BBC’s commercial arm to relaunch international news website

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The BBC’s main commercial arm will relaunch its advertising-supported international news website ahead of the US presidential election next year and expand the output of TV productions through acquisitions as it looks to increase revenues sharply by 2028.

Tom Fussell, chief executive of BBC Studios, said the new-look website and app would be launched in North America before being rolled out to the rest of the world.

The relaunched website would prove more attractive to media buyers as it would allow more “localised and personalised” content in the US, he told the Financial Times. “This will be a great offering for advertisers. It’s a premium brand,” he added.

He said the BBC was also recruiting more journalists ahead of the election as there was “a huge amount of market share we can gain” because the organisation was regarded as an impartial source in the US. BBC Studios took commercial control of the BBC.com news website internationally in 2021, although editorial control resides with BBC News.

BBC Studios also manages the broadcaster’s other commercial operations, including the production of programmes such as Doctor Who and UKTV, which is responsible for channels such as Dave and Gold.

It is becoming an increasingly important part of the broadcaster’s income as the government has frozen the licence fee paid by UK households that provides almost three-quarters of the broadcaster’s funding.

BBC Studios generated £2.1bn in revenue in 2022/23 and delivered record returns of £362mn to the public sector broadcaster. In contrast, the licence fee generated income of £3.8bn. Fussell’s target is to double revenues by 2028.

He plans to expand the TV production arm organically and through acquisitions. “We would buy companies for the right price and right culture,” he said. He warned returns could be lower next year due to the investment plans. 

More than a third of BBC Studios’ productions are made for other broadcasters, making it the largest UK exporter of TV content. It is also the largest producer of shows for the BBC in the UK, such as Strictly Come Dancing, which it also sells the rights to internationally.

Fussell said that the wider TV production industry was under pressure due to rising costs and slowing demand from streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, which have reined in spending. 

He said that this meant an impact on overall demand for TV content but predicted that the BBC should be protected. “Low-risk, high-quality BBC content brings in subscribers. We’re fortunate as we make premium content.”