The BBC’s acquisition of Britbox International was part of BBC Studios record investment in content and its strategic priorities, according to the BBC Group annual report.
The BBC bought out ITV’s share of the global streaming service for £272 million. It currently has 3.8 million global subscribers, which are growing at a rate of 25% a year.
BBC Commercial, which supports the BBC by generating income for the BBC Group, delivered sales of £1.9 billion and EBITDA of £199 million against very challenging market conditions.
BBC Studios achieved sales of £1.8 billion, a fall of £300 million on 2023 and EBITDA of £202 million, still the third consecutive year the business has posted EBITDA over £200 million.
Tom Fussell, CEO BBC Commercial said: “Despite the challenging external environment we saw good underlying growth and our long term ambition to double the 2022 business remains. We will continue to take advantage of new opportunities as they arise.”
The BBC said BBC Commercial is on track, to meet its five year returns commitment of £1.5 billion by 2026/27 (a 30% increase on the previous five year period), with cumulative returns in year two of £693 million.
UKTV gave a strong performance, increasing its share of the commercial audience in a soft advertising market, and building its free streaming service, UKTV Play. The number of international ad-funded (FAST) channels reached 36, including the BBC News Channel for the first time.
UKTV broke records whilst building its free streaming service UKTV Play, with views up by 56% and key user statistics up year-on-year across every month in 2023 with titles such as Annika, Sister Boniface Mysteries, Signora Volpe, and Bangers and Cash: Restoring Classics,helping to drive growth. The network also increased its share of broadcaster viewing for the seven-channel network to nearly 5%, and its share of commercial impacts or SOCI grew to the highest ever level at 8.81%.
