VIDEO: BBC Studios’ Tim Davie

Tim Davie, CEO of BBC Studios, was interviewed by World Screen’s Anna Carugati on the stage of the Grand Auditorium at MIPCOM, discussing the importance of the merger with BBC Worldwide and how it has enabled the company to ramp up its focus on “British bold creativity.”

“The key rationale for us bringing our production and distribution businesses together was to secure talent. At the heart of it is we are in an incredible time, the speed of change is dizzying, scale is becoming more defining. To attract and retain the best talent we needed to have a system that enables you to come up with an idea, get it made, get the funding together and come to the market quickly. It’s about making projects happen and bringing the various parts of the business together. That enables you to move at speed and make bigger things happen quickly. We felt the overwhelming need to do that.”

On how BBC Studios is competing for talent, Davie said, “We’re pretty focused. Can a British entity of a local entity compete in this great global game we’re in? I often say we’re a big small company. Local content is critical but there is no doubt that you have to choose your battles now. We talk about British bold creativity. We’re a global company powered by British creativity. We are very focused on high-end, British-driven creativity of the finished quality, underpinned by the BBC’s values, the editorial values we care about.”