Tim Davie

This interview originally appeared in the MIPCOM 2013 issue of World Screen.

The BBC is a treasure trove of high-end programming, from cult classic Doctor Who to entertainment format Dancing with the Stars and major natural-history series Planet Earth. BBC Worldwide sells these and countless more hours of programming and also manages channels around the world. Chief executive Tim Davie says that at the heart of any BBC Worldwide brand, channel or sale, there is quality.

WS: BBC Worldwide’s financial results for last year were strong despite difficult economic conditions in a number of territories.
DAVIE: What was most impressive about BBC Worldwide was its sustained growth. If you look at the last few years, we’ve seen consistent growth, even though trading conditions last year were pretty tough. Not only did we deal with difficult macro-economic conditions, but we had particular issues in places like the U.K. where retailers such as HMV have basically failed. There were a number of specific issues we had to deal with, but to see the business posting growth not only in terms of revenues, but also profit, and most important, we sustained margins north of 15 percent, overall it’s a pretty healthy scorecard for Worldwide at the moment!

WS: You have said that 2013–2014 would be a transformational year for BBC Worldwide. How do you envision better exploiting BBC brands?
DAVIE: We will be announcing our strategy toward the end of the year, so I won’t talk in too much detail, but first and foremost whatever we do, quality is of absolute paramount importance. In terms of growing the business, my assumption is we’ll keep driving up the premium nature of our content and differentiate ourselves in the market, rather than going purely for volume.

Having said that, our catalogue will remain on a scale that is largely unparalleled. To do that we need to ensure that we are working with two types of partners in a more integrated way: firstly with the BBC in-house productions base, where you’ll see Worldwide continue to be a very active partner editorially as well as commercially. Secondly, we have the opportunity to keep nurturing and developing our business with the independent sector, particularly in the U.K, but also with partners such as Temple Street in Canada. We just did Orphan Black with them, which got some real traction. You’ll continue to see us increase our ambition with regard to BBC in house but also look for partners who can really develop programming of the quality that is of the BBC standard. My personal view is that there is still some way to go before we can truly say we are fully exploiting the most out of all our content supply routes.

WS: What growth do you see in the North American market?
DAVIE: Firstly, we should be incredibly proud that we’ve got a BBC America channel that is growing in an extremely tough market. I pay enormous credit to Herb Scannell and the team at BBC America for building up a business that now has some scale and some real momentum behind it.

Having said that, I still think there is potential for us to keep developing, both in partnership with BBC in house—our production units in L.A. as well as in the U.K.—and other independents, to develop fully owned hits that we can exploit not only in America but around the globe. In the North American market we want to be a highly innovative and groundbreaking commissioner as well as a leading program-sales operation.

WS: In what other territories, whether Latin America or Asia, are you are looking to increase operations?
DAVIE: BBC Worldwide remains underexploited in emerging territories. Currently 4 percent of our revenue comes from Asia. We’ve got some notable successes and channels performing very well but we remain an underdeveloped business. We will see growth from program sales, the traction that we are getting with our catalogue is growing, and also we continue to look for the right channel opportunities in Asia and Latin America. Clearly, what we don’t want to do is simply plant flags around the world. We’re going to be selective and choose those opportunities where the BBC is highly distinctive and has a really clear role versus the rest of the market.

And with regards to BBC brands, I come from a global brands background and I’ll take as example BBC Earth. In Japan, there is a BBC Earth experience called Orbit. It’s an immersive experience for blockbuster natural history. Visitors can see an amazing 15-minute film on a huge 80-meter long screen, and they are completely immersed in the BBC brand. It’s a partnership with SEGA. We think that brand exploitation potential in live events and merchandising is significant, but it will require a degree of focus. You’ll see us really push for growth behind clear global brands that are highly distinctive versus seizing any tactical opportunities.

WS: As a public broadcaster, the BBC has a responsibility to its license fee payers, and on the other hand BBC Worldwide must operate as a commercial entity. How do you reconcile the two?
DAVIE: It’s absolutely clear that the first priority of the BBC is to the payers of license fee in the U.K. and what is sacrosanct is to ensure that the U.K. services, free from advertising, remain the key platform that everything else in the BBC must follow. Having said that, I think it’s absolutely appropriate that beyond the U.K. public services, internationally and in things like the sale of physical goods in the U.K., we make money to reinvest in programming. One of the key things we did last year was invest £156 million ($244 million) in the U.K. to improve the programming.

What I don’t buy is that we have to editorially skew things way away from what works in the public service in order to deliver commercial success. Interestingly, the things like Doctor Who or the natural-history landmarks that have been the most successful commercially are the things that sit well with the BBC and its public-service remit. As an old-fashioned brand guy, one of the things that is critical is protecting and building your brand reputation, not just chasing the nearest buck. My vision for Worldwide is very clear, which is we will be first and foremost about building the BBC’s brand reputation globally and from that will flow highly successful and high-margin commercial business.

WS: With so much clutter in the marketplace, is product that is very well made and engaging going to beat out that which is mediocre?
DAVIE: Indeed. I’ve been fairly vocal about this. There is no doubt that as you emerge from an era of limited choice into infinite choice, there will be a clear up of content that does not make the cut in terms of quality. So my job as CEO of BBC Worldwide is to set an extremely high bar in terms of quality for our writing, our production, our programming and also how we present our content. I absolutely think that those without a highly distinctive offer or proposition, which is supported by content of the utmost quality will struggle. The truth is the digital environment will be unforgiving on those without absolute clarity about what they are offering and those who are not delivering things that are of the highest quality.