Netflix and Amazon almost doubled the amount spent on British-made TV shows last year to £280m as making big-budget shows such as The Crown and Good Omens drove the UK production sector to a record high.

The filming spree helped drive the sector to more than £3bn in annual revenues for the first time, according to Pact, the body that represents UK independent TV production companies.

The emergence of online streaming has added a significant income boost to the industry, even taking on some shows that began on the domestic airwaves, such as Channel 4’s Black Mirror, which is now a major Netflix series. Netflix and Amazon led an 87% increase in spend by overseas on-demand services from £150m in 2017 to nearly £300m, with Netflix in particular ramping up its rate of British-made shows.

In recent years Netflix and Amazon have emerged as major contributors to a domestic film and TV production industry whose main pillars were broadcasters such as the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky, as well as the Hollywood film studios.

“It is boom time for British production,” said Kate Harwood of Euston Films, which has made shows for US streaming service Hulu and recently made Dublin Murders with the BBC and US network Starz.

Harwood added that the US tech duo were being supplemented by new players such as Apple and Disney, which is launching its own streaming platform. “The rise of Netflix and Amazon represents a tremendous period of opportunity to tell a huge range of stories with many different outlets. They were stage one. Now we also have Apple, Disney+ and other players including Starzplay and Hulu all potentially looking to British producers for content. It is a tremendous period of opportunity.”

The spending boom from Netflix and Amazon has put the squeeze on studio space to shoot shows and films. In July, Netflix, which made more than 40 productions in the UK last year, including Top Boy, struck a deal to take over Shepperton Studios as a permanent production base to enable it to keep a smooth flow of TV shows and films.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Pact report highlights the popularity of British-made shows in international markets, including the BBC’s Line of Duty. Photograph: Aiden Monaghan/World Productions/BBC/PA

The shortage of filming space has led some broadcasters to seek creative solutions with the emergence of “pop-up” studio sites. ITV uses a former military airbase in Yorkshire to film the hit drama Victoria and a converted carpet warehouse in Neasden, north-west London, was used as the filming base for another ITV production, Mr Selfridge.

A strategy of providing a continual pipeline of new content has fuelled the rapid growth of Netflix, which has 151 million global subscribers, with 11 million in the UK, and Amazon’s Prime Video, which has 85 million subscribers worldwide and more than 8 million in the UK.

The UK TV production sector is hoping for another fillip as Disney ramps up spending on programming for its new service, which includes the $100m Star Wars series The Mandalorian, which is to launch on 12 November.

Disney is committing billions to make Disney+ a success in its effort to become a third global streaming giant alongside Netflix and Amazon, which will spend about a combined $20bn on making and licensing TV shows and films this year.

The Pact report also highlights the booming popularity of British-made shows in international markets as sales of programmes such as The Bodyguard, The Cry, Line of Duty and Peaky Blinders hit £214m.

Total international revenues, which include global programme sales as well as the money spent by overseas broadcasters making shows in the UK, hit a record £962m last year. International revenues have grown more than 90% since 2013.

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“These figures show that there is a huge international market looking for quality British content,” said Sara Geater, the chair of Pact.

Amazon, which has produced UK hits including The Grand Tour, and Netflix have rapidly grown to account for 40% of the total £704m spent on UK commissions by all overseas broadcasters.

According to Pact, the £280m spent by Netflix and Amazon last year is 12% of the total £2.3bn spent on making shows using UK producers by domestic TV companies such as the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky, as well as international players. In 2017 the US streaming services accounted for 7% of total programme commissioning spend.