While its linear channels are posting some of their best results ever, BBC Studios is looking at varied routes to market to grow its on-demand offering across the CEE, says commercial director Zbigniew Pruski.
It’s almost 13 years since Zbigniew Pruski, commercial director at BBC Studios (Polska), joined the commercial subsidiary of the UK’s BBC, which took the decision, in 2011, to launch a local office in Poland. Much has changed in that time, not least the plethora of options for delivering content to the end-user.
Zbigniew Pruski
Since entering the fray in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), BBC Studios has established itself in the linear TV sphere with genre channels such as BBC First (drama), BBC Earth (natural history), BBC Brit (male-skewed), BBC Lifestyle (female-skewed) and CBeebies (preschool).
More recently it has dipped its toe in the VoD space in Poland, through affiliations to carry its new multi-genre streaming service BBC Player with partners Canal+ and Play Now, while outside Poland it has teamed up with Slovak Telekom and T-Mobile Czech to launch new SVoD ‘branded zones,’ curating content from BBC Earth and BBC First in Slovakia and Czech Republic.
“We see so many great opportunities in utilising the content that we’ve been producing for years,” says Pruski, who recalls being “one of the first to join the local BBC office” when it launched in 2011. Pruski previously worked for Discovery with responsibility for the CEE region. “I was dealing with Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia as well as Poland.”
This experience put him in good stead for his current role at BBC Studios, which since 2019 has made him responsible for the commercial aspects of the business in the wider region of CEE, not just Poland. It’s a remit that requires Pruski and his team “to deliver the best content to the viewers, whatever way they want to watch it.”
The ‘whatever way they want to watch it’ part alludes to the distribution dimension of his job that Pruski says is secondary to the content part because, as he puts it, BBC Studios is “primarily a producer.” But that makes it no less essential for him to get it right so he can “focus on maximising our portfolio and returns on the content investment.”
Shows like Death in Paradise are big hits in Poland
Excluding the BBC News channel (which is a pan-regional service covering the CEE), currently those returns are being reaped most successfully via BBC Studios’ aforementioned portfolio of TV channels in Poland. The portfolio delivered a share of 0.742% in January 2024, their highest combined monthly total since the five channels launched in the country.
“As a whole, we are achieving the highest results ever,” comments Pruski. The standout channel in the portfolio is BBC First, according to the exec, who says the channel has “nearly doubled its share in the market” in the past two years.
BBC First made its debut in Poland in October 2018, but has since launched in Croatia, North Macedonia and Slovenia (2019), followed by Romania (2022) and Moldova (2023). In January 2024, BBC First in Poland delivered its highest ever share of 0.34% – a 23% month-on-month increase.
Best performing programmes on BBC First include the BBC’s Death in Paradise, Beyond Paradise, Silent Witness but also programming acquired from third parties, such as Acorn TV’s Brokenwood Mysteries.
“Light crime drama is super popular,” says Pruski. “There seems to be a lot of appetite for this type of British content in Poland, but also more widely, it’s something that we see across many territories. BBC First in the Netherlands is the 12th [most watched] channel in the whole country.”
Pruski is keen to also highlight the importance of BBC Earth in BBC Studios’ portfolio of linear channels. Indeed, BBC Earth’s roll-out predates that of BBC First, making its international debut in Poland in 2015.
“We’re very proud of BBC Earth, which I wouldn’t want to just limit to natural history – it is one of the pillars and something that we are very proud of. But the channel is much more, [highlighting] everything that is happening around us; history of civilization, survival. This channel performs very well.” New shows to premiere on the channel in 2024 include the BBC’s Mammals, presented by Sir David Attenborough, which launched in April, and Asia, debuting later in the year.
Shows such as Putin – A Russian Spy Story have created the highest spikes on the service
On the subject of BBC Studios content more broadly, Pruski says: “Most of the content is UK-acquired or UK-produced.” It’s a strategy that so far is working, with sales at BBC Studios doubling to over £2bn (US$2.5bn) in 2023 on the previous year.
But Pruski does not rule out a local content strategy in the future. “The aim and outlook for the future is that we want to deliver the programmes that have the best local appeal. I wouldn’t say we would never acquire something that is locally produced, but at the moment the focus stays as is,” he says.
BBC Studios has, in fact, commissioned a local series in Poland before. Packed Up Life (aka Spakowane Życie), which aired on BBC Brit in 2020, was a six-part factual series produced by Polish production company Inbornmedia and followed five removal companies as they helped clients across Poland relocate. The series was commissioned as part of BBC Studios’ stated “on-going commitment to the Polish market and the desire to deliver programming that has strong local resonance,” but Pruski describes local commissioning as “an experiment” rather than strategy at the moment.
On the other hand, acquiring third-party content is playing an increasing part in Pruski’s CEE strategy, as the company seeks to expand its offering of popular genres in the CEE. Examples of acquired content includes Midsomer Murders, obtained for BBC First via All3Media International; Who Wants To Be a Millionaire from Sony Pictures TV for broadcast on BBC Brit; and Come Dine With Me from ITV Studios for BBC Lifestyle.
Vitally important to Pruski’s current commercial strategy in the region is working with affiliate partners in the region to build BBC Studios’ on-demand offer.
A recent example of this is the launch in November 2023 of a BBC-branded space within T-Mobile’s Czech platform Magenta TV and Deutsche Telekom-owned Slovak Telekom’s SVoD service Magio TV.
Marking the debut of the BBC First brand in the Czech and Slovak markets, where BBC Earth is already available as a linear channel to Magenta TV and Magio TV subscribers, the deal provides 600 hours of additional factual and drama content from BBC Earth (including Life Below Zero, Where the Wild Men Are, Attenborough’s Wonder of Song) and BBC First (Ghosts, Guilt, The Pursuit of Love, Sandition).
In Poland, BBC Studios’ on-demand offer comes in the form of a complete multi-genre service called BBC Player. With programming spanning drama, natural history, documentary and kids’ content, BBC Player has been designed to exist within BBC Studios’ affiliate partners’ VoD services.
It first launched in June 2022 for subscribers of Canal+ Polska’s online streaming service and in April 2023, it became available to subscribers of Play Now. Shows that have created the highest spikes on the service are documentaries, in particular those that touch the lives of people in Poland, such as Putin – A Russian Spy Story and Putin & the West.
Commenting on these varied routes to market, Pruski states: “It’s all about being flexible and understanding what the market dynamics are, what the customer needs,” adding: “We strongly believe in local partnerships and want to grow the current relations, but also continue to explore new ones, and our commitment involves adapting and investing to align with market changes.”
Pruski firmly believes, like many of his counterparts in the CEE region, that those market changes do not, for now, spell the end for linear TV in CEE, where he sees the transition from linear to streaming as “an evolution rather than a revolution.”
“The value for money that you get from the pay TV operators [in CEE] versus what is happening in the US is completely different. Here you have hundreds of channels for a couple of euros, while in the US cable TV is a very expensive offer, while there you have the OTT platforms and B2C platforms offering a lot of content on demand for a couple of bucks. That’s something that is fundamentally different.”
Meanwhile, Pruski argues that “pay TV operators as aggregators are controlling the internet and they are very smartly adding the additional on-demand services into their offer so you can have both at the same time from one operator on the one bill.”
Looking ahead, BBC Studios’ stated ambition is to double revenues over the next three years and Pruski believes the CEE is “an important region that can help deliver the ambition of the company.”
Noting the BBC has “one of the most recognisable and respected brands in the world,” he says he’s exploring “a number of conversations in different markets” to grow BBC Studios’ on-demand offering, meanwhile looking at other opportunities in the region.
“We’re exploring other ideas like audio, news, or potentially FAST,” he says, adding: “We’re really optimistic in terms of the developments in the region and we are ambitious, hopefully there’s a lot you will be able to see and hear, there’s quite a lot happening at the moment.”
