Mumbai: UK pubcaster and BBC’s principal commercial subsidiary, BBC Studios has announced results for the year 2021-22. It recorded its highest-ever sales (2020/21: 1,255 million pound), a jump of 30 per cent thanks to what it called a very healthy year for production and UKTV. 

BBC Studios CEO Tom Fussell said, “Last year was stellar for BBC Studios, thanks to continued strong demand for our brands like Strictly Come Dancing, Dancing with the Stars, Time, Bluey, and the Planet series. Our creative and financial success is clear for all to see and I am so proud of our teams across the world who worked so hard to achieve this in extremely challenging conditions. With new freedom to invest, and a new commercial board, now is the time for the business to step up a gear. Despite an uncertain economic climate, we’re hugely confident about the opportunities ahead: and while this investment in future growth might impact on our profits over the short term, we know that we are building a business which can play a more significant role in the future of the BBC.”

Profit (Ebitda) was up 50 per cent year-on-year to 226 million pound (2020/21: 151 million pound). This marks the first time that the business has exceeded 200 million pound. A 135 million pound cash dividend (2020/21: nil) goes back to the BBC. Production sales were up by 56 per cent. Content sales were over 400 million pound. UKTV profit was up 105 per cent. 2400 hours of content were made in the fiscal. Furthermore, a quarter of that content was created for third parties. The pay gap report shows progress in reducing gender pay disparity.

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“Looking ahead, the business has stretching targets to grow by 30 per cent. With these results, and new headroom in the business’ ability to borrow opening up opportunities to invest, BBC Studios has said that it is in a strong position to build commercial income in line with BBC Group priorities. Returns more than doubled to 353 million pound (2020/21: 137 million pound), as the business achieved its target of 1.2 billion pound over the first five years of the current charter, helped by strong cash generation and a dividend of 135 million pound. Investment in what it called high quality content was up 67 per cent year on year,” the company said in a statement.

It said, “This performance was driven by a rise in production sales, which were up 56 per cent, with a quarter of all new commissions from third parties. With 2400 hours of content made worldwide, BBC Studios was the most awarded UK producer, with 288 nominations and 55 awards for creativity and craft in the year, including multiple awards for Rose and Giovanni’s silent dance as part of their winning performance on Strictly Come Dancing.”

UKTV also had a record year, with profit (Ebitda) up 105 per cent as the advertising market bounced back to boost revenues, and thanks to increased audience share (and share of commercial impacts) at record levels. The channel performed very well with drama, gold and alibi increasing their share by 11 per cent, seven per cent and five per cent, respectively, in the 2021 calendar year, and dave upping its share of 16-34 year olds by 14 per cent as audiences responded enthusiastically to investment in new original content, while streaming service UKTV Play added one million registered users.

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The company said, “Content sales were strong at over 400 million pound, thanks to key brands like Doctor Who and Top Gear, unscripted landmarks The Universe and Green Planet, alongside hits from our indie partners including The North Water, This is Going To Hurt and The Outlaws.”

BBC Studios continued to transform, welcoming global news, kids & family and scripted label house, maker of hit drama Sherwood, to its production business to drive opportunities for global customers. In the year, BBC Studios as part of the BBC, committed to science based net zero targets, signed the climate content pledge, plus 98 per cent of BBC Studios’ UK productions received albert certification.

BBC Studios also published recently its annual pay gap report, with details of pay gaps for gender, ethnicity, disability and LGBTQ+ employees broken down by career level band, as well as global analysis for the first time. The majority of career level bands show median pay gaps of within +/- 5 per cent, while the overall median gender pay gap is now below 10 per cent. In entry level roles (career level band A), new schemes to increase diversity are impacting some pay gap metrics, but this is important work for improving diversity across the business.

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Fussell added, “We’re amongst the most transparent in the media sector for pay gap disclosures, with breakdowns for gender, disability, ethnicity and LGBTQ+ across all levels of the business, as well as new data this year for our global staff. While there is much to be proud of as our gender pay gap continues to fall, inevitably these figures paint a picture of a work-in-progress, especially where we are investing in the talent of the future. We know there is work to do to achieve the equality we seek across the board, and we will work tirelessly to make this happen.”