Meet the Programmer: BBC America Battles for Content In the Mother Country

Cable World, July 25, 2005

By Shirley Brady

Success came with a price for BBC America, which inadvertently intensified competition for U.K. shows when it brought Ricky Gervais' The Office to these shores and won Emmy Awards as a result. Not that it was ever easy to find U.K. shows that could survive the Atlantic crossing.

Despite a doubling of BBC America's programming budget, it's been a challenge finding and scheduling fresh content such as Footballer$ Wives, the U.K. ratings smash that premiered on BBCA July 17. Many British series typically have short runs and single-season outings, says BBC America general manager Kathryn Mitchell. "What we're hoping to get is more long-running series, and they do exist in the U.K.," she says.

Mitchell and BBC America president and CEO Bill Hilary must compete against other U.S. networks, some with deeper pockets, for the best British series. HBO, for instance, snagged Gervais' upcoming sitcom Extra while MTV Networks snapped up comedian Graham Norton's back catalog of talk shows for Logo.

"We do get to cherry-pick from the BBC, but we work with ITV and Channel Four as well," says Hilary. "There are some shows that we would obviously like, but someone with more money gets them."

Hilary plans to address that disadvantage by developing originals that BBC America can license to others. Mitchell says BBCA likely will invest in original dramas first; development will begin when the channel hires an executive to head up original production.

Meanwhile, Mitchell has acquired two longer-than-usual Brit hits: Teachers, an eight-part dramedy about a group of dysfunctional teachers, which is slated for August; and Bad Girls, a 10-part drama about babes behind bars (from the makers of Footballer$ Wives), which is slated for the fourth quarter.

Other new acquisitions include Bodies (also in the fourth quarter), a gritty six-episode hospital drama that's more like The Shield than ER; The Thick of It, a three-part political satire from the BBC; Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky, a drama set in a grimy 1930s London; and Mr. Harvey Lights a Candle, an uplifting BBC movie.

BBC America also is investing in six co-productions: Viva Blackpool (Blackpool in the U.K.), an award-winning six-part musical drama from the BBC; two movies, Friends and Crocodiles and Gideon's Daughter, from writer Stephen Poliakoff, likely airing in '06; the third season of psychological thriller Messiah, coming to BBCA's Mystery Monday block; and a pair of comedy series, Love Soup, whose cast includes Mrs. Sting, Trudie Styler, and The Robinsons, starring Martin Freeman (a.k.a. Tim of The Office).

Investing in co-productions costs more than simply licensing U.S. windows. But as Hilary notes, "It's a great way to go because it means we can get in at the pre-script stage, and therefore have some say in the editorial."

This summer, BBC America has high hopes for the British precursor to Desperate Housewives, Footballer$ Wives. "It has a much broader audience, it's a much soapier story, it's got much wider appeal than a lot of the stuff that the channel has had on before," says Mitchell. "We want to open the channel up to a bigger and wider audience. We're going through a transition period where we want to try some new things and see how they do."

A focused marketing push outside cities should help in that effort. "We're marketing it in a slightly different way than what we've done before," says Mitchell. "More in the heartland and more on radio, rather than posters on Sunset Boulevard."

BBC America at a Glance

Location: New York, N.Y.

Launch date: March 29, 1998

Number of homes: 41.5 million

Management team: Bill Hilary, president and CEO; Kathryn Mitchell, general manager; Chris Carr, chief financial officer; Greg Heanue, VP, marketing; Sharon O'Sullivan, VP, national sales manager.

Ownership: A joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Discovery Communications, BBC America is wholly owned and editorially controlled by the BBC.

Competition: Other cable networks with edgy programming such as HBO, FX and Bravo; PBS affiliates also carry Britcoms (such as Coupling) and other U.K. programming.

Audience: Currently 25 to 54; Bill Hilary hopes the channel will skew 18 to 49 within five years while remaining upscale in its appeal.

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