BBC Studios delivers record returns
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Joseph O'Halloran
| 02 July 2019

The BBC’s wholly-owned commercial subsidiary — formed by the 2018 merger of BBC Worldwide and BBC Studios‚ has posted its highest year of returns of £243 million to the UK public broadcaster in its 2018/2019 financial results.

The returns were principally in the form of programme investment and dividends and were £33 million up on the previous year. EBITDA was up annually 51% at £159 million, on headline sales of £1.373 billion.

In the financial year, the business made nearly 2,000 hours of programming for the UK audiences, and secured 15 new commissions for third parties around the world, including Inside the Duchy for ITV, Danny Dyer on Pinter for Sky Arts and Stay Free: The Story of the Clash for Spotify. BBC Studios-produced programmes like one-off drama Killed By My Debt, Strictly Come Dancing and live coverage of the Royal Wedding garnered some 79 award wins for the year, from nearly 300 nominations.

“It has been an excellent year for BBC Studios, both creatively and financially,” said Tim Davie, CEO of BBC Studios. “Two separate subsidiaries have combined swiftly and efficiently to create a new British studio operating on the world stage, able to take ideas seamlessly through funding, creation, distribution and commercialisation. An extremely strong programme slate has seen high quality and award-winning British content like Dynasties, Les Misérables, Famalam and the Festival of Remembrance play out across UK screens and internationally. Our financial performance, with record returns to both the BBC and to indie partners, underpins this creative success.

“The markets in which BBC Studios operates remain changeable, but we know there is strong demand for premium, inspiring content. Our business is firmly focused on investing in talent, rights and ideas, growing our partnerships around the world, evolving our culture, creativity, diversity and innovation, and ensuring we are well positioned to meet this demand and boost our ongoing contributions to the BBC and the wider creative industry.”

Alongside the results, two new third party commissions are announced for BBC Studios Productions. These include its first direct commission in China - a landmark documentary One Cup, A Thousand Stories (w/t), for China Mobile’s Migu. BBC Studios Productions also announced yesterday its first commission for the new short-form digital platform Quibi for whom BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit is producing Fierce Queens (w/t) a blue-chip series introducing nature’s phenomenal females.