A new chapter for BBC Children’s content

Cecilia Persson, Managing Director, BBC Studios Kids & Family

Reaching new audiences and the power of partnerships: A new chapter for BBC Studios Kids & Family.

Children’s content has always been a core part of the BBC’s offering, since the BBC’s inception a hundred years ago. The BBC was the first broadcaster to make children’s programmes for radio, when Children’s Hour launched in 1922. It was also the first to produce a children’s television show, when it brought For the Children to the small screen in 1946 and introduced the charms of Muffin the Mule – the UK’s first major children’s TV character.

Television gives children a sense of the world, it provides laughter and joy, it entertains, informs, comforts, inspires, and represents them. We take that responsibility seriously at BBC Studios Kids & Family, which was established in April 2022. The new business combines the unique values, heritage, and craft skills of the former BBC’s in-house children’s production team with the outstanding commercial expertise of BBC Studios. The result is that we can increase the reach of our in-house hits, invest in and co-produce content from independent production partners, and develop global brands. We are one team, with one slate and one budget.

This shift from in-house producer to global content creator also means we can scale up our ambitions. We are proud to have some of the most exciting and successful local and global franchises in the world, including Bluey, Hey Duggee and the world’s longest-running kids TV show, Blue Peter, which we have the honour of producing. At 64 years young, it continues to put innovation at its heart and reinvent itself for today’s increasingly discerning children.

We want to continue to provide outstanding content across age ranges – creating today’s hits and tomorrow’s classics, which embody BBC values. We also aim to grow our global reach and take our content to new audiences. As well as focusing on animation and globally appealing formats, our new strategy includes developing high-end drama for older children. For example, the brand new Phoenix Rise, which follows a group of teenagers who have been excluded from school, has been selected as this year’s MIPJUNIOR’s World Premiere.

Partnerships are at the heart of our business, and we look to work with the best, no matter how large or small. Take JoJo & Gran Gran for example, our development team spotted Laura Henry Allain’s self-published work and believed in it. They tested and grew the idea, and you can now watch it onscreen around the world and visit it at Alton Towers in the UK. Supertato, our new slapstick comedy animation series, is being co-produced with Tencent Video and we have partnered with Finnish studio Haruworks to co-develop Flip, Flap and Zip, a new pre-school series, inspired by unboxing videos, where three friends open up and explore the world around them.

The commercial success of BBC Studios has shown that we can pursue more opportunities as a combined division with access to more resources, and I’m excited to see how we replicate that success for our children’s content. But whilst we are ambitious for the future, our focus remains on our audiences. Connecting with children is incredibly important to us and we want to provide the very best for the very youngest and their families – they deserve it.

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Read more about Cecilia's announcements at MIPCOM on BBC Media Centre.

About BBC Studios

BBC Studios is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC Group with profits (EBITDA) of £226 million on sales of £1.6bn (21/22). Able to take an idea seamlessly from thought to screen and beyond, its activities span content financing, development, production, sales, branded services, and ancillaries across both its own productions, and programmes and formats made by high-quality UK independents, with three-quarters of its revenues from non-BBC customers including Discovery, Apple and Netflix. Around 2,400 hours of award-winning British programmes made by the business are internationally recognised across a broad range of genres and specialisms, with brands like Strictly Come Dancing/Dancing with the Stars, Top Gear, Bluey and Doctor Who. BBC.com, BBC Studios’ global digital news platform, has 139 million unique browser visits each month.