Credit: Richard Kendal/RTS
The BBC is looking to rebuild its online services, invest more in programmes, and strike international partnerships, according to a major speech that will be delivered by the organisation’s director-general Tim Davie this week.
In passages published by the Financial Times, Davie says the BBC will strike “major new partnerships that can allow us to discover new talent, access capital and secure scale … These steps will help secure the future of the BBC, but more importantly, the vital role that a BBC can play for the UK at home and abroad in the years ahead.”
Davie will also pledge to reboot its digital services in order to reach audiences that look to smart phones and computers for their news and TV content, rather than linear channels. As part of the plans BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, will also be included alongside other existing online services to build “a fully integrated and more personalised, more accessible service”.
The speech will be accompanied by a strategy document that will also point to the development of new commercial income from its commercial activities. Partnerships, such as that for the new series of Doctor Who, will become increasingly important if as expected the government moves the BBC’s income away from the licence fee.
Outside of the UK, the long-running sci-fi show will be exclusive to Disney+, with new episodes dropping on the BBC iPlayer in the UK and Disney+, internationally, at the same time.
Despite the importance of international tie-ups. Davey will also warn that “British storytelling is at growing risk of being squeezed out in an extraordinarily competitive global media landscape”, with a “danger of allowing the UK’s world-class creative industries to be undermined”.
It comes as a new report from Ampere Analysis reveals an 18% decline last year in the UK’s market for scripted TV commissions (Drama, Sci-Fi, Crime & Thriller, etc.) as major UK broadcasters cut spend and most global SVODs trimmed investment in international content.
While UK scripted commissioning activity fell by 48% at local pay-TV operators, 36% at commercial free-to-air broadcasters, and 21% at SVOD services. However, the BBC’s scripted commissions remained stable with the public service broadcaster focusing on Kids, Family and Crime genres and ramping up literary adaptations and multiple-episode series orders.
