Another huge streaming partnership has been announced, and this time it involves the BBC.
This week, the company announced a huge deal with YouTube, which will allow the BBC to produce entertainment content ‘aimed at YouTube’s digital-native younger audience’, according to the broadcasting giant. As early as February, the BBC will begin showing content on YouTube spanning entertainment, news, and sports, starting with the upcoming Winter Olympic Games.
Though the BBC ensures that some of this new content will still be available to view on iPlayer and Sounds, it raises a lot of questions about the company’s ongoing business plan debate. As it stands, the BBC currently relies on the £175 television license fee for its programming, but this deal with YouTube will see a major shift in its model.
Why is the BBC doing this?
As mentioned, the BBC has felt a need to rethink the way it connects with younger audiences, many of whom have swapped traditional TV viewing for the likes of the best streaming services. Paolo Pescatore, founder and analyst at PP Foresight, agrees, sharing, “The BBC needs to reconnect, especially with younger audiences.”
Looks as though the BBC is abandoning public service broadcasting, right? Well, Abi Watson, Head of Publishing at Enders Analysis, believes otherwise, who told us, “It has an obligation to produce creative, high-quality, distinctive content – and that isn’t platform-specific, which does involve the BBC experimenting with new formats, not just recycling linear TV for digital spaces.”
That aside, the other determining factor for the BBC’s decision to go ham on digital viewing rests on shifting viewing habits, which Watson also touched on. “Second, it has a duty to reach audiences where they actually are. Viewing habits have shifted materially: around 10% of TV-set viewing in the UK now goes to YouTube, and for under-35s, it’s closer to a quarter,” she added.
What does this mean for the TV licence?
In short, it doesn’t change anything for now – while you won’t need a TV licence to watch the BBC’s YouTube content in the UK, you do still need one to watch or record live TV, or use BBC iPlayer. And that’s the case even if you’re only watching on a phone.
Until now, the BBC has solely relied on the TV license fee for funding, but now that its funding model is being deliberated, it’s going down the ad-supported programming route. As mentioned, ads will not be shown when you’re watching content in the UK, but the idea of it raises a couple of points.
On the one hand, it gives the BBC another source for bringing in funds, and as Watson puts it, “content distributed on YouTube can generate modest incremental revenue overseas through advertising. That revenue sits within the BBC’s commercial arm, and any profits made are returned to the public service side and reinvested.” On the other hand, value is at risk.
“A growing overlap between public service broadcasting and commercial platform access risks complicating how its value is perceived by audiences. This could intensify over time if YouTube and other third-party services become the primary way people discover and consume BBC content,” says Peter Ingram, Research Manager at Ampere Analysis.
For Pescatore, it’s going to fuel scrutiny for both value and funding, who told us, “all eyes will be on the BBC as it continues to reinvent itself during uncertain, challenging times, even as consumer patterns change and it uses YouTube as a funnel to grow engagement on its own platforms without undermining them.”
What can viewers expect?
For starters, the BBC/ YouTube deal will see a huge boost in the BBC’s presence in digital broadcasting. The company has used YouTube in the past to promote snippets of its shows on its YouTube channel, but this is the first time the BBC will be able to produce fresh and original content for the platform. For Ingram, visibility is the main end result.
“The most immediate impact will be increased visibility of BBC content on YouTube, including a mix of new releases and catalogue titles distributed across 50 distinct content channels. Importantly, content created for YouTube is still expected to be made available across BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, meaning existing audiences don’t lose access,” said Ingram.
This aside, the other big change you can expect is the significant shift that will come with the BBC’s funding process, as well as content designed for YouTube but is still quintessentially BBC.
“The BBC’s first YouTube-first commissioning brief is for a new factual channel run by BBC Three, with around £2m of spend split across two producers. That tells you a lot: this is a test-and-learn exercise, not a wholesale reallocation of budgets. Alongside that, our understanding is that the initial content focus will be kids and sports, genres that already work well on YouTube and where the BBC has clear strengths. Viewers should expect recognisably BBC content, but designed for YouTube formats and viewing habits from the outset,” Watson told us.
As we’ve said, these changes are coming very soon, kicking off with the Winter Olympic Games in February. It seems as though the BBC has a very clear vision of the direction it wants to go in with its YouTube-centric content, but it’ll be interesting to see what this does to its funding model, given its current state of deliberation.
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