Ted Lasso West London Studio getting $28m expansion

West London Film Studio, home to Apple TV's popular Ted Lasso, is getting an eco-focussed expansion. Currently, West London Film Studio houses five stages over an area of around 105,000 square feet. 

The expansion will add 85,000 square feet of land over the road, onto where four additional stages are being built, with a cost of approximately $28 million (£23 m). 

Owner Frank Khalid is installing a $4.6 m (£3.7 m) three-megawatt gas substation, the first to be used in a studio according to Khalid, so that the London expansion generates its own electricity.

Khalid tells The Hollywood Reporter that this move will reduce the resources that would otherwise be needed to bring it to the facility.

"With most cases with electric, you need to dig up the road as the power station is miles away. A lot of things have to happen by the time the electricity gets to your building. And studios need a lot of power."

Khalid says the generator will become another source of income for him as productions using the studio are invoiced by West London Film Studios for their energy use. 

While the energy plan currently only powers the expansion, Khalid says that if he were to double its load to six megawatts then it could feasibly provide electricity to the original studio space as well.

West London Film Studios opened in 2014 (with The Imitation Game as its first production). Khalid initially wanting to use the space as a wedding venue but changing his mind when the local council objected. 

The surge in demand for studio space in the UK has resulted in justified expansion, but Khalid also warns that the UK’s current record levels of inflation are scaring production away from the country and into Europe.