BBC Studios launching two new Top Gear YouTube channels as latest digital slate revealed

Top Gear Challenges is fronted by Jack Rix

BBC Studios (BBCS) Digital Brands has unveiled a slate of digital originals, including a travel show fronted by social media talent, a music-led family format, a video podcast designed to replicate daytime TV and two new Top Gear YouTube channels.

C21 can exclusively reveal BBCS Digital Brands is significantly expanding Top Gear’s online presence as it seeks to reach new audiences who are passionate about cars, technology and entertainment but may not watch traditional TV.

It comes as the BBC readies the format for a return to flagship channel BBC One and streamer iPlayer after four years, with new, as-yet-undisclosed presenting talent.

Before that, BBCS will launch Top Gear Tech, a YouTube channel dedicated to the rapidly evolving world of technology, later this month. From electric vehicles and robots to gadgets and emerging technologies, the channel will combine trusted reporting and reviews with stories about the innovations shaping how we live and move.

Hosted by presenter, journalist and content creator Jack Scarlett, Top Gear Tech will launch with fortnightly 20-minute features, supported by shortform content across the wider Top Gear digital ecosystem.

This will be followed in October by Top Gear Challenges, a new entertainment-led YouTube channel featuring Top Gear stunts, challenges and creator collaborations.

Top Gear magazine editor-in-chief Jack Rix will host the monthly 30-60-minute films, which will explore everything from whether a supercar can outrun a golf ball to whether you can drive a full-size Lego car in the real world.

Also on the slate is Scran & Scramble: An American in Scotland (5×22′), a creator-led travel series for BBCS YouTube channel The Travel Edit, following US creator Kobie Jordan as he explores Scotland beyond the stereotypes alongside Scottish creator Bryan Millar Walker.

Developed by Chris Ambrose and produced by Aurora Media Worldwide, the format launches this autumn.

The slate also includes newly launched The Rewinderz, a music-led family format (10×4′) created specifically for YouTube and available on BBCS Digital Brands’ Bopple Junior channel. It will be hosted by children’s educator MC Grammar, alongside dancer Starr Kiely and comedian Watson D Hirschfield.

The series follows a time-travelling crew on adventures through Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, the Ice Age, the Golden Age of Pirates and more. It was developed by Hannah Wesson and John Knowles, and is produced by Strawberry Blond, with CGI, VFX and animation from The Berry.

Meanwhile, The Girls Are Talking is a video podcast aiming to bring “the glossy, high-energy feel of daytime TV to a digital-first generation,” BBCS said, featuring candid and unfiltered conversations about life, fame, money, womanhood, dating, resilience and identity.

The hosts are Sugababes singer Keisha Buchanan, Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Kamille, content creator and author Tara Thorpe, radio presenter and DJ Issra Wiheba and comedian Sharifa Butterfly.

The weekly 30×60′ series will launch on YouTube and be distributed across podcast platforms this autumn. It was developed by Shukri Dirie and Hannah Wesson, and is a BBCS Audio Production, produced by Leanne Alie.

The projects were commissioned by Chris Allen, digital director for content, and Madi Woodstock, BBCS group digital director for portfolio.

Jasmine Dawson, senior VP of digital at BBCS, said: “Our starting point is always the audience. On digital platforms, people increasingly come together around the things they’re passionate about, and that gives us an opportunity to think differently about how we develop content.

“We can build new formats around those communities, bring creators with genuine credibility into established brands and create entirely new IP.”