BBC Worldwide

September 24, 2009 World Screen
Tim Mutimer
Senior VP, Sales & Distribution EMEA
 
 

What are some of your top properties for MIPCOM?

 

Long running drama series like Doctor Who and Torchwood are always big titles for us but we’ll also be focusing on brand new drama, such as Married Single Other which tells the funny, charming and often heartbreaking story of three couples who are trying to work out exactly what a ‘couple’ is in today’s society.
 
Comedy Taking the Flak, a tale of British foreign correspondents out in the field working against a war-torn backdrop in Africa, all for their moment in the media limelight, is another top title for us. Natural history is always popular with buyers so we’re excited to be able to offer new series Life to international buyers—this series is a true blockbuster and reveals the natural world’s most remarkable behavior in unprecedented depth and detail.
 
In terms of children’s, we’re very much looking forward to launching the ground-breaking new series Tronji. Produced by Ragdoll Productions, Tronji is a unique and innovative interactive children’s property for 6– to 8-year-olds and is available across multiple platforms; a TV program, a website, as well as an online game.
 
 

What are some of the trends you’re currently seeing in this market?
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 The most successful shows in the past year have been Torchwood, Survivors, Being Erica and Life. Survivors has sold to more than 14 broadcasters from Australia and New Zealand to Sweden and Italy. Torchwood is hugely popular with sales in about 40 territories.
 
All these programs have high production values, with excellent casts and quality writing. This makes them particularly attractive to broadcasters. The fact that they are all franchises also makes them particularly valuable on the international market as does the fact that they are not too niche to British audiences.
 
Business is certainly being done in all areas of the media industry and we are still seeing demand for programming across all genres. Television is arguably the most popular form of entertainment during an economic downturn so broadcasters need to capture this audience with quality programming. Having said that, the Pay-TV market is faring particularly well during the economic downturn. Again, long-running series such as Torchwood, Doctor Who, Primeval and natural history are big sellers.
 
In children’s programming, terrestrial channels around the world are increasingly moving their children’s content from their main channel to bespoke children’s channels. This opens up opportunities to license a greater number of properties and means that the high volume of episodes that we distribute for programming such as In The Night Garden and Sarah Jane Adventures is a real selling point. We invest in properties such as In The Night Garden, 3rd & Bird and Tronji as they benefit from strong merchandising and online elements which help them to stand out in a crowded marketplace and really connect with their target audience.
 
 

What are your goals and expectations MIPCOM?

 

MIPCOM is still a key sales event in our calendar. There was undoubtedly a lower attendance at MIPTV earlier in the year but it also meant that those who did attend the market had a clear agenda and meant business.
 
In terms of strategy, we use the market to launch our new slate. We are also highlighting some gems from our catalogue and—as always—we will be very focused on leveraging value from our key brands. We will achieve this by working hard to maximize the windows that we license across both linear and on demand platforms. Where a property is successful we make sure that we understand its value in the schedule and share in that. Of course, we’ll also be working hard to make sure that we place these brands into the few markets where they have not yet been licensed.