How TalentWorks keeps BBC Studios ahead of the game
With swaths of the industry at risk of underestimating online talent, BBC Studios’ TalentWorks is the not-so-secret weapon allowing the commercial arm of the BBC to develop new content and IP with creators.
Helen O’Donnell
In 2015, when BBC Studios (BBCS) was known by its previous name, BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the UK pubcaster picked up rights to Joe & Caspar Hit the Road, a documentary film starring British YouTubers Caspar Lee and Joe Sugg.
This was a time when younger demographics had begun turning away from traditional linear television in their droves and the TV industry was just beginning to sense it might have a problem on its hands staying connected to both an audience and talent operating outside of its comfort zone.
Nearly a decade later, it’s evident how much the momentum has shifted, as a new generation of viewers consume a media diet that barely includes traditional 30- or 60-minute episodes of linear TV programming.
One way BBCS moved to address the shift was to launch content label TalentWorks in 2018 and task it with identifying emerging new talent that the organisation can work with to develop content and IP.
Over the past six years, BBCS TalentWorks has brought through aspiring drama writers to work on long-running soaps such as EastEnders and Casualty, as well as using The Writer Spotlight to unearth rising stars in drama and comedy writing.
Layla Wright presented The Champions League Final: What Went Wrong?
Writers trained by BBCS have gone on to write for shows including Killing Eve, The Crown, The Last Kingdom and Doctor Who, and have created original series such as Father Brown, The Victim and You & Me.
In factual, it hosts the Creator in Residence programme, as well as presenter training days and retreats, to help provide new talent with the skills to reach their potential as well as help traditional production companies understand how these creators work.
This has seen it work with YouTube stars Dan Howell and Phil Lester, while previous alumni include Basma Khalifa, who worked with Louis Theroux’s indie production company Mindhouse; Ajay Tegala, who finished his placement with BBCS Natural History Unit presenting a segment on BBC Two’s Springwatch; and Layla Wright, who developed and presented The Champions League Final: What Went Wrong? for the BBC’s Panorama strand.
More recently, BBC Three launched the Wright-fronted documentary America’s New Female Right, highlighting how its strategy is laying a pathway for online talent to live on the BBC and its streaming service, iPlayer.
But given the seismic shifts impacting the TV business today, it’s clear the direction of travel for talent – and audiences – is more and more towards social video platforms such as YouTube, TikTok and Instagram rather than TV. Hence BBCS moving its TalentWorks division into its global digital brands team, which also houses the Gen Z-focused comedy channel Funny Parts, over the summer.
Helen O’Donnell, director of development at BBCS TalentWorks, believes large swaths of the industry still underestimate online talent and downplays the use of the word ‘emerging’ in the communication around the work BBC TalentWorks does.
“The digital division is totally focused on supporting emerging creators. I use the word ‘emerging’ quite loosely because the industry sometimes sees creators as this emerging part of the industry. For me, this has been my lifeblood for nearly the last 10 years and championing creative talent – people who are forging professional careers on the internet – is something I’ve worked on since Joe & Caspar Hit the Road,” says O’Donnell.
Gen Z-focused comedy channel Funny Parts
This was an example of YouTube talent migrating to a more traditional longform format, with the documentary eventually selling to youth-skewing UK channel E4 and selling healthy numbers of DVDs (remember those?). The commercial value of such a deal was clear – but that pathway now feels as dated as the discs the doc was watched on. How does BBCS derive value from working with online talent now?
“Where TalentWorks is now is amplifying the voices within the creative community in order to develop commercial IP, which can sit within BBCS. That IP might not be something that’s totally focused on going on a linear platform in its first instance and could be delivered in a digital space first,” says O’Donnell.
The exec believes online talent is coming up with formats, but “almost without realising it.” Using the example of Amelia Dimoldenberg’s hit YouTube show Chicken Shop Dates, O’Donnell emphasises how the format originated out of Dimoldenberg’s authentic desire to interview grime artists.
“They know what they’re doing. They are finding vehicles that are returnable and that audiences enjoy. They’re also thinking about the time of day when something drops on TikTok so that it feels relevant for when the audiences will be watching. They’re just not using the same language that we are and we have to be comfortable with that,” says O’Donnell.
Earlier this year, O’Donnell led the BBC Creator Lab as part of a collaboration with TikTok, which aimed to find 100 creators working across genres such as entertainment, kids and family, food, sport and nature.
O’Donnell, who has worked with the likes of DanTDM, Mariam Musa, Nella Rose, Joe Wicks and Sam and Nic Chapman, emphasises BBCS doesn’t have one fixed template for collaborating with creators, as there are a variety of different entry points within the scripted and unscripted behemoth.
The BBCS’s Creator in Residence programme, for example, offers paid placements within BBCS production units, production labels and invested indies, giving creators the chance to develop their skills, new scripts, programme concepts or even present on screen. Many have left with credits under their belts in a variety of different formats, including audio.
Among those to have taken part in the initiative are comedian and writer Mary O’Connell and playwright and comedy screenwriter Liz Daramola, both of whom have taken up residencies with Steve Coogan’s BBCS-owned prodco Baby Cow Productions.
Ajay Tegala had placement with BBCS Natural History Unit
The new Creator in Residence Digital Division placements offer three six-month paid residency roles as part of a £100,000 (US$133,000) two-year investment supporting new emerging digital content creators across key BBCS brands, including Top Gear, Doctor Who and comedy entertainment.
“There is a sort of an ideal that’s like, ‘Let’s take the talent from over here, lift and shift and hope that they somehow thrive within our ecosystem.’ That’s definitely not how TalentWorks works,” says O’Donnell. “Our focus is on working with talent much earlier in their careers and then nurturing them to make sure they don’t get in front of an autocue and are expected to deliver like they’ve been doing it for 10 years.
“The way that they produce content is slightly different, and that’s OK. We have to celebrate that. It might take a little bit more time to work together. But, ultimately, the talent we work with want to work with producers and directors and get that feedback because they want to grow long careers.”
O’Donnell, who has a passion for live theatre and comedy, is observing how comedy scripts are evolving in response to the fact people will swipe or click away from a video if it doesn’t grab them in the first few seconds.
“When we think of traditional comedy scripts, we sometimes say, ‘We have to know it’s a comedy in the first three to 10 pages. That’s quite a long time if you were online.
“You’ve got to have a laugh on YouTube in the first 10 seconds. On TikTok it’s even shorter, you’ve got two to three seconds, otherwise it’ll get scrolled away. It’s fundamentally different from longform TV, from the way it’s shot, consumed and developed.”
In terms of talent, BBCS is pursuing a strategy of fishing where the fishes are and O’Donnell believes social video can be a “democracy” that allows anyone to start uploading and, for better or worse, the most engaging content rises to the top.
“If I wanted to be the next Claudia Winkleman, I would be creating content online, doing a TikTok Live or a YouTube series, because that’s where you get your flying hours in a way that currently isn’t available within the traditional space.
“When we meet new talent, we’re always interested in how people have tested and learned, and can tell us a little bit about what works best for their audience,” says O’Donnell.
In 2018, an initiative like TalentWorks looked like yet another example of the traditional TV business extending an olive branch to the world of online influencers.
But six years later, it’s clear how important a role it is playing in ensuring the commercial arm of the BBC learns as much as possible about the new generation of creators who will undoubtedly come to define the entertainment industry.
