It’s been a record year for the UK’s public broadcaster, with full-year financials revealing their highest-ever earnings and revenue growth across the board. Blake & Wang P.A’s Brandon Blake, noted entertainment attorney and industry expert, has the details.
Overall Revenue Reaches $1.93B
Most of the 30% jump in overall revenue for the studio has been attributed to a strong year for both production and amazing gains for UKTV, their TV channels group. In particular, their $473M revenue from content sales, a record-breaking 56% increase for the studio, catches the eye. Charmingly, alongside their anchor brands like Doctor Who and strong unscripted content, this was also attributed to solid production from their indie partners introducing interesting and audience-attracting new fodder to their content stable.
Strong Demand
We also see a 50% jump in overall earnings for the entity before tax, interest, depreciation and amortization, hitting $267M. It’s also the first time they’ve crossed the £200M benchmark, another key record for the service. Much of this hinges on continued strong demand for popular unscripted shows like the Strictly/Dancing With the Stars franchise and the Planet series.
Rounding out the string of successes, UKTV saw its same earnings jump 105%. Here we see the recovery in the overall advertising market pull in strong figures as well as fantastic audience traction across the board. Interestingly, their comedy channel, Dave, has managed to pull in a further 14% of viewership in the now-critical youth market, representing watchers between 16-34 years old. UKTV play added 1M new registered users in the time period, too.
As a lesson in what investment in strong new content alongside cultivating existing IP and advertising partnerships can do, it’s one worth looking at closely. Perhaps Netflix can learn a lesson or two from the pairing of strong advertising presence and stronger content development.
Film and Television 