The UK’s most awarded creative powerhouse behind the world’s best-loved British stories.
With over half a century’s experience of making bold, British, creative content loved by audiences the world over, is it any wonder we have a reputation for leading the way in innovative storytelling and production techniques? In fact, our teams continually set the standard and raise the creative bar for programme-makers everywhere.
But don’t just take our word for it. BBC Studios Productions is the most-awarded British production company in the UK today with 79 awards and over 300 nominations to our name in the past financial year.
Each year we produce more than 2500 hours of high-quality, distinctive programmes that cover everything from comedy and drama, factual and factual entertainment, to entertainment and music. And we don’t just do this for the BBC. Our teams also produce shows for a diverse range of broadcasters including Apple, Amazon, Channel 4, Channel 5, UKTV, Discovery, Netflix and PBS in North America.
Our ambition is to give a voice to the best of British talent, embracing distinct and diverse stories the world needs to hear. In fact, our passion and commitment to nurturing and supporting both new and established talent alongside our production expertise enables us to champion the best of British writers, directors and programme-makers, effortlessly taking an idea to screen. It’s our mission to inspire and invest in the boldest of ideas to ensure content is created and placed on the world stage.
And just as you’d expect, all our programmes bear the hallmark of quality, creativity and professionalism that audiences have come to expect from the BBC.
BBC Studios Productions houses 11 unique production brands. We aim to give a voice to the best of British talent, embracing distinct and diverse stories, in order to educate, entertain and inform audiences across the globe with original stories across every genre.
See below for who looks after each brand:
Priscilla Parish for Drama Productions
Kate Oates for Continuing Drama Productions
Josh Cole for Comedy Productions
Suzy Lamb for Music Productions and Entertainment Productions
Hannah Wyatt for Factual Entertainment Productions and Events Productions
Tom McDonald for The Natural History Unit, The Documentary Unit and The Science Unit
Cecilia Persson for Kids & Family Productions
As well as our 11 production brands we also have specialist teams that span all genres.
The Digital Originals team creates innovative content in collaboration with our production brands to inspire global audiences – across all of their devices. We produce shows and short-form across a spectrum of digital and social platforms, and our digital innovation and interactivity expands the potential and reach of our shows by connecting us with next generation audiences.
Helen Pendlebury leads the Branded Content team, working with consumer brands to create and distribute best-in-class custom content, ranging from long-form programmes to short-form branded content, podcasts and more.
As the UK’s biggest producer of content, we have a responsibility towards people and the planet.
Diversity & Inclusion
In 2020 we introduced four initiatives to help improve diversity and inclusion across our content and teams. These encompass measures to proactively broaden our talent pool on both sides of the camera and enhance representation of audience groups across programme-makers.
"As the UK’s biggest producer of content, my ambition has always been that BBC Studios Productions should lead the way in inclusion and representation. We want to be working with talented people from the broadest possible range of backgrounds. Our D&I initiatives are not a magic bullet, they are backed up by a lot of work on culture and education to make our teams and our culture more inclusive. The talent we work with in front of and behind the camera bring diverse perspectives that shape our content and that’s key to making it contemporary, authentic and appealing to audiences." Ralph Lee, BBC Studios’ Director of Content
Click here for more detail on the initiatives.
Sustainability
BBC Studios Productions is the world leader in educating audiences on sustainability through our content. Blue Planet II was given the National Television ‘Special Impact Award’ in 2018 for raising awareness of deadly plastic pollution. It was the BBC’s most watched series of the year, reaching 62% of the UK population and sparking a global campaign, which contributed to changes in government policy and EU legislation. Globally, Blue Planet II and Planet Earth II took our environmental messages to over a billion people worldwide. Our recent Seven Worlds, One Planet had a conservationist message about the impact of the climate crisis at its heart and many of our productions normalise sustainability daily onscreen, through every day action and characters such as Bailey in EastEnders.
We continue to reduce our impact on the environment when making programmes. In 2020, BBC Studios built on the BBC Groups’ 2018 operational targets, also requiring travel reduction and 100% Albert certification, as well as achieving carbon neutrality back to 2018. In 2021, the BBC Group announced we would be net zero by 2030. Operationally, we remain best in class, as illustrated by Winterwatch powering an entire episode solely through green hydrogen and batteries.
"I’ve been really heartened to see how BBC Studios colleagues from across the globe both onscreen and offscreen have been supporting each other. The whole business is united behind our sustainable goals, with production leading the way with amazing content. It’s about all of us. From travel, to energy to waste to plastics, there has been so much collaboration across departments and regions, and this mutual support keeps growing." Praveen Gopalan, Sustainability Executive
