BBC International Channels
#1

Does anybody have any insight into the BBC’s international channels?

Why do some countries have the BBC First brand, some have the BBC Entertainment and/or BBC HD while others have country specific channels - BBC America?

At a time of looking to maximise their programming one would have thought a strong international brand would make sense to sell content. 

BBC America seems the least connected to the BBC as it appears to show Star Trek as much as Gold shows OFAH. BBC First Canada spent much of the weekend showing royal programming - nothing live but old documentaries from years gone by.

All seems a bit of a mishmash!
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  • Roger Darthwell
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#2

The simplest description for the channel names is that they were all launched at different times, likely launched with different creative visions, and different creative people at the helm. A channel like BBC America, which launched in 1998, is going to have a legacy brand name, compared to BBC First, which launched in 2014. To be fair, the channels are slowly coming into line. BBC HD, BBC Entertainment are being replaced with BBC First, BBC Earth, and BBC Brit in the countries which have the former. Its likely that BBC America, one day, will be superseded by BBC First, like in Canada.

As for the programming, its just about what each channel has rights to, nothing special about that.

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#3

BBC America is jointly owned by BBC Studios and AMC Networks. It primarily airs sci-fi and action series and films, as well as selected programmes from the BBC.  It operates as a commercially-supported channel and accepts traditional advertising. It is also funded by television subscription fees.

BBC First (Canada) is wholly owned by Blue Ant Media, a Canadian broadcasting and media company. It broadcasts a variety of drama, comedy, and film programming originating primarily from the BBC. It is an entirely different animal from BBC America. 

BBC First (Canada) probably broadcast much of the content from the domestic UK television over the weekend as the late Queen was also Head of State of Canada.

BBC First elsewhere in the world is an entertainment subscription television channel featuring comedy, crime, drama and film programming, originating from UK and mostly from the BBC. The channel is wholly owned and operated by BBC Studios as is BBC Entertainment which has similar programming, but also draws on those from Channel 4 and other UK producers..

BBC Brit is also a subscription television channel featuring factual entertainment programming. The channel is wholly owned and operated by BBC Studios.

BBC Earth is a documentary subscription television channel featuring premium factual programming.  The channel is wholly owned and operated by BBC Studios, but has closed in some regions.

BBC Lifestyle is an international television channel wholly owned by BBC Studios. The channel provides six programming strands: Food, Home & Design, Fashion & Style, Health, Parenting, and Personal Development. It has also closed in some regions.

We all know what's happening with BBC World News. Sad

EDIT:

Oops, I forgot 'BBC UKTV' which is an Australian pay television channel in Australia and New Zealand, screening British entertainment programming, sourced mainly from the archives of the the BBC, RTL Group (mainly Talkback Thames material) and ITV plc. It is now owned solely by BBC Studios.
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#4

(12-09-2022, 03:47 PM)Daveuk Wrote:  At a time of looking to maximise their programming one would have thought a strong international brand would make sense to sell content. 
It does that brand is ‘the BBC’.

But obviously there is different history in different markets so changing a brand in a particular market that’s been going for over two decades might not make sense. And not to mention as been said the the ownership of BBC America isn’t fully under BBC Studios.

I guess what happened with BBC America it got particularly known for Sci-Fi thanks to Doctor Who and it suddenly made sense to capitalise that with other big Sci-Fi shows and the only ones really available are the American ones.
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#5

Yeah It’s all using the old bbc logo (well at 13e anyway) and has continued to show regular programming throughout this time of national mourning which would suggest the polish provider is running the channel and granted a licence by the bbc ?
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#6

The only channel that has shown any kind of alterations because of the Queen has been BBC First Canada and even then it’s been documentaries from a few years ago, nothing specific to her death.

Would be interesting to know how much influence the BBC has over the channels - BBC Brit South Africa has just shown an episode of My Family about Bens death and being in a coffin!

I am surprised about that lack of consistency with a mix of Brit, First, Entertainment, HD all showing a mix of the same programming under different brands.
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