BBC Worldwide Chief Executive John Smith was in Boston last night to spread the word about the impressive growth of the BBC's commercial arm. Smith is a finance and accounting professional by training and he is repositioning BBC Worldwide as a profit-oriented business.
Changing the internal culture of this segment of Auntie Beeb must be a substantial and recurring challenge. As Smith focuses on matters of external image, he and his executive team must also be wrestling with the issues associated with changing their internal identity, too. BBC Worldwide maintains six business segments - Channels, Sales & Distribution, Magazines, Home Entertainment, Content & Production, Digital Media and Global Brands - with 2,800 brands distributed to 200 countries. It may represent one of the biggest multimedia powerhouses that so few people know about, at least in the United States. If Americans think about the BBC at all, which is rare, it is likely in connection with the World Service Radio or even venerable productions such as Monty Python or Fawlty Towers.
BBC Worldwide is talented, creative and energetic. Like everyone in this business, they are chasing the youth market for its celebrated appeal to advertisers and sponsors. It is always a balancing act, however, to shake loose older customers - who actually have most of the disposable income - while hoping to appeal to the highly fickle youth category. There may already be 50 networks in the United States chasing this ever-changing "youth vote." In doing so, too many of the longstanding, quality media players risk losing their self-identities if not their souls.
I have been an ardent fan of the Beeb since I was 14 years old. I suppose I'm in that older base of customers who love the BBC World News, Planet Earth and some of the better shows - and use a few of their excellent Lonely Planet travel guides, too - but recoil at some of the tragically hip programming that seems even more saturated these days with advertising than what one finds even on the traditional American networks. Except, of course, this apparent level of advertising serves as testimony to the effectiveness of Smith and his team. Don't bet against them. Here's a team that jump-started three new television networks in India just last year.
BBC Worldwide's objectives and business plan sound just right in this context, but these balancing acts between programming quality and commercial success are never easy. Interestingly, Smith underscored the importance of the U.S. market last night, reminding us that we are five times larger than the next national market. He left us with at least two other interesting data points. First, Americans watched 142 an astonishing 142 hours of television per month in 2008, up from 2007. Plus, 100 million people watched five billion videos on YouTube in 2008.
Changing the internal culture of this segment of Auntie Beeb must be a substantial and recurring challenge. As Smith focuses on matters of external image, he and his executive team must also be wrestling with the issues associated with changing their internal identity, too. BBC Worldwide maintains six business segments - Channels, Sales & Distribution, Magazines, Home Entertainment, Content & Production, Digital Media and Global Brands - with 2,800 brands distributed to 200 countries. It may represent one of the biggest multimedia powerhouses that so few people know about, at least in the United States. If Americans think about the BBC at all, which is rare, it is likely in connection with the World Service Radio or even venerable productions such as Monty Python or Fawlty Towers.
BBC Worldwide is talented, creative and energetic. Like everyone in this business, they are chasing the youth market for its celebrated appeal to advertisers and sponsors. It is always a balancing act, however, to shake loose older customers - who actually have most of the disposable income - while hoping to appeal to the highly fickle youth category. There may already be 50 networks in the United States chasing this ever-changing "youth vote." In doing so, too many of the longstanding, quality media players risk losing their self-identities if not their souls. I have been an ardent fan of the Beeb since I was 14 years old. I suppose I'm in that older base of customers who love the BBC World News, Planet Earth and some of the better shows - and use a few of their excellent Lonely Planet travel guides, too - but recoil at some of the tragically hip programming that seems even more saturated these days with advertising than what one finds even on the traditional American networks. Except, of course, this apparent level of advertising serves as testimony to the effectiveness of Smith and his team. Don't bet against them. Here's a team that jump-started three new television networks in India just last year.
BBC Worldwide's objectives and business plan sound just right in this context, but these balancing acts between programming quality and commercial success are never easy. Interestingly, Smith underscored the importance of the U.S. market last night, reminding us that we are five times larger than the next national market. He left us with at least two other interesting data points. First, Americans watched 142 an astonishing 142 hours of television per month in 2008, up from 2007. Plus, 100 million people watched five billion videos on YouTube in 2008.