & IP Strategy
- How to spot IP with franchise potential
- Developing creative concepts into valuable intellectual property
- Assessing commercial potential while protecting creative vision
- Cross-platform storytelling: how properties like The Last of Us build audiences across different media
Business Fundamentals
- How film, TV and games businesses actually make money
- Business models across theatrical, streaming, games publishing and emerging platforms
- Development, packaging, financing and distribution strategies
Finance & Legal Essentials
- Finance: from project budgets to 5-10 year forecasts (built week by week in manageable steps, no finance background required)
- Legal frameworks: IP ownership, copyright, contracts and distribution deals (no law degree required)
- Rights management and global distribution strategies
Innovation & Technology
- AI and emerging technology: where it creates real value vs expensive distraction
- Evaluating the financial return on new tools and platforms
- Building sustainable innovation into creative businesses
Leadership & Investment
- Creative leadership: building high-performing teams while maintaining artistic vision
- Investment readiness: what investors look for and how to pitch effectively
- Scaling from single projects to sustainable companies
What you'll receive
- Complimentary access to the RTS Mini-MBA (CPD-accredited online learning featuring insights from leaders across the television industry)
- Templates, financial models and frameworks you can use immediately
- A toolkit of contracts, pitch decks and business planning resources
- A peer network across film, TV, games and digital media
- Four dedicated one-to-one tutorials to develop your specific plans
By the end of the course, you'll have either:
- An investible business plan and pitch deck for your own production company, content business or entertainment project, OR
- A strategic development report for your organisation proposing new revenue streams, business models or growth opportunities
Both outcomes are designed to help you take real action, whether that's pitching to investors, applying for funding, or proposing strategic change within your organisation.
This course is designed for anyone who wants to build or grow a business in the creative industries. No MBA or business degree required. Whether you're a producer, creative executive, entrepreneur, or advisor, you'll gain tools to make better business decisions and help your ideas succeed.
You might be:
- A producer or creative executive planning your next career move
- An entrepreneur developing a production company or content business
- A creative professional who wants to understand the business side
- A consultant, lawyer or advisor who works with creative clients
- Someone transitioning from another sector into entertainment
No business degree or finance experience required – just creative ambition and a willingness to learn.
Ready to Apply?
We'd love to hear from you! Please complete the online application form and include:
- Your CV
- A covering letter telling us:
Why this course appeals to you
A brief overview of your background, experience and current projects
Any business training you've done before (don't worry if none - we just want to avoid repeating things you already know!)
Areas you're particularly interested in exploring (these might well expand as the course progresses)
How you learn best
Your general interests - OR if you’d prefer to send us a video about yourself as an alternative to the cover letter above - just grab your phone and answer the same questions. No editing required!
Tutors
Department Graduate Success
NFTS graduates are equipped to pursue careers across filmmaking, television production, advertising and more. Graduates have gone on to set up their own companies, produce award winning films and succeed across the creative business sector.
Recent Creative Business credits and successes include...
Danny De Warren
Danny graduated from the Creative Business course in 2016 and is now Manager, Original Series Production, Global Franchises at Netflix.
Department Graduate Success
NFTS graduates are equipped to pursue careers across filmmaking, television production, advertising and more. Graduates have gone on to set up their own companies, produce award winning films and succeed across the creative business sector.
Recent Creative Business credits and successes include...
Jonny McCausland
Jonny graduated from the Creative Business MA in 2024, and is now running a new Development Lab at Hat Trick Productions.
Department Graduate Success
NFTS graduates are equipped to pursue careers across filmmaking, television production, advertising and more. Graduates have gone on to set up their own companies, produce award winning films and succeed across the creative business sector.
Recent Creative Business credits and successes include...
Victoria Fah
Victoria graduated from the Creative Business MA in 2022 and is now Manager at IPR Lab, a venture capital and private equity firm investing in high-impact entertainment.
Department Graduate Success
NFTS graduates are equipped to pursue careers across filmmaking, television production, advertising and more. Graduates have gone on to set up their own companies, produce award winning films and succeed across the creative business sector.
Recent Creative Business credits and successes include...
Fani Suan-Baum
Fani graduated from the Creative Business MA in 2023 and is now Acquisitions Manager (Europe) for Anton, a global content company creating, financing and distributing films, TV series, kids’ programmes, documentaries and short formats.
Department Graduate Success
NFTS graduates are equipped to pursue careers across filmmaking, television production, advertising and more. Graduates have gone on to set up their own companies, produce award winning films and succeed across the creative business sector.
Recent Creative Business credits and successes include...
Ali Rasoul
Ali graduated from the Creative Business MA in 2023 and has grown his Creative Agency with clients including Netflix, Disney & the Paris Olympics.
Department Graduate Success
NFTS graduates are equipped to pursue careers across filmmaking, television production, advertising and more. Graduates have gone on to set up their own companies, produce award winning films and succeed across the creative business sector.
Recent Creative Business credits and successes include...
Ashkan Dabbagh
Ashkan graduated from the Creative Business MA in 2022 and is co-Founder & CEO of Zero One Creative, creating the next generation of storytelling powered by AI, controlled with human-led creativity.
