BBC Worldwide to focus on BBC's IP, global growth

MUMBAI: BBC Worldwide?s future strategy will see it build on its contribution to growth in the UK creative sector. It will continue to focus on BBC intellectual property and increasingly on international growth while, wherever possible, help other high quality UK content reach global markets.

In the UK, BBC Worldwide will play a significant role investing in the best of UK content from the BBC and independent producers, while exiting non core businesses like non-BBC branded magazines. BBC Worldwide will expand its existing international TV channel portfolio and launch the Global iPlayer.

The BBC recently published a report on ?Helping Drive Growth in the UK Creative Economy?. It describes how the pubcaster helps create the right conditions for growth in the creative sector. The BBC?s primary purpose is to inform, educate and entertain but, like other public institutions, it can make a positive contribution to growth. The BBC does this in two ways: by enhancing the productive potential - ?supply-side? - of the creative sector, and by stimulating the demand for services, products and exports.

BBC director of policy and strategy John Tate said that BBC Worldwide continues to grow, doing business in 200 countries and territories. "It works with over 300 indies and turns the best UK content into global brands. Turnover increased 7.8 per cent to ?1,158 million last year; it now accounts for nearly 10 per cent of UK creative industry exports; and helped attract ?59 million of inward investment in 2009/10 from overseas broadcasters."

Consistent with its public purposes, the BBC is committed to thinking harder about how the licence fee can be spent in ways that better support creative businesses, and about new partnerships that can create increased value both for the BBC and for others.

As well as enhancing its positive contribution to creative sector growth, the BBC must also operate in ways that minimise negative effects on the market. It can do this by placing clearer and more predictable limits on its activity particularly in areas of market sensitivity.

BBC must be sensitive to how its actions affect others. In addition to the BBC Trust?s regulatory obligations to consider the BBC?s market impact (for instance, during Public Value Tests), the BBC?s Fair Trading rules are a key feature of this regime and incorporate?amongst other guidelines?an explicit obligation on the BBC to have regard to its competitive impact. This is given effect through the implementation of the Competitive Impact Principle (CIP). The CIP is a critical factor for public service activity and involves consideration of how an activity fulfils the BBC?s public purposes, its impact on competition on the wider market in which it operates and how any negative impacts can be minimised.

The BBC Trust has recently announced that it will improve the transparency of the processes it uses to assess proposals from the BBC for new services or activities. In particular, it will make greater use of Ofcom?s market expertise and understanding in assessing the impact of proposals.

Tate added, "The BBC?s future strategy will focus on core editorial priorities, setting the highest standards and increasing the proportion of its investment on UK content.1 But the BBC must deliver this strategy ? in common with almost every other public institution ? within a new, more constrained funding settlement. The BBC has produced this report to identify those of its activities that have a positive growth impact and to examine how it can help better position the UK creative sector to expand and prosper. Consistent with its public purposes, the BBC is committed to thinking harder about how the licence fee can be spent in ways that better support creative businesses, and about new partnerships that can deliver increased value both for the BBC and for others."

Economic growth in the creative sector, as in others, is driven ultimately by commercial companies who have the capital and incentive to build their businesses and employ more people. However, the right policy framework and interventions ? for example, in education and skills - help create the conditions conducive to growth.

Sustainable growth is most likely to be found in those sectors which are characterised by competitive markets, product innovation, and a skilled talent base. The success of the UK broadcast sector has been based on competition for quality between a range of public and private providers with access to different sources of funding and with different institutional models.

The BBC?s mission is to provide high quality programmes and services that inform, educate and entertain and fulfil its public purposes. It acts as a quality benchmark and ensures an uninterrupted flow of investment into UK content and into the development of the best UK talent. In fulfilling this mission, the BBC also adds significant value to the UK economy overall and the creative sector in particular. Licence fee funding ensures over ?2.5billion is spent on content annually with over ?1.1billion of that invested outside the BBC. Across all its activities, the BBC added over ?8 billion of value to the UK economy in 2009/10 generating over two pounds of economic value for every pound of the licence fee.

As importantly, the BBC?s scale and judicious use of public funding help create the right conditions for the UK creative sector, and for private firms within the sector to grow. First, it enhances the productive potential the supply side of the creative sector by enhancing its key productive inputs, through, for example, investing in skills and technology innovations. Second, it stimulates the demand-side through, for example, the scale and scope of its commissioning of content from the independent production sector and the support it provides for exports of UK content.

The overall effect of the BBC?s activity is to support the rebalancing of the UK economy towards investment in high tech, knowledge based sectors and greater exports. The shift in the physical gravity of the BBC ? with strong production bases in Glasgow, Cardiff and the North of England ? will help to ensure the benefits of growth in the creative sector be shared across the UK, thereby rebalancing the economy geographically.

Tate adds that last year the BBC invested over ?30 million in training the creative sector, and supplied over 3,800 days of training to more than 2,400 non-BBC staff. The talent nurtured benefits the wider industry, with many presenters, writers and performers moving between the BBC and commercial broadcasters and independent producers.

"Investing over ?50m in Research & Development activity: Because the BBC is committed to open platforms and technologies, we enable other companies to create their own value on the back of them. Just think how many set top boxes, flat-screen TVs and digital radios have been sold as a result of the BBC?s work on Freeview, Freeview HD, FreeSat,
NICAM and many other innovations."

In terms of the UK content sector he said that the BBC?s ?1 billion investment, combined with healthy competition for commissions between in-house and independent suppliers, has helped underpin a vibrant commercial UK production sector. Without this role, the sector could lose over a quarter of its income.

"BBC Online - now the fifth-most popular web destination for UK users - gave many people a reason to go online for the first time. Likewise, BBC iPlayer has helped expand the audience for online audiovisual content to the benefit of other providers. Our work to support RadioPlayer has bought around 300 commercial radio stations together in one place."

In the creative cluster section, he said that by focussing our
expertise geographically such as Natural History in Bristol and Drama in Cardiff, the BBC has created sustainable production centres, helping the UK to have a more balanced economy. Many thousands of people will directly benefit from employment, training, business or partnership opportunities from MediaCityUK in Salford.

The BBC can only benefit the creative industries in these ways because of its scale, international reach, stable funding and commitment to the highest levels of quality.

"At a time when more and more public institutions are being challenged to make a contribution to growth as well as to fulfil their public functions, the BBC has hopefully shown a lead," Tate said.