BBC Studios is “really committed to Doctor Who and is continuing to look at ways in which we can bring the show to fans,” according to its CEO Tom Fussell.
Speaking after the publication of the BBC Annual Report, Fussell stressed the “crucial” nature of BBC Studios’ partnership with Disney along with the strength of Doctor Who, coming with the BBC-Disney+ Doctor Who deal hanging in the balance and following eyebrow-raising comments from ex-Doctor Ncuti Gatwa over the weekend.
“Fans love the Doctor Who brand,” Fussell said today. “It’s been that way since before I was in short trousers.”
Fussell celebrated Disney as a “key partner of ours” that works with BBC Studios on hits including Bluey, Dancing with the Stars, Tucci in Italy and “a decade’s worth of natural history.” “They are a crucial partner and we share a lot of the same values so I’m really proud of the way that relationship has worked,” he added.
Doctor Who has been in the spotlight since Russell T Davies’ regenerated second season of the sci-fi series aired to below-par ratings and some middling reviews, leading to fevered speculation that Disney+ will not extend the splashy co-pro deal beyond two seasons, which is currently up for discussion. Over the weekend, 32-year-old Gatwa told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg Show he is “getting old” and “my body was tired” when queried over why he left Doctor Who after two seasons. While calling it “the most amazing job in the world,” Gatwa described Doctor Who as “strenuous” and said it “takes a lot out of you physically, emotionally and mentally.”
One of BBC Studios’ strongest relationships with Disney is over Bluey, America’s most-streamed show, which BBC Studios said today helped drive record revenue and profit of £2.2B and £228M respectively for the commercial arm.
Fussell said BBC Studios’ move to finance the upcoming Bluey movie is “one of the biggest investments” made during his tenure.
He pointed to other recent success stories such as the £255M acquisition of the half of BritBox International that BBC Studios didn’t own.
BritBox itself delivered big profits last year – driving a plus-40% soar in revenue for BBC Studios’ media and streaming division – and Fussell said the best-of-British streamer has a “unique ability” to help the BBC by acting as co-producer on shows like Ludwig and The Other Bennet Sister.
“Our mandate is very clear, we are there to make longer-term sustainable growing financial returns and to use the BBC’s values as a way of doing that,” he added. “[BritBox] has that added advantage of being a very powerful route to market for British shows, which would be very hard to fund if it wasn’t for BritBox.”
More direct-to-consumer plays in a similar vein to BritBox or the powerplay to charge American audiences for news content could be incoming soon, according to Fussell, with today’s Annual Report saying BBC Studios is “working actively to further develop direct routes to market as part of a strategy to establish sustainable growth for the business” amid “challenging trading conditions.”
Fussell acknowledged that what the BBC has termed a scripted funding crisis is a consequence of those “challenging conditions” and said “the industry needs a bit of help” to overcome the problem, which he added is not just limited to the drama genre.
“I would go back and say it hit kids and family first, then UK comedy, now it’s hitting drama and natural history is also a challenge,” he added. “Our job is to take risks and our producers are doing amazingly at pivoting our budgets to get them down a bit. Smart people are looking to pivot their slates to get them back into the sweet spot of [shows costing] between £1M and £3M per hour because that’s probably where you have to go, but even then it’s hard.”
BBC Studios returned £391M to the BBC last year and is well on track to hit its £1.5B five-year returns target by 2026-27, Fussell said.
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