BBC Earth lays foundations in Europe

BBC Worldwide has launched BBC Earth in as a linear TV channel in a number of European countries this week, including Romania and Turkey.

The factual science and nature channel is now accessible for the first time to Romanian audiences via Telekom, RCS/RDS DIGI and Digital Cable Systems, and will be available in the local language.

In Turkey BBC Earth is available via TTNet’s IPTV platform Tivibu, also in the local language.

The rollouts come in the same week that BBC Worldwide launched BBC Earth and its new factual entertainment brand BBC Brit as linear channels across the Nordics – in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Iceland.

The BBC’s commercial arm first announced it would make the Nordic launches in January, marking the second rollout of the Brit and Earth channels after their debut in Poland in February.

In all the territories where it is live, BBC Earth replaces the BBC Knowledge channel, with BBCWW saying it will make an “increased investment into new and premiere content.” Similarly, BBC Brit replaces BBC Entertainment.

Commenting specifically on the Romanian launch of BBC Earth, Paul Dempsey, president for global markets at BBC Worldwide said: “We know that viewers across Central and Eastern Europe love our premium factual content, and with the launch of BBC Earth here we are excited to bring the most amazing sights, stories and characters from the natural world into millions of livings rooms across Romania.”

BBCWW said that since launching in the Nordics on Monday, BBC Brit has “got off to a great start,” beating BBC Entertainment’s average share almost five times over in its key demographic of 21 to 50 year-olds and becoming the most watched international channel in Norway.

“We knew that viewers in Norway love our programmes and we are thrilled to see how well BBC Brit performed on launch day against its competition. We are committed to continuing the channel’s growth over the coming months by offering exclusive first-runs of the best of British TV,” said Tobi de Graaff, executive vice-president for Western Europe, BBC Worldwide.