BBC Studios Distribution & Production Heads Talk Market Shifts

In a fireside chat moderated by World Screen’s Mansha Daswani at MIPCOM, BBC Studios’ Rebecca Glashow and Ralph Lee showcased how the company is positioned to manage the disruption in the content business today.

Glashow is CEO of global distribution at BBC Studios, while Lee is CEO of BBC Studios Productions. In conversation with the editor-in-chief of World Screen, they showcased new highlights like Planet Earth III and the upcoming The Famous Five and outlined how the company is serving its commissioning and content sales partners across the globe.

“We have peaks and troughs in this industry,” said Glashow. “This is not the first one. There will be challenges, but that ultimately becomes the moment we push ourselves to do what we do well. In years like this, you have to take out the noise and continue to do what you do so well. We’re making decisions and investing in content, not for this year, but for the long term. A large part of what we have done is look to the partners around the world who sustain us. How are we serving our audiences in the longer term? How are we creating partnerships that work for them and work for us? A large part of our global presence and strength is those long-term partnerships. We brace ourselves and go on!”

Lee stressed the breadth of the BBC Studios offering. “That diversification across all different TV genres and different lines of business is one of the strengths of BBC Studios. In the last couple of years, you’ve seen the proving out of a model created when the BBC’s production capability was merged with BBC Worldwide to create BBC Studios. We’ve seen real, organic growth from all of our different genres. They’re able to continue to make this brilliant range of work that we do for the BBC. We’ve also added new clients like Apple, Netflix and Amazon. Our diverse range of talent can work in different business models. And we have global diversity, which is a real strength because the turbulence in the industry isn’t felt equally around the world. We’ve seen our international distribution grow and our international production grow.”

On specific growth opportunities, Lee highlighted the expanding kids’ and family remit with that team’s move into BBC Studios. “We’re focusing on partnerships we can build and driving new IP,” Lee said. High-end factual continues to be a growth area, given its strong resonance with both linear broadcasters and global streamers. And BBC Studios Productions remains committed to expanding its scripted capabilities via “building our production labels and investing in talent in indies,” Lee said. Audio is another area of focus. “We’re doing a lot of work where we use podcasts to develop new projects and exciting storytelling that can then develop into documentary or scripted projects.”

Glashow added that the diversity of BBC Studios’ business allows the company to take risks. “When I look across that portfolio, there are areas we can rely on; they might be the bread and butter of our business. But also areas where, creatively, we want to continue to take risks. We have that balance. We know who to partner with. We can understand the audience and know how to get things moving the right way. A large part of that is we’re not parachuting in at a moment where global is trendy and interesting. We’re doing it from the bottom up. That allows us to truly push global growth. We’re growing in the U.K. and around the world with our partners here in the U.S. and other key markets.”

The conversation then moved to how Lee and Glashow’s teams collaborate to ensure they are meeting the market’s needs. “We’re taking into consideration the way we’re developing things, with a much stronger aligned view of what the market is for them, how we’re budgeting and our ambition for things,” Lee said. “That joined-up approach is critical in a market that is a bit less hot than it was two years ago.”

Glashow added, “In hot markets, the froth allows for slightly less discipline and reliability. We know how to deliver our projects on budget. It’s a discipline that not all businesses have. Ultimately, you get closer to your friends and partners when navigating through a challenging moment in the market.”

Elaborating on the collaboration between their two divisions, Glashow noted: “We talk a lot about making sure we’re balancing supply and demand; that is a big part of it. But we’re not in the widget business; we’re in the storytelling business. We have more data to inform us and more feedback from the market; we have to take that into consideration, especially when we want things to work in the U.K. and other critical markets. It’s having those open, transparent conversations up front and early on.”

Lee then introduced The Famous Five, a new adaptation of the beloved Enid Blyton IP that is well-established in the U.K. but less known elsewhere. “If we want to make a big, ambitious, expansive The Famous Five reboot, what are the countries that IP is going to be resonant and people will want to lean into that? That helps us build a commercial model and gives us confidence in investing in it.”

Lee discussed the risk aversion in the commissioning landscape. “There’s a sense that [commissioners] are forensically scrutinizing budgets and the scale and the range of their commissions. People talk about risk aversion. That’s a result of broadcasters and commissioners falling back on known IP. Commissioners need to give audiences something that will stand out for them, some sort of hook of familiarity. At the same time, a lot of brilliant original work is being commissioned. New writers are being backed. It is tough. It’s easier if you’re in the ‘big’ game—everyone is fueled by bigger and better; everyone needs things that will stand out for big audiences. Some smaller projects are falling away; they do not want to parcel out their commissioning budgets into small pieces. They need to go for big things. Luckily, that aligns with how we think, what we like to develop and our model. So it is a tough moment. But that’s a correction after a very hot few years. I think things will stabilize as well.”

Lee also weighed in on BBC Studios’ initiatives to find new talent as it works to make sure there’s diversity and inclusion in front of and behind the camera. “In terms of the voices we bring to the screen, it is much more diverse. In terms of the casting and who and what we’re putting on-screen, things have improved a lot. There’s still a lot of work to do with genuine inclusion and diversity behind the camera, our staff makeup and our freelance cohorts. We do a lot of work trying to improve that. We have a diversity rider that enforces the thinking about the diverse makeup of the crew on all of our productions. We’ve been backing a lot of young and new talent.

“We’re trying to focus on an inclusive culture and backing talent rather than bespoke schemes that particularly isolate people with protected characteristics or from minority groups. Those things can be double-edged. We’re backing a much broader range of new and exciting talent to come into the industry. That doesn’t mean there isn’t more to do. Getting people to understand what an inclusive culture looks like in a grounded and mature way is a journey, and we’re working hard on it.”