Advanced Television

BBC: 95% of UK adults using BBC services every month

July 23, 2024

The BBC Annual Report shows that the BBC is at the heart of national life and is the go-to media brand in the UK, with 95 per cent of UK adults using BBC services on average per month.

Samir Shah, BBC Chair, said: “The BBC matters deeply to the UK, and continues to play an important role on the global stage. With the Board, I look forward to overseeing progress with the solid plans in place to preserve the benefits of public service broadcasting for all, and to ensure the BBC can deliver for audiences well into the future.”

Tim Davie, BBC Director-General, said: “This year’s Annual Report shows how we are transforming at pace to deliver for all audiences in the digital age. We remain firmly focussed on prioritising our resources into building a BBC for the future that can deliver crucial benefits for the UK at a critical time – and help support a healthy democracy, a thriving creative economy, and a strong society.”  

More people, by far, get their news from the BBC than from any other source and 35 million UK adults came to the BBC per day across 2023/24.

The BBC also revealed that while licences in force declined by 2 per cent year-on-year, the vast majority of its audiences remained committed to paying the licence fee and 95 per cent of public service spend was directed to content and its delivery.

A year of investment in growth for BBC Commercial

The BBC has also reported that 2023/24 was a year of investment in sustainable future growth and business transformation for BBC Commercial. The business, which supports the BBC by generating income for the BBC Group, delivered sales of £1.9 billion (€2.2bn) and EBITDA of £199 million against challenging market conditions.

BBC Studios, the BBC’s main commercial arm,  made a series of strategic investments in year, most notably taking full ownership of BritBox International, expanding its international production footprint with new acquisitions in Scandinavia, Spain and Australia, both completed and announced in year, and, as signalled in 2023’s annual report, enhancements to digital services BBC.com and UKTV Play. The year also saw BBC Studios make record levels of investment in content.

These investments, together with difficult operating conditions, including softness in the commissioning and advertising sales markets and higher revenues from multi-year deals in 22/23 due to phasing, resulted in BBC Studios achieving sales of £1.8 billion (2023: £2.1 billion) and EBITDA of £202 million (2023: £252 million), the third consecutive year the business has posted EBITDA over £200 million.

Tom Fussell, CEO BBC Commercial, commented: “The last financial year saw good progress against our strategic objectives through record investment – in content, premium digital services and select international production companies. Despite the challenging external environment we saw good underlying growth and our long term ambition to double the 2022 business remains. We will continue to take advantage of new opportunities as they arise.”

BBC Commercial is on track, to meet its five year returns commitment of £1.5 billion by 2026/27 (a 30 per cent increase on the previous five year period),  with cumulative returns in year two of £693 million.  

BBC Studios’ putput included season two of Time, Planet Earth III, The Famous Five and Einstein and the Bomb. BBC Studios produced seven of the top 10 performing shows in the UK across 2023, including events such as Eurovision and the Coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla.

Across BBC Studios’ franchises, Bluey’s popularity soared globally as it became the second most streamed show in the US, with the children’s brand reaching audiences in 140 territories amid the launch of a series of consumer products. The world’s longest-running sci-fi show, Doctor Who, celebrated its 60th anniversary with three one-off Christmas specials and the introduction of a new Doctor in Ncuti Gatwa, as the series debuted on Disney+. Dancing with the Stars is in more than 60 countries worldwide as the franchise celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.

BBC Studios’ Global Media & Streaming operation is the new home for BritBox International, with 3.8 million subscribers and growing at a rate of 25 per cent a year. UKTV gave a strong performance, increasing its share of the commercial audience in a soft advertising market, and building its free streaming service, UKTV Play. The number of international FAST channels reached 36, including the BBC News Channel for the first time

Pay Gap Report

BBC Studios has also published its annual Pay Gap Report, which this year includes data on socio-economic background for the first time, in addition to its regular reporting on gender, ethnicity, disability and LGBTQ+ employees broken down by career level band. As well as increased depth in reporting, this year’s Pay Gap Report is also the broadest analysis undertaken, reflecting recent workforce changes to the business.

This year’s report shows that median pay gaps by career band below the Senior Leader level remain low across all characteristics, with over 90 per cent of its workforce in a career band with a pay gap of under 5 per cent. One exception to this stable picture is with the disabled workforce and BBC Studios is actively seeking to address this through partnership with a disability recruitment specialist as well as becoming a Disability Confident Level 2 employer and participation in the industry wide TV Access Project.

Fussell added: “We recognise that while we are making progress, there is still more work to do, including how we recruit and how we educate recruiting managers across the business. As BBC Studios embarks on its transformational growth journey, part of our success will be measured on our ability to grow and empower our teams to deliver results as we develop a more representative workforce.”

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