Tag: BBC

United Kingdom – The commissioning team at BBC Studios Social is inviting independent producers of all sizes and backgrounds to propose unique short-form proposals. These concepts strive to broaden and improve existing intellectual properties (IP), captivate devoted fans, and capture the attention of new audiences across digital channels. 

The available production opportunities currently span multiple key brands in the BBC Studios Social portfolio and are available online. Regarding Kids & Family, commissioners are actively looking for fun activity-based material for the hit show Hey Duggee, as well as engaging concepts focused around cuisine and family-oriented entertainment for the internationally recognized Bluey franchise. Furthermore, suggestions targeting a younger demographic are welcomed for the digital-only humour program Funny Parts and the automotive Top Gear.

Regarding factual and unscripted programming, BBC Earth is actively looking for ideas that capture the wonders of nature in appealing ways that work for its new vertical channels. For BBC Earth Science, a wide range of concepts covering subjects including sustainability, space exploration, and the complexities of the human body are also being sought out. 

Chris Allen, director, digital content development at BBC, said, “In an increasingly competitive and fast maturing digital-first market, BBC Studios Social are committed to finding, developing, and partnering with the best independent producers and new talent globally. We love our world-class brands, and we’re super excited to share them with you to deliver new formats, new talent, and new ideas that are critical and commercial successes. Whether silly comedy sketches, or a mind-bending science documentary, we hope this will be the start of some beautiful creative partnerships.”

Jakarta, Indonesia – The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in Indonesia has announced that it has ceased its analogue radio operations in Indonesia on December 30, 2022, in favour of transitioning to digital broadcasting.

This marks the end of BBC Indonesia’s 73-year air streak, since it was first launched in 1949.

According to BBC News Indonesia editor Jerome Wirawan, this was done to save the broadcasting company around GPB 28.5m in expenses. This also follows ceasing radio operations of BBC Arabic, BBC Persian and BBC Chinese.

This was not the first time a government-funded broadcasting company has pulled the plug of its local radio operations. In 2012, The Netherlands’ Radio Netherlands ceased operations globally. Meanwhile, Germany’s Deutsche Welle pulled the plug on its Indonesian radio operations, alongside Bengali, Urdu, Dari/Pashtu, in 2011.

Despite radio operations ceasing, BBC Indonesia’s broadcasts will continue to air on digital platforms, including their local website, as well as listening on streaming platforms.

The BBC is the government-funded broadcaster of the United Kingdom. Its Asia-Pacific presence includes Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, China, India, Australia, and Taiwan.

Sydney, Australia – Australian-based media company Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) has announced that it has partnered with global broadcasting company BBC to make its popular titles and content be made available on SCA’s new destination LiSTNR.

Launched in February, LiSTNR is a curated and personalized free app offering radio, podcasts, music, and news, creating a new audio destination for all Australians. LiSTNR houses more than 100 premium original local, national and global podcasts, live radio streams, radio podcasts and digital music stations from the Hit and Triple M networks, 15 linear music live streaming channels, four weekly music podcasts and an on-demand audio news and info service.

Said BBC content will be made available on LiSTNR on 23 June, and will include programs such as those of renowned broadcaster and natural historian Sir David Attenborough; English economist, broadcaster and journalist Tim Harford; music programs ‘Desert Island Discs’ and ‘Essential Mix’; ‘In Concert’ which is the BBC’s largest audio collection of live recordings; and music audio program ‘Pop Documentaries’.

According to Grant Blackley, CEO at SCA, when they first launched LiSTNR, they promised it was only the beginning, and now they couldn’t be more delighted that their first LiSTNR partnership is with the BBC which will bring their audiences world class, compelling, premium content from its vast library.

“We have selected BBC content that will resonate with our listeners and attract new audiences to LiSTNR. This is the first of a series of partnerships that will see LiSTNR become the audio destination of choice for premium and popular content such as what we are offering from the BBC,” Blackley stated.

Grant Tothill, general manager for digital audio at SCA added that to have the BBC as one of their partners is a reinforcement of LiSTNR’s vision as a diverse range of premium curated and created content. He also added that said partnership is a great way to complement their locally created live and on demand content across radio, podcasts, music and news.

Meanwhile, Larissa Abid, senior business development manager for North America, Caribbean at BBC Radio International and BBC World Service, commented, “BBC works with some of the biggest names in music, entertainment and journalism to create world-class audio content. Our partnership with SCA will see BBC content available for the first time on LiSTNR. We are impressed with the LiSTNR personalized app offering and are confident that the BBC content slate will appeal to a broad audience.”

Sydney, Australia – Australian television (TV) channel provider Fetch has announced that two channels will be added to its AU$6/month ‘Kids Pack’ channel package, namely BBC Kids and Nick Music.

BBC Kids is the kids-oriented channel from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in the United Kingdom, and features kid-oriented comedy and entertainment shows such as dance drama ‘The Next Step’, football drama Jamie Johnson featuring cameos by some of the UK’s biggest soccer stars; adaptations of British comedian David Walliams’ hilarious best-selling children’s novels Gangsta Granny and Mr Stink, among others.

BBC Kids, targeted at kids age 6 to 10, is the seventh channel to be added in Fetch’s channel list of BBC Channels, including BBC First, UKTV, BBC Earth, BBC Brit, BBC World News, and CBeebies on the Fetch service. Fetch also recently added subscription video on demand (SVOD) service BritBox, which is a JV between BBC Studios and fellow British media company ITV.

On the other hand, Nick Kids is a dedicated 24-hour music channel for kids by the kids channel Nickelodeon, featuring chart-topping hits by the world’s most popular artists, from Ariana Grande, The Weeknd, Sia and Taylor Swift.

Tim Christlieb, director of branded services at BBC Studios ANZ, said, “We are delighted to launch this new virtual playlist channel on Fetch which fits perfectly with our pre-school channel CBeebies, offering a destination for older kids to enjoy a diverse range of programming all with the hallmark of BBC quality.” 

Sam Hall, chief content and commercial officer at Fetch TV, commented, “Fetch TV is excited to be the Australian launch partner for BBC Kids, and to further extend our partnership with BBC Studios demonstrating our commitment to offering quality British content.” 

Slated for launch on April 24th, Nick Kids joins fellow channels Nickelodeon and Nick Jr., bringing the total ViacomCBS subscription channels on the platform to nine, including Spike, Comedy Central, MTV, MTV Classic, MTV Music and MTV Dance. 

“We know Aussie kids love music, so we wanted to create a safe place for them to be able to watch their favorite artists and listen to chart-topping hits from around the world, curated just for them. Nick Music is a channel kids will love, and parents can trust,” said Beverley McGarvey, chief content officer and EVP for ANZ at ViacomCBS.

BBC Kids and Nick Music will fill in the void kid channels Cartoon Network and Boomerang will leave, as they announced that they will be leaving the Fetch platform on April 23.