Christine Leo-McKerrow

World Screen Weekly, July 10, 2008

Senior VP and General Manager for Asia

BBC Worldwide Channels

It’s been a busy few months for BBC Worldwide’s Channels business in Asia. In April, the division rolled out BBC Knowledge and CBeebies on the Indovision DTH platform in Indonesia, and launched an SVOD service, BBC HD, in Taiwan with Chunghwa Telecom. The deals are the most recent developments in the BBC Worldwide Channels strategy, which began with BBC Entertainment and CBeebies in India, followed by the global debut of a five-channel bouquet—BBC Entertainment, BBC Knowledge, BBC Lifestyle, CBeebies and BBC World News—across the region, first launching in Singapore and Hong Kong.

As senior VP and general manager for Asia, Christine Leo-McKerrow is leading the placement of the bouquet on platforms across the region. A veteran of the multichannel market in Asia, having been one of the first employees at HBO Asia and the former chief of Nickelodeon’s business in the region, Leo-McKerrow has enjoyed building the Channels operation in Asia, which started as a one-person office in Singapore. “It’s been really exciting being a part of it from the very beginning. After two years of phenomenal effort to get across the line, it’s all coming together. We are on track to deliver our ambitious plans over the next three years.”

Leo-McKerrow says that various other carriage deals are in the works, and platforms are, for the most part, responsive to taking the entire package, which is offered in Hong Kong on PCCW’s nowTV as The BBC 5. “I thought there might be much more of a carve-up, with some people wanting this and not that, but a lot of the conversations we’re having, a lot of the deals we’re closing, are for more than two channels.”

As the BBC began redefining its global channels strategy, the relaunch of BBC Prime as BBC Entertainment was key to building out the new portfolio, Leo-McKerrow explains. “We did refine it a lot and we really focused on the more contemporary stuff, so it’s not just the BBC’s greatest hits. We wanted to say that British drama is contemporary, sexy, exciting.”

The channel focuses on drama and comedy, with offerings that include Hotel Babylon, Spooks, Hustle, Little Britain, The Office and Extras. BBC Lifestyle features content that touches on style, design, parenting, food and more, while BBC Knowledge covers “people, the world, business with Dragon’s Den, science and technology, and the big BBC blue-chip historical docs.” The preschool offering CBeebies, meanwhile, aims to focus on “learning as a whole” and Leo-McKerrow adds that a lot of viewers have written in to say that the channel provides “a great way for my child to learn the right English.”

Beyond the linear channel rollout, Leo-McKerrow is placing an emphasis on subscription video on demand (SVOD) services. “We’re quite willing to experiment and take risks in terms of the nonlinear space. We are very interested in developing SVOD, because when you look at the BBC inventory, there is so much you could do. [We’re looking at opportunities] in the right markets, where you’ve got the right mix of IPTV and the right audience with a demand for a specific area that we can bring.”

—By Mansha Daswani