Annual Review 2011/12

Increase investment in new content

Over the last year, BBC Worldwide has invested £98.6m in distribution rights, three-quarters of which was into BBC commissions. We have produced and licensed 36 formats in 43 countries around the world.

Why new content investment?

As audiences' tastes and viewing habits change, we are changing the way we look at and develop content. BBC IP is the cornerstone of our content strategy and forms the vast majority of investments we make. This investment is even more crucial to fund BBC programmes after a tighter licence fee settlement. We need increasing levels of content to fuel the growth ambitions of all our businesses and so we also look to supplement the BBC content in our pipeline with programmes from other sources. Understanding the needs of different markets and having a flexible approach to addressing them is vital, and we are finding innovative ways to bring commissioners, producers and other partners together.

How are we doing it?

We are committed to enhancing the benefits we bring to the BBC and to independent production companies by providing producers with greater expertise and market understanding. To that end, our Content & Production business was restructured in February, from three teams (acquiring rights from the BBC, from independent producers and a strategy team) to five genre-focused teams (factual, drama, comedy, entertainment and music), each consisting of specialists who seek, develop and secure the best content from the creative community for BBC Worldwide to manage and distribute. As part of this, we also extended our investment and acquisition responsibilities across all BBC Worldwide businesses, including our branded channels, DTO and home video.

As always outstanding content sits at the heart of our growth. A summary of activity by genre follows here:

International demand for factual programming is healthy and the UK is producing some of the best factual content in the world. Landmark factual series such as Frozen Planet are in increasing demand and co-production financing is key to delivering this ambition. Our deal to bring Chinese state broadcaster CCTV on board for BBC Science's Wonders of Life and Generation Earth is a prime example of this.

In drama there has been a renaissance in the period sub-genre, and crime shows remain unrelentingly popular. Two titles demonstrate how we are increasingly bringing partners together. Edwardian drama Parade's End, written by Sir Tom Stoppard and produced by Mammoth Screen, is the first project to be co-produced and distributed under the new co-venture between BBC Worldwide and Lookout Point with BBC One, HBO and ARTE. Our first scripted co-production with France Télévisions, Death in Paradise, produced by Red Planet, was successful for the BBC and has been commissioned for a second series.

In the growing music television genre, the BBC's coverage of Coldplay's headline performance at the Glastonbury festival was broadcast live across the USA, Brazil and Germany - the first performances from Glastonbury to be broadcast live outside the UK. Exporting British culture to viewers across the globe is a strategy we will look to continue with events such as Radio 1's Hackney Weekend. We have also completed an output deal with Sony Music in the UK, to complement an existing deal with Universal Music. Comedy remains a key genre for us and has seen us invest in shows such as Twenty Twelve for BBC Two, Big Talk's award-winning Rev for BBC Two and Ruth Jones' latest show Stella, helping to bring a new dimension to the comedy genre.

Eurodata research shows that 83% of programmes are produced in the same country they are broadcast in, and so localising formats continues to be a successful way to enter new markets. Our flagship show Dancing with the Stars has now been licensed to 40 countries. The past year has seen local versions of Top Gear launched in South Korea and China, building on the continued success of the format in the USA for history Channel. Love Productions' format The Great Bake Off delivered excellent ratings for the BBC and was an emerging international hit this year with four local versions greenlit. BBC Productions' The Week the Women Went became the first format we have licensed to Morocco.

This year we have also increased commissioning activity for our channels and more details on these programmes can be found here.

Our management of talent rights brings access to new content. Building a relationship with Nigella Lawson has resulted in a distribution deal that also sees BBC Bristol produce her new series and our strong partnership with Steve Backshall means an exciting future for Deadly 60 as it becomes an important brand for BBC Worldwide.

In addition to our relationship with the BBC, our ability to acquire content rights comes from the success of our indie relationships. We partner with more than 200 UK indies on a range of output and distribution deals, and have backed two start-up indies this year, Burning Bright Productions Limited and Slim Film & TV Limited, each headed up by proven British producers. This year we took delivery of almost 150 hours of original programming from indies in which we hold an interest.