BBC to cash in on children’s shows amid commercial push
The BBC has unveiled plans to cash in on the success of its children’s TV shows as the embattled broadcaster looks to ramp up its income from commercial ventures.
The corporation today said it will move BBC Children’s Productions, which makes shows such as Blue Peter and My Mum Tracey Beaker, into its commercial arm BBC Studios from next April.
This will allow it to compete in the market for commissions and sell its programmes to broadcasters and platforms around the globe.
The global children’s entertainment market has grown rapidly in recent years, but the BBC is facing increased competition from rivals such as Netflix and Youtube.
“Moving children’s production into BBC Studios will safeguard our specialism within a producer of scale, enabling them to continue to make world-class public service content for our UK audiences, and increasing their potential of taking British children’s content to the wider global market,” said Patricia Hidalgo, director of BBC Children’s & Education.
It follows similar moves to transfer BBC Three’s in-house production team to BBC Studios from next month, while the commercial division will also take responsibility for the international activity of BBC Global News, which controls the BBC World News TV channel and BBC.com.
Commercial push
The shake-up forms part of the public service broadcaster’s wider efforts to increase its income from commercial activity amid a squeeze on the licence fee funding model.
Director general Tim Davie today said the organisation plans to increase its commercial income by 30 per cent to £1.5bn in the five years from 2022/2023.
It is currently on track to hit its five-year returns target of £1.2bn by the end of the current financial year.
“We are actively building commercial income with ambitious commercial plans for high quality programmes, vital funding and international audiences,” Davie said.
“The BBC’s commercial activity will become even more important in future as we expand commercial disciplines to new areas, such as children’s production, and — despite a challenging market — seek to achieve the highest possible return from all our assets.”
The BBC is currently under fierce financial pressure due to government cuts to its licence fee funding, and is facing further strain from potential decriminalisation of non-payment or a scrapping of the model altogether.
Davie, who took over as director general in September, has vowed to increase the amount of money the broadcaster makes from its commercial activities, cashing in on international success for shows such as Strictly Come Dancing and Seven Worlds One Planet.
The BBC today also said it is looking at ways to create new digital revenue streams outside the UK, such as by exploring commercial opportunities for both audio and news.
The broadcaster is also looking to expand Britbox, its joint streaming service with ITV, in up to 25 markets outside the UK.