Speaker 1: Welcome to Strictly Business, brity's weekly podcast featuring conversations about
Speaker 1: the business of media and entertainment. I'm senior business writer,
Speaker 1: TV and Video games Jennifer Moss packed the library of
Speaker 1: gripping dramas and quirky comedies. BritBox has carved out a
Speaker 1: unique space in the streaming world as the destination for
Speaker 1: British television outside of the UK. Recently promoted to BBC
Speaker 1: Studios Direct to Consumers. CEO Robert Schildehouse has spent the
Speaker 1: past few years building up the platform's original programming, including
Speaker 1: recent releases Riot Women and Linley and the upcoming Priding
Speaker 1: Prejudice inspired drama The Other Bennett's Sister, as well as
Speaker 1: overseeing a targeted marketing strategy that's up subscriber numbers for
Speaker 1: the one niche genre streamer that has now cornered the
Speaker 1: Anglo file market in the US. Robert, thank you, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for joining me today. I appreciate it,
Speaker 1: my pleasure.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: I'd like to start off with the way we kind
Speaker 1: of speak with everyone in these which is really just
Speaker 1: going over your background first, where you came from, how
Speaker 1: you started, and how you got to where you are now.
Speaker 2: I started in a very non media career in finance,
Speaker 2: but recognized rather quickly that something was changing in the industry.
Speaker 2: I happened to be in graduate school when YouTube launched,
Speaker 2: and say that was the one good idea I ever
Speaker 2: had in my career, was that something was going to
Speaker 2: change in the way content was being distributed to consumers,
Speaker 2: and broadband was becoming ubiquitous to the home, high quality
Speaker 2: video was being distributed over the Internet, and I just
Speaker 2: knew that the world that we lived in, where other
Speaker 2: people were making programming decisions on where and how you
Speaker 2: watched content, was on the precipice of changing. And so
Speaker 2: I moved to Los Angeles just on a whim. I
Speaker 2: probably spent days of my life there at that point,
Speaker 2: but realized that was probably the place where things were
Speaker 2: going to happen. As the Hulu story started to emerge
Speaker 2: in two thousand and seven about Hollywood coming together to
Speaker 2: coalesce around a common streaming platform to really to combat piracy,
Speaker 2: which I think now, obviously the streaming is how most
Speaker 2: of us are consuming content all the time. But back then,
Speaker 2: looking at what had happened in music industry, powers that
Speaker 2: be in Hollywood were legitimately concerned about this looming existential
Speaker 2: threat of what happens, whether it's existing platforms where they
Speaker 2: don't have control or piracy and just generally speaking, become
Speaker 2: the principal means for content distribution, they lose that control.
Speaker 2: So that's really how Hulu was born. And honestly, I
Speaker 2: just bluffed my way in. I reached out to somebody
Speaker 2: with the title recruiter at Hulu on LinkedIn, which at
Speaker 2: that time was still a very small website. I wasn't
Speaker 2: allowed of noise, and they got back to me. I
Speaker 2: came in and they asked me where I fit best,
Speaker 2: and I asked where they needed the most help, and
Speaker 2: they said content, and I said I can do that.
Speaker 2: And I think just the good news at the time
Speaker 2: was nobody really knew what they were doing, and so
Speaker 2: I was the beneficiary of just being part of an
Speaker 2: industry that was really getting off its feet at the time.
Speaker 2: And I had an amazing experience there, who was the
Speaker 2: most definitive time in my career up until the most
Speaker 2: recent chapter here at BBC and brick Box. But it
Speaker 2: really gave me an opportunity to be a part of
Speaker 2: something in its ncency and watch it grow, and leading
Speaker 2: our content acquisition efforts and really thinking about programming and
Speaker 2: strategy for how we were going to present ourselves to audiences,
Speaker 2: and watching the industry develop. And remember this is a
Speaker 2: time when we're talking in two thousand and eight when
Speaker 2: Netflix was still principally known for delivering DVDs and red envelopes,
Speaker 2: and Amazon was kind of dipping its toe in time
Speaker 2: at the time in streaming. But Hulu was really the
Speaker 2: first pure play streaming platform in the marketplace, and we
Speaker 2: had an incredible I had an incredible experience there that
Speaker 2: really set off the rest of my career. And from
Speaker 2: there I spent a long time at CBS and just
Speaker 2: around I left the company in the wake of the
Speaker 2: merger with Viacom that ultimately created Paramount, And I've lived
Speaker 2: in Los Angeles that whole time, and then moved to
Speaker 2: New York and I got a phone call out of
Speaker 2: a vloo really about an opportunity at this British streaming
Speaker 2: service called brick Box. And I would tell the story
Speaker 2: because I think it's accurate, but it also sort of
Speaker 2: gives purpose to a lot of what I do and
Speaker 2: a lot of what I did at who and what
Speaker 2: I'm most proud of really is recognizing that brilliant content
Speaker 2: gets produced all over the globe. Now that's as a professional,
Speaker 2: but also as a consumer and as an American. I
Speaker 2: talked about this a lot that we never really were
Speaker 2: exposed to British television or television from anywhere on American
Speaker 2: airwaves growing up, because that was really just dominated by
Speaker 2: what was coming out of the Hollywood system. And what
Speaker 2: I recognized as we had a mission to grow to
Speaker 2: bring the world's premium content online was that great content
Speaker 2: was being produced all over the world, whether it's in
Speaker 2: Japan or Korea, or the Nordics, or Israel or Latin
Speaker 2: American certainly the UK. And so when I got this call,
Speaker 2: I was intrigued by the idea of connecting audiences with
Speaker 2: the content that they love where there's friction between I've
Speaker 2: been really building that bridge and I'd done that before.
Speaker 2: And interestingly, my mother was visiting me at the time,
Speaker 2: and she asked me what I was doing professionally or
Speaker 2: with my life. I just moved to New York and
Speaker 2: was exploring a few options, and I mentioned to her
Speaker 2: that I just started kicking off a conversation with this
Speaker 2: content with this streaming service, that's the joint venture between
Speaker 2: two major media companies in the UK. And she looked
Speaker 2: at me and said, doing brick Box. And I looked
Speaker 2: at hid, what do you know about brit Fox And
Speaker 2: she said, that's all I watch. And that really kicked
Speaker 2: off my understanding of the value that BritBox brings to
Speaker 2: its audience and how much they love the service, and
Speaker 2: how much it's beyond utility. It's really a relationship that
Speaker 2: BritBox has built with its audience. And I think that
Speaker 2: was really the moment where the light bulb went off
Speaker 2: of my head that said, this is that there's a
Speaker 2: real opportunity here to grow this thing. You know, I
Speaker 2: was fortunate enough to start the company started the company
Speaker 2: shortly afterwards. It was a joint venture at the time
Speaker 2: between the BBC and ITV, and just that set off
Speaker 2: the last three and a half years or so really
Speaker 2: just an experience I could not have predicted or scripted
Speaker 2: into British television. And really, I say this and I
Speaker 2: mean it, that I have the best job in the business.
Speaker 2: And I'm not just talking about the British television industry.
Speaker 2: I think the entertainment industry and think anyone listening to
Speaker 2: your podcast or reads who reads the news and deeply
Speaker 2: understands what's going on in this industry right now, it's
Speaker 2: under you know, an enormous amount of stress. I don't
Speaker 2: have to get into what everyone else is dealing with,
Speaker 2: but I think from the vantage point of where I sit,
Speaker 2: which is getting to experience how to connect with consumers
Speaker 2: in a very deep way and build something that really
Speaker 2: means something to audiences and do that within the environment
Speaker 2: of a global, major media company is just it's thrilling
Speaker 2: for me. And I've had the opportunity to just build
Speaker 2: a world class organization and hire some really incredible people
Speaker 2: that have worked in major media companies like I have,
Speaker 2: and we're all just super invested in building a service
Speaker 2: that has a sustainable, long term business model and really
Speaker 2: continues to delight to audiences. And we all come into
Speaker 2: work every day motivated to do that.
Speaker 3: I'm sure I'm not unique in this at all.
Speaker 1: But you were mentioning, you know, people, how you get
Speaker 1: introduced to British television and it being a little more difficult.
Speaker 1: Earlier I was down to Dabby on PBS and watching
Speaker 1: my Dad's money Python Flying Circus DVDs and that was
Speaker 1: about it. So I wanted to ask you, you know,
Speaker 1: how you think that these pockets of large fandoms like
Speaker 1: you're speaking about your mother, my mother in law as well,
Speaker 1: find these things when there wasn't as much of a
Speaker 1: market for it. And now how BritBox makes it accessible
Speaker 1: as well, So like how people were going about finding
Speaker 1: British content previously and what Britbeck says to make that
Speaker 1: more seamless, right, I think.
Speaker 2: Historically you're right, that's what I was speaking to. It
Speaker 2: just wasn't a great through to market. I think PBS
Speaker 2: Masterpiece was probably the principal way that people discovered British television,
Speaker 2: and that was a very thin sliver of what the
Speaker 2: scope of a British television means. It was it's principally
Speaker 2: costume drama like Dowt Nabbey for example, and Doubt Nabby
Speaker 2: had also the benefit of really taking advantage of the
Speaker 2: streaming ecosystem emerging at the right time for it to
Speaker 2: reach brought audiences that wouldn't necessarily be tuning into PBS
Speaker 2: or looking at you know, going through your parents' DVDs.
Speaker 2: Like you mentioned, there really wasn't another way into American
Speaker 2: living rooms and what streaming has done, not just with BritBox,
Speaker 2: but I think every platform, and I mentioned it's a
Speaker 2: lot of what I was working on when I was
Speaker 2: at Hulu very early on had to do with connecting
Speaker 2: audiences with content that they loved and building that bridge.
Speaker 2: We have multiple challenges like every like every streaming service
Speaker 2: does you and we have to earn our way into
Speaker 2: the living room like every streaming service does. And then
Speaker 2: we're the British one. And that has a benefit if
Speaker 2: you if you're an angle file or you're an expat,
Speaker 2: or you self identify someone who loves British television, that's great.
Speaker 2: But if you don't, then we're the British one and
Speaker 2: maybe that isn't the thing that you're into. And so
Speaker 2: a lot of our job is to create the on
Speaker 2: ramps in the marketplace to give people a reason to
Speaker 2: give us a try. And once they discover that we
Speaker 2: have amazing television shows from and distinctive television shows from
Speaker 2: what they might be able to see in the general
Speaker 2: entertainment marketplace, and they have eight thousand hours from the
Speaker 2: Canada British television. Once you walk into our service, they
Speaker 2: tend to stay with us and stay with us for
Speaker 2: a long time.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the eight thousand hours because one thing,
Speaker 1: I have a lot of friends who always feel like,
Speaker 1: I know what you should be watching on television because
Speaker 1: of my job, tell or where can I watch more
Speaker 1: of this?
Speaker 3: Or where can I get this kind of thing?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, I don't know that came out, and
Speaker 1: you want to watch something similar to that, You're going
Speaker 1: to have to like google what is similar?
Speaker 3: And you all have eight thousand hours of content.
Speaker 1: So when it's something like well Netflix had this show
Speaker 1: and it was great, but they don't have another comparable
Speaker 1: thing for me to go watch next, how do you
Speaker 1: all work on that? And looking at that market and
Speaker 1: that availab watch that you have endless amounts If you
Speaker 1: liked this, we have this.
Speaker 2: Right well, That's a huge part of our audience acquisition
Speaker 2: strategy is that when we use content to create those
Speaker 2: on ramps, we think very deeply about Hey, what's the
Speaker 2: next six months and what somebody is going to watch
Speaker 2: and how do we bring somebody in not just for
Speaker 2: a show, but to enjoy the entire portfolio that we have.
Speaker 2: So I mentioned British television isn't a genre. Spans all
Speaker 2: sorts of genres. They make straight drama and comedy and
Speaker 2: sci fi and thriller and true crime and all. There's
Speaker 2: a gamut of what makes British television very similar in
Speaker 2: many ways to what you get out of the Hollywood system.
Speaker 2: But there are a few distinctive categories that where British
Speaker 2: television stands out and is globally known to stand out.
Speaker 2: And mystery and adjacent to mystery, just the broader crime
Speaker 2: genre is something where British television is known and truly
Speaker 2: is distinctive. Another area is period and you mentioned Dow
Speaker 2: Nabby before. I think the beneficiary of the long relationship
Speaker 2: that British television has had with PBA and PBS Masterpiece
Speaker 2: in this market has meant there has been some for
Speaker 2: the costume drama, the period piece into American audience to
Speaker 2: American audiences. And so those are the areas that we
Speaker 2: spend most of our time on BritBox specifically, and we
Speaker 2: want to make sure that you don't have that issue
Speaker 2: that you show up, you watch the one show that
Speaker 2: somebody told you to watch and there's nothing there for you.
Speaker 2: I call it the clear, well lit paths. The proposition like,
Speaker 2: can we make sure that if we bring somebody in
Speaker 2: for one thing, there are there is a very clear
Speaker 2: path for them to enjoy the rest of what we
Speaker 2: have in the service. And that's really been our strategy.
Speaker 1: So what are you bringing people on for right now?
Speaker 1: And what's coming up that you're excited about?
Speaker 2: Sure? So our slate is something I'm super proud of
Speaker 2: this year. You know, one of the areas that we
Speaker 2: that we are incredibly proud of is the depth of
Speaker 2: Agatha Christie programming, the Queen of Crime, probably the most
Speaker 2: well known voice of mystery coming out of the UK,
Speaker 2: and you've had we have had excellent success with content
Speaker 2: from her from the library of back at the Career,
Speaker 2: but also some adaptations recent adaptations, So we have Why
Speaker 2: did dazk Evans Murder? Is Easy Towards Zero, which is
Speaker 2: our most recent series with Matthew Resent Angelica Houston, and
Speaker 2: then we have so this year we have Tommy and
Speaker 2: Tuppen's coming out and Tommy and Tuppen is the first
Speaker 2: modern adaptation of an Agatha Christie IP in English language.
Speaker 2: There may have been some things elsewhere in the world,
Speaker 2: but in English language it's the first and we're just
Speaker 2: super excited about that, and we know that our audience
Speaker 2: loves mystery and interestingly, that show we've commissioned out of
Speaker 2: the US, so we can get into that if you like,
Speaker 2: on how we think about programming and commissioning programming. But
Speaker 2: just super excited about that show. We have the other
Speaker 2: Bennett's Sister is a show that we're incredibly excited about
Speaker 2: that takes place in the world of Pride and Prejudice.
Speaker 3: I'm excited for it.
Speaker 2: Well, so that takes place in the world of pride
Speaker 2: and prejudice, it centers around Mary Bennett was sort of
Speaker 2: the often overlooked Bennett's Sister and Pride and Prejudice very very,
Speaker 2: very successful novel and a lot of our content originates
Speaker 2: from books and book series and being part of that
Speaker 2: universe I think will give us an opportunity to extend
Speaker 2: that on round to lots of new audiences. So that's
Speaker 2: a show that we're very excited about. And then look,
Speaker 2: we've got great a huge slate of returning series, headlined
Speaker 2: by the second season of Ludwig starring David Mitchell, that
Speaker 2: we're very excited about. And so just a very rich
Speaker 2: slate of new to BritBox and returning series that we
Speaker 2: know will delight our audiences.
Speaker 1: When you're looking at the top down view here and
Speaker 1: how you want to approach programming and balance that with
Speaker 1: the immense amount of library content there is how do
Speaker 1: you see BritBox as a producer versus BritBox as a platform.
Speaker 3: And you had mentioned commissioning in the US.
Speaker 2: So BritBox really started by being an acquirer programming. So
Speaker 2: this is before my time, but I mentioned there just
Speaker 2: wasn't a lot of British television available elsewhere in the
Speaker 2: US market. So the idea of aggregating that and putting
Speaker 2: it in one place was the original idea. As we've
Speaker 2: grown the business and evolved and moved beyond just being
Speaker 2: a place for the library programming to delight you know,
Speaker 2: somebody who would call themselves an angle file or an
Speaker 2: expat into just becoming more of a of a service
Speaker 2: that's accessible to all. We've moved upstream in the way
Speaker 2: that we think about programmings. We are an extremely active
Speaker 2: co commissioner and in some cases commissioner British Television and
Speaker 2: we and I frankly are green lighting television shows that
Speaker 2: millions of people are watching in the UK, and I
Speaker 2: mentioned Tommy and Tuppens that's coming later this year. But
Speaker 2: we had a series that came to us called Blimley
Speaker 2: from Colin Calendar and Playground, which is a Colin is
Speaker 2: an extremely well renowned producer, and we commissioned that and
Speaker 2: I green Latch green lit that show in the US
Speaker 2: and it made its way back to the UK via
Speaker 2: the acquisition route at BBC, so there wasn't a UK
Speaker 2: broadcaster involved in that commission and it turned out to
Speaker 2: be one of the if not the biggest drama premiere
Speaker 2: on the BBC in the last year. And so we're
Speaker 2: taking a very proactive approach at knowing what our audience
Speaker 2: looks for, what their tastes are and what they like
Speaker 2: aggressively going after those shows, participating upstream. And this even
Speaker 2: goes beyond commissioning. We develop projects, We listen to ideas
Speaker 2: at the earliest stage and we're talking to every premium
Speaker 2: producer in the UK and a lot of the projects
Speaker 2: that are on our slate come from from rab or
Speaker 2: agnostic about where they come from, and they come from
Speaker 2: the best producers in the UK, whether it's Left Bank
Speaker 2: Pictures who made The Crown. They're the producers of The Lady,
Speaker 2: which is a new series that we have on the
Speaker 2: service right now, and we talk about Tommy and Tuppens
Speaker 2: that came from Lookout Point that's a BBC Studios owned label,
Speaker 2: and that they made Happy Value, which is one of
Speaker 2: the most well regarded series from Sally Wainwright UK that
Speaker 2: many American audiences are familiar with. So we're working with
Speaker 2: the best producers in the UK and if there's an
Speaker 2: opportunity and if it makes sense for us to participate
Speaker 2: upstream in the commissioning or co production phase of things,
Speaker 2: when we do so.
Speaker 1: It's very interesting Unlimley in particular, and would you say
Speaker 1: it's kind of reverse engineering that you guys are able
Speaker 1: to see what the North American audience who's interested in
Speaker 1: British television would be interested in, and that then leads
Speaker 1: to what the British audience would be interested in.
Speaker 2: I think there are certain lanes where there's a great
Speaker 2: overlapp and I think the mystery and again broader crime
Speaker 2: genre is something that there's a pretty good signals if
Speaker 2: it works in the UK for me, for that audience
Speaker 2: in that genre, it's something that's going to find our
Speaker 2: audience or delight arts as well. And this is a
Speaker 2: specific show and we see lots of them, we just know.
Speaker 2: And we've got again an amazing commissioning team that actually
Speaker 2: sits in the UK, that's made up actually both Americans
Speaker 2: and Brits, but it specifically sits in London that screens
Speaker 2: all of our inbound and they have such an incredible
Speaker 2: pulse on what our audience in the US is excited
Speaker 2: about and would be excited about. And yeah, I lean
Speaker 2: on them, and I think broadly our programming team leans
Speaker 2: on them immensely. But we have a really good understanding
Speaker 2: of what our audience likes and we've talked to them.
Speaker 2: We spend a lot of time and you listen to them,
Speaker 2: and I think the output of that are some million
Speaker 2: incredible shows that we're very proud of.
Speaker 1: Your recent promotion gives your official title BBC Studios Direct
Speaker 1: to Consumer CEO, So i'd like to ask included in
Speaker 1: that is BBC Select as well and any future DTOC
Speaker 1: businesses in North America so well.
Speaker 3: BritBox is a big focus of our conversation here.
Speaker 1: I'd like to ask about BBC Select and plans for
Speaker 1: future potential streaming ventures are what you're looking at, what
Speaker 1: you're interested in.
Speaker 2: Sure, So I mentioned BritBox started as a JV and
Speaker 2: within the BBC, within BBC Studios, there there was another
Speaker 2: distinctive lane of programming that was being pursued, which was
Speaker 2: factual programming and that's something that again British documentaries have
Speaker 2: a slightly different tone that than what you typically get
Speaker 2: out of out of the US audience. And what the
Speaker 2: BBC discovered, BBC Studios discovered was there was an opportunity
Speaker 2: to lean into that lane. And so somewhat in parallel
Speaker 2: to having this joint venture of ITV, they had launched
Speaker 2: a streaming service just focus on factual opportunities and that's
Speaker 2: BBC Select. And so once we were brought into the
Speaker 2: fold through the acquisition of ITV share in brick Box,
Speaker 2: we took a look at where can we leverage the
Speaker 2: platform the infrastructure of brick Box to supercharge the growth
Speaker 2: of other things within the broader portfolio and Select was
Speaker 2: a very obvious first place to start. So we've integrated
Speaker 2: that business in really without any hiccups, into BritBox and rebranded.
Speaker 2: Really at a corporate level, we're calling it direct to consumer,
Speaker 2: but we're not. We're still from a consumer facing perspective
Speaker 2: brick Box and BBC Select, and but what we've been
Speaker 2: able to do is really use the k abilities that
Speaker 2: we've built at brick Box to accelerate the growth. It's
Speaker 2: already very impressive and profitable service in Select. And then
Speaker 2: you know, in terms of future plans, we're just you know,
Speaker 2: we're open minded and assessing the market like everything else.
Speaker 2: So there's a lot of chaos out there, and I
Speaker 2: think that just leaves us us in a position where
Speaker 2: there may be opportunities in the future to pursuit and
Speaker 2: nothing to report today. But what we are doing is
Speaker 2: building the infrastructure to be able to support multiple faces
Speaker 2: to the consumer and also use them together. So we
Speaker 2: can talk at some point about our premium service Brickbox Premiere,
Speaker 2: but we're the content from BBC Select lives within the
Speaker 2: premium tier for brick Box Premium service also, so we're
Speaker 2: just constantly looking for ways to optimize our proposition to
Speaker 2: consumers and leverage the infrastructure that we've built to supercharge
Speaker 2: our businesses on.
Speaker 1: The premier option. I'd love to know how that's looking
Speaker 1: right now. What you've seen as the consumer response to
Speaker 1: that since launching that tier.
Speaker 2: Sure Brickbox Premiere. The origin story there is when you
Speaker 2: look at how every service out there is thinking about
Speaker 2: growing revenue per user are who usually I call it
Speaker 2: bad news. If you get an email and you're in
Speaker 2: box that says you're paying you're now paying more for
Speaker 2: a service today than you were yesterday, and everyone's gotten
Speaker 2: them any for every service and we've raised price al
Speaker 2: So it's not a great feeling. But in order to
Speaker 2: bring some of this incredible programming and continue to create
Speaker 2: a service that people love, we need to continue to
Speaker 2: invest and invest there. So the challenge that I really
Speaker 2: gave the team was how can we increase our revenue
Speaker 2: per user through good news? And are there ways that
Speaker 2: we can bring our audience And we know how loyal
Speaker 2: our audience is and they tell us how much they
Speaker 2: love us. Can we bring them closer to the program
Speaker 2: and can we give them more? And so we launched
Speaker 2: the service called Britbock's Premiere over the summer in August,
Speaker 2: and really it's principal value proposition is earlier access to programming.
Speaker 2: I'm old fashioned. I love the week over week well
Speaker 2: a lot of a show. I think the binge valuable
Speaker 2: for some people and they really love it, but there's
Speaker 2: something about having that week to week conversation and a
Speaker 2: little bit of a pause to reflect and think about
Speaker 2: what you're watching, talk to your community and think about
Speaker 2: where things are going, and especially in the world that
Speaker 2: we play in, which is a lot of mystery and
Speaker 2: suspense and what's going to happen and who done it, etc.
Speaker 2: But we recognize that some users would prefer to just
Speaker 2: have everything right now. We part of the value, part
Speaker 2: of the proposition of Premiere is the early access to programming,
Speaker 2: and mentioned BBC select the inclusion of those documentaries and
Speaker 2: factual programming into the service. And then there's some compelling
Speaker 2: product features that we've been hearing for a long time.
Speaker 2: Their users wanted, they wanted four K, they wanted more
Speaker 2: concurrent streams, they wanted temporary downloads and mobile devices, and
Speaker 2: so we built this product and we said we're going
Speaker 2: to release it in a very quiet way as an
Speaker 2: annual only option and see what happens and continue to
Speaker 2: tinker and continue to make it better and really hope
Speaker 2: to evolve them into something that feels more like a
Speaker 2: membership tire than something that's just a transactional relationship with
Speaker 2: a service provider, which is I think of how we
Speaker 2: think about a lot of our relationships with streaming services,
Speaker 2: and the results have been phenomenal. We're going to exceed
Speaker 2: our first year plan on that by probably around over
Speaker 2: fifty percent. And we've just been we talked to what
Speaker 2: I keep saying, we talk to our users a lot.
Speaker 2: The response to what has been extremely positive. People always
Speaker 2: want a little bit more, they want to feel close,
Speaker 2: and we've got some really great ideas about how we
Speaker 2: can continue to improve the service. But this is really
Speaker 2: a super fan service and we are in the fandom business,
Speaker 2: so we want to make sure we're always a step
Speaker 2: ahead and thinking about how to give our users more
Speaker 2: and if it has the benefit of creating more value
Speaker 2: for the business as well, that's really impactful and important
Speaker 2: as well.
Speaker 1: Speaking about the fandom, you've launched a podcast now as well,
Speaker 1: to go along with programming like to Know What.
Speaker 3: Led to that Everyone's Lunch podcast.
Speaker 1: We're on a podcast right now, but particularly ones that
Speaker 1: are about content tied to a show.
Speaker 3: I think after episode recap kind of things.
Speaker 1: What led you all to this and thinking this is
Speaker 1: something fans would want And what have you seen as
Speaker 1: that reaction to the podcast and listeners.
Speaker 2: I mean, we've had a couple episodes out right now,
Speaker 2: the response has been very strong. This just follows the
Speaker 2: trend of how do we get closer to audiences and
Speaker 2: how do we create these ongrams and give people accessible
Speaker 2: ways to experience brick Box And for new fans and
Speaker 2: then for existing fans, how do we create community and
Speaker 2: allow that fandom to thrive elsewhere? And you know that's
Speaker 2: it's also a great example of how we do things
Speaker 2: at brick Box. And it was an idea came that
Speaker 2: was organically came up in a training workshop actually that
Speaker 2: we had and we found the resources and said, just
Speaker 2: sounds like a great idea. We're a very small organization
Speaker 2: and so we don't have a lot of bureaucracy. We
Speaker 2: don't operate in a despite being in a big media
Speaker 2: environment and being part of the BBC, we don't try
Speaker 2: to act like that and we try to just move quickly.
Speaker 2: And there was an opportunity to get some great talent
Speaker 2: and talk about TV and leverage the fact that we
Speaker 2: do have relationships with talent that wants to help promote
Speaker 2: their shows and get in front of audiences and give
Speaker 2: them a flavor a little bit of behind the scenes
Speaker 2: of the world that they operate in, and you, we're
Speaker 2: just super excited about. It's just another way we can
Speaker 2: reach users where.
Speaker 1: They are at this point, with how long BritBox has
Speaker 1: been around, now, how have you seen the reaction from
Speaker 1: talent and creatives that you're working with change or has
Speaker 1: it stayed the same?
Speaker 3: Roughly?
Speaker 1: What do you see is a reaction to working with
Speaker 1: BritBox versus working with Netflix or Amazon or all these
Speaker 1: other people who want to get in and want to
Speaker 1: be part of period dramas in particular, and that content
Speaker 1: Netflix is doing bred and prejudice right now? What leads
Speaker 1: to wanting to work with BritBox over someone like that.
Speaker 2: So we take incredible care of our programming and our talent,
Speaker 2: and I think if you were to talk to them,
Speaker 2: we want all of our talent and they come and
Speaker 2: visit us, to go back to the UK and talk
Speaker 2: about the incredible experience that they have. It's a huge
Speaker 2: amount of effort put in to make them feel like
Speaker 2: they mean everything to us, which they do because we
Speaker 2: only play in one lane. So I'm not going to
Speaker 2: speak to what goes on in other streaming services because
Speaker 2: I don't really know. But when you think about general
Speaker 2: entertainment services, British content is a part of what they do.
Speaker 2: For us, it's everything that we do. And so when
Speaker 2: we have a big, impactful tent pole show that maybe
Speaker 2: somewhere else would be one of many, many things that
Speaker 2: are happening for us, it's the most important thing. Whether
Speaker 2: it's they're getting to see their faces in a billboard
Speaker 2: in Times Square, which all of our talent take that
Speaker 2: moment and they take a picture and put it on
Speaker 2: their socials and they get very excited about it, or
Speaker 2: even just coming to New York and we do events
Speaker 2: and we do screenings and some of them, believe it
Speaker 2: or not, have never even been to New York City before.
Speaker 2: And I think the relationship that we're developing back into
Speaker 2: the British content ecosystem is a really competitive advantage for us.
Speaker 2: We talk to every producer in that marketplace. Talent is
Speaker 2: now coming to us and saying how can we work
Speaker 2: with brick Box because they know that we get behind
Speaker 2: our shows. We do everything we possibly can do to
Speaker 2: get to get the word out there. And the value
Speaker 2: of just being on a brick box show in the
Speaker 2: UK marketplace, maybe once upon a time, and I'm speculating here,
Speaker 2: we may have been thought of as a niche service.
Speaker 2: You can understand why. But our aspiration is really to
Speaker 2: be a main that specializes in distinctive programming from the
Speaker 2: UK and as talent and producers recognize that we will
Speaker 2: celebrate their content, we will get them talked about in
Speaker 2: all the places where Prestige Television has talked about. They've
Speaker 2: come to get very comfortable with us, and then we
Speaker 2: make sure that when they are with us, both through
Speaker 2: the production process as well as when we were out
Speaker 2: there and yelling from the rooftops about the shows, they're
Speaker 2: getting a first class experience with us. And so far,
Speaker 2: I think that's penne that ends in the marketplace.
Speaker 1: When you look at catering to your existing fan base
Speaker 1: and keeping those people happy, and you know who those
Speaker 1: people are and you want to be there for those
Speaker 1: people versus also growth, how are you balancing that? Are
Speaker 1: there different demographics you're looking at courting, are their younger
Speaker 1: audiences you're looking at?
Speaker 2: Sure, Well, look, we're in the same business as every
Speaker 2: service in the sense that we think about acquisition and
Speaker 2: we think about retention. Now it's amazing if we can
Speaker 2: get a show that does both, that both brings new
Speaker 2: audience in and entertains our existing audience. And we have
Speaker 2: lots of shows that some shows are only going to
Speaker 2: play to the acquisition. We may we may try to
Speaker 2: operate a little bit outside of our existing audience base
Speaker 2: so that we can lower that barrier to entry. I
Speaker 2: call it an accessible on ramp, pick whatever turn of
Speaker 2: phrase you want, but we want to for the person
Speaker 2: who hasn't discovered yet that British television is for them.
Speaker 2: We want to give them a reason to give us
Speaker 2: a try. And we've done that through a marketing campaigns.
Speaker 2: We launched a brand campaigns year that we called see
Speaker 2: It Differently and it want to Clio. It was a
Speaker 2: fourteen hour time lapse of someone who was playing the
Speaker 2: role of a BritBox subscriber being converted into characters from
Speaker 2: our different shows. And there's really I've actually never seen
Speaker 2: anything like it before and when the team came to
Speaker 2: me with that idea, I was like, yeah, let's do
Speaker 2: something different. But what it challenged the team, what it
Speaker 2: challenged audiences to do or potential audiences to do is
Speaker 2: really to think of us differently, and you know, the
Speaker 2: goal is to try to bring people in and give
Speaker 2: and give us a try to our existing audience. The
Speaker 2: job is to just keep feeding them the great programming
Speaker 2: and bringing back our super brands and returning shows. And
Speaker 2: we're heavily invested in that, whereas you know, on other
Speaker 2: services you might expect to see a season or two
Speaker 2: or three of very successful shows. We love the franchise.
Speaker 2: We have Silent Witnesses in its twenty eighth season. We
Speaker 2: have Death and Paradise and Shetland. These these series have
Speaker 2: double digit seasons of television and audience has become accustomed
Speaker 2: to coming back and key beats throughout the year. And
Speaker 2: this is part of the value of Britboxes. It's not
Speaker 2: just one show. It's you're here for the experience and
Speaker 2: we're going to keep feeding you over the course of
Speaker 2: a year incredible television shows. And the output of that
Speaker 2: is that the majority of our subscribers on our direct
Speaker 2: consumer platform are on annual plans. So what that tells
Speaker 2: us and we keep leaning into that, and it's statistic
Speaker 2: that I'm probably most proud of. It's our audience is
Speaker 2: making a bet on BritBox for the entire year. They
Speaker 2: know that we're going to keep delighting them, that we're
Speaker 2: going to curate for them the best of British television.
Speaker 2: They're not just show them up for one show. And
Speaker 2: we're actually seeing that that number continue to increase and
Speaker 2: Britbox's Premiere, which is only sold as an annual option,
Speaker 2: that premium tier is helping that number as well. And
Speaker 2: the job here is of course to keep the existing
Speaker 2: audience base happy, we get the feedback that that's happening,
Speaker 2: and then introducing BritBox to lots of new people who
Speaker 2: are wise wouldn't necessarily know how great the content can
Speaker 2: be on our British Content service.
Speaker 3: Before we close.
Speaker 1: I've looked to get your perspective on just in general,
Speaker 1: looking at the industry, what people should be looking at
Speaker 1: right now, What interesting trends that you're looking forward to
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty s. Maybe just certain areas where you've
Speaker 1: noticed growth or you're looking to growth that you want
Speaker 1: to point out.
Speaker 2: Well, it sounds a bit self serving. I think the
Speaker 2: specialty service or the targeted services seems to be where
Speaker 2: there's a lot of interest now we're talking because we
Speaker 2: may not have had this conversation three years ago, and
Speaker 2: we may not have been on your radar three years ago.
Speaker 2: But as the broader services are getting broad, people are gravitating,
Speaker 2: audiences are gravitating towards content that they feel very connected to.
Speaker 2: And I think that's done very well in specialty services,
Speaker 2: and whether it's services like ours or there are other
Speaker 2: services that tackle other content verticals, to me, that's particularly exciting.
Speaker 2: I have a stinking suspicion that you're going to see
Speaker 2: some more of that happen name at the general entertainment level,
Speaker 2: as some of the bigger services who've gone broad are
Speaker 2: going to have to find identities. And that's something that
Speaker 2: we think about a lot, is our identity in the
Speaker 2: marketplace and what we stand for. And it's difficult as
Speaker 2: a consumer to pin an identity broad identity on a
Speaker 2: lot of the general services. They may mean something very
Speaker 2: important to me, whether maybe it's a sport, certain sports
Speaker 2: rights that they have, or it may be a show
Speaker 2: that I really love. From a streaming or service wide identity,
Speaker 2: I don't know if that really exists out there, but
Speaker 2: we're in that business. And the reason I'm here and
Speaker 2: I continue to be excited and motivated every day. And
Speaker 2: why my team I've been able to build this organization
Speaker 2: and we've been able to come together and bring in
Speaker 2: people who've worked for all the major streaming services, who
Speaker 2: are super dedicated on building something that can connect with audiences.
Speaker 2: Why they're motivated to come in every day. It's all
Speaker 2: about that direct relationship that we can have with the consumer.
Speaker 2: So that's the thing that motivates me. That's the thing
Speaker 2: I'm excited about. I suspect you're going to see more
Speaker 2: of that happening and more experimentation about how to go
Speaker 2: deeper with specific audience segments.
Speaker 1: Speaking about the success of Linley, I believe you guys
Speaker 1: have already picked that up for a second season.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, I was super excited about that. This is
Speaker 2: a show that we believed in and bought into in
Speaker 2: the very early phase and very rare for us to
Speaker 2: think about picking up a show and commissioning a show
Speaker 2: when there isn't a UK broadcaster associated with them. So
Speaker 2: successful for us. You know, we really do see ourselves
Speaker 2: in a way as ambassadors in British culture. You really
Speaker 2: do believe that we are the primary route to market
Speaker 2: for British television into the US and North American marketplace.
Speaker 2: We say what we are on the ten as the
Speaker 2: Brits would say we are brick Box. There's really no
Speaker 2: other streaming service that says exactly who they are, So
Speaker 2: we do owe hot, we do owe a responsibility to
Speaker 2: that content, be that ambassador, to be that bridge between
Speaker 2: British television and the audiences that love it today but
Speaker 2: also we'll love it in the future, and it's a
Speaker 2: role that we take very seriously.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us for this week's episode of
Speaker 1: Variety Strictly Business. You can find new episodes weekly on
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