Annual Report 2001/02

Music

BBC Music brings a wide-ranging musical dimension to key BBC properties and talent

BBC Music’s role is to bring a wide-ranging musical dimension to key BBC properties and talent. By taking a creative approach to major factual properties like The Blue Planet and children’s characters such as Bob the Builder, we have achieved substantial sales around the world.

Early investment and involvement by BBC Music in The Blue Planet led to the release of a CD of the soundtrack and additional material specially composed by George Fenton. This in turn led to an innovative performance of the score at the Royal Festival Hall by the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by George Fenton against a backdrop of stunning footage from the series. This live concert format is now being marketed to promoters around the world and BBC Blue Planet Prom in the Park will take place this summer in London.

BBC Music also identified a new niche in the market for children’s music with characters like the Tweenies and Bob the Builder, both of which had chart-topping singles and albums around the world. Bob took the coveted number one slot in the UK singles charts with Mambo No 5, and his album went gold, selling more than 250,000 copies. The Tweenies’ Christmas single, I Believe in Christmas, went straight into the top 10 and the album went gold.

Abroad, we ensured vitally important distribution for our children’s record business through two strategic deals. One was with Koch Entertainment LLC for the USA and Canada, and the other with Universal Music International for the rest of the world (excluding UK).

The agreement with Universal was described by Music Week as ‘the licensing deal of the year’, underlining the value the BBC brand brings to partnerships. Under the Universal deal, Bob the Builder took Australia by storm, notching up two double platinum singles and a double platinum album. The Bob the Builder titles also went gold in New Zealand.

Our compilation CDs were consistently popular. Titles including Top of the Pops, Desert Island Discs, Steve Wright’s Sunday Love Songs, and the I Love… series, sold over a million copies altogether.

Testament to its long-standing success, Top of the Pops can now be seen in 90 countries and is recreated in Italy, Germany, Belgium and Holland. Top of the Pops CD releases are an integral part of the global brand strategy – more than 200,000 albums were sold in 2001, with the Spring 2002 release adding another 100,000 sales.

The year also saw the inaugural Top of the Pops Awards. Reaching a potential global audience of hundreds of millions, the show featured a glittering all-star international line-up including Kylie, Tom Jones, Travis and Jennifer Lopez.
The success of the award-winning BBC Legends CD archive label, which recently celebrated the release of its 100th title, is being replicated with a range of classical DVD releases in partnership with Opus Arte.

The BBC/Opus Arte label also carries major opera and ballet performances from The Royal Opera House – this year saw the release of Rigoletto and The Nutcracker, the UK’s best-selling classical title.

Also part of BBC Music, our telephony business, BBC Audiocall, played a key role in several major UK events. These included the provision of voting phone lines for the Top of the Pops Awards and Channel 4’s Big Brother; and the management of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Concert ballot lines, with more than 3,000 phone lines in nine languages, resulting in more than two million calls and web responses.