Mark Reynolds, director of Unscripted, BBC Studios At this month’s BBC Showcase, a key launch will be Perfect Planet – a series that BBC Studios unscripted portfolio director Mark Reynolds describes as “the next landmark natural history series” to air on BBC this year. Produced by Our Planet maker Silverback Pictures and co-produced by Tencent […]
BBC Studios execs have assured that Sir David Attenborough has a “huge and deep relationship” with the corporation that “won’t change” despite an SVOD threat on the horizon. The comments to TBI come as the veteran presenter’s future at the public broadcaster has been called into question on the back of revelations that Attenborough is […]
Newly appointed unscripted portfolio director Mark Reynolds tells TBI the merged BBC Studios is “more focused on premium than ever” with a clear set of priorities across all genres, including natural history, science and history. In recent years, some of the BBC’s most premium, global-facing content has emerged from natural history, with the likes of […]
BBC Studios has revealed that from September chief creative officer Mark Linsey (pictured) will take charge of its portfolio of production relationships. Linsey will now manage partnerships with indies and BBC Studios Production, while remaining in his role as chief creative officer. He will relinquish his responsibilities as BBC Studios Production lead, however. A new […]
The BBC’s factual slate is bringing drama to its animal kingdom this year, as the broadcaster moves forward from the tremendous success of Blue Planet II in 2017 and Planet Earth II a year prior. The 2018 selection welcomes a range of critters, with aims to tell their stories like never before. Topping the list […]
The BBC has officially unveiled its latest blue-chip natural history series, Blue Planet II, and will launch it to international buyers at its Showcase event in Liverpool this week. Sir David Attenborough will narrate the series, which was previously known as Ocean and will look at underwater environments and animals across every continent. BBC Studios’ […]
Ocean will be the focus of the Tuesday night activity for buyers at the BBC Worldwide Showcase next week, with the commercial arm of the BBC handing the natural history series the premium slot usually reserved for huge formats and entertainment shows (Top Gear last year), or talent-filled drama (Wolf Hall in 2015). Although the evening […]
If scripted TV dominates the headlines at the moment, 2016 served up a few factual blockbusters. Genre-bending National Geographic series Mars married golden age scripted TV with documentary, Making a Murderer became watercooler (internet) TV and reinvigorated the true crime genre, and Leonardo DiCaprio brought some A-list movie star power to feature docs. Planet […]
BBC Worldwide has bought a 25% stake in Curve Media, the UK indie set up last year by former Cineflix execs Camilla Lewis and Rob Carey. Worldwide, the commercial arm of the UK pubcaster, provided start-up funding to Curve and has a first-look deal with the fledgling indie, an agreement that gave it first refusal […]
Julie Swanston is VP, commissioning for BBC Worldwide Channels. She will commission a minimum of 83 hours of content a year for Brit and Earth, with Liam Keelan, director of scripted, overseeing BBC First. For BBC Brit, she will commission four original, factual-entertainment series across four core key filters: camaraderie, expertise, wit and jeopardy. For BBC Earth, and […]
