Annual Report 2001/02

Television Sales & Formats

BBC Worldwide achieved a 15% increase in television sales to £172 million over the financial year. At the same time, we increased our investment in BBC programmes from £76 million to
£81 million.

BBC Worldwide has built its lead as Europe’s top exporter of television programmes.

Our biggest single earner of the year was The Weakest Link, one of our most profitable formats ever. It contributed over £10m in sales and made a huge impact on America’s NBC network. The Blue Planet was also outstandingly popular with audiences in more than 40 countries, as was Walking with Beasts.

The BBC/A&E co-production of Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, featuring movie-quality digital animation and an all-star cast, was also a favourite, selling to 23 countries.

Against the flat UK television export market of the last two years, we have beaten the trend by increasing investment in BBC programme rights and raising our visibility around the world.
Our network of international wholly owned and joint venture channels has played a key role, reaching over 460 million homes cumulatively and providing vital shop windows for the BBC brand, programmes and talent. BBC Worldwide derives programme licensing revenues from the channels and has varying degrees of equity in them.

Partnerships with international broadcasters are another integral part of our growth strategy. 2002 saw a 10-year extension of our global alliance with Discovery Communications Inc (DCI) for the co-production of high-quality factual programming. The relationship with DCI has already brought valuable funding to the BBC, making possible the creation of quality productions such as Walking with Beasts and The Blue Planet.

Our television production business has developed strongly too. As well as marketing the original UK programmes, we also work with overseas producers and broadcasters to create local versions with local talent. BBC production teams travel the world to work with and advise overseas broadcasters on locally produced versions of BBC formats such as The Weakest Link, Top of the Pops, Yes Minister and Dog Eat Dog.

To succeed in a tough market and reinforce our brand, we developed an innovative range of BBC programming blocks. These ‘best of’ BBC selections slot into foreign television schedules and range from entertainment to natural history and documentary. During the year, we extended the range, with BBC Select in Kazakhstan, BBC Exclusive in Spain and BBC Wild, which will transmit in a number of countries, following its launch in New Zealand. Additionally, branded blocks of BBC Learning programmes are now shown on BBC Prime.

Our Library Sales business also signed a landmark agreement with CBS News to represent its archive in the international market, creating access to a combination of the world’s biggest broadcast archives.

Blue Planet Case Study

How we take television further

Millions of people in many different countries have discovered a new and fascinating dimension to their world – The Blue Planet.

The story of how BBC Worldwide translates landmark television programmes such as The Blue Planet into a range of media demonstrates our successful strategy of combining creative excellence with commercial acumen for the enjoyment of people around the world. To accompany the television series, which we sold into over 40 countries, we developed both a best-selling video and a DVD that won Outstanding Contribution to DVD at the European DVD Summit.

In total, more than 250,000 Blue Planet videos and DVDs were sold last year. Further plaudits came for our publication The Blue Planet which was judged Illustrated Book of the Year at the British Book Awards. In the UK, the book was in the top 10 bestsellers for non-fiction for 14 weeks and over 300,000 copies were sold internationally.

The Blue Planet soundtrack – published by BBC Worldwide on a best-selling CD – was performed live by the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall, against a giant screen of images from The Blue Planet. This sell-out event was hosted by Sir David Attenborough and produced by BBC Music. It has set the pattern for future soundtracks.