BBC Studios has recorded another year of record sales, however while demand for BBC-produced content increased, profits within its channels and streaming unit fell by 24% in the year to June.
Sales remained static at £535 million while EBITDA slipped from £135 million to £102 million. Overall EBITDA within BBC Studios increased to £240 million.
The BBC’s Annual Report said 2022 was a challenging year for all major content platforms in the United States, but BBC America “continued to deliver strong revenue and cash”.
At year-end BBC Studios made a £40 million impairment against its non-current assets, principally in Channels and Streaming, reflecting an updated market outlook which contributed to the reduction in the Group’s profit before taxation from £100 million in 2022 to £66 million in 2023.
BBC Studios now offers 12 FAST (free, ad-supported television) channels in North American and another 10 in EMEA.
Between them 6,000 episodes of content is available on leading platforms including Samsung TV Plus, Roku, Amazon Freevee and Rakuten.
UKTV also found the advertising market challenging, but increased its share of the commercial TV audience. In the calendar year, views to free streaming service UKTV Play grew by 27% and it added one million registered users to reach 6.45 million. The channel W launched free-to-air, taking it to 23% share growth in 2022.
Britbox, a joint venture with ITV outside the UK, now has 3 million subscribers.
