Flextech And The BBC Finally Shake Hands
As Bob Phillis, deputy director general of the BBC put it: “This is the second long-awaited announcement to be made today, the first being the election date.” Subject to the approval of shareholders and the Department of National Heritage, BBC Worldwide Ltd, the commercial arm of the BBC, has finally concluded an Agreement with Flextech plc to form two joint ventures. The principle undertaking will develop and launch subscription TV channels for the UK market and Eire. The second joint venture will involve acquiring and developing what is currently UK Gold. On completion of the transactions Flextech and the BBC will each own 50% of the equity share capital of each of the joint ventures and Flextech will own 100% of UK Living.
Both these projects will benefit from the BBC’s programming and scheduling expertise and will have preferential access to a wide range of past and future BBC programmes. The deal runs for an initial 15 years; this will be automatically extended for an additional 15 years unless either of the two sides elects to terminate the arrangement. Should the circumstances of either side change either party has the option to back-out at any time.
Flextech will fund the development of the channels and will be responsible for providing distribution, air-time sales, off-air marketing and management services to the ventures. The BBC will create and retain editorial control of the channels, which will be produced by BBC Broadcast.
The channel concepts currently under consideration are:
Horizons – will focus on factual programming providing natural history, science, history and technology documentaries.
Style – will aim to provide quality, informative, entertaining TV, incorporating popular BBC consumer programmes.
Learning – will be programmed with the intention of enabling viewers to develop new skills, as well as assisting in the education of children at home and in the classroom.
Arena – will be targeted at subscribers whose cultural interests are not currently satisfied by multi-channel TV. It will use the BBC archive of arts programming to provide classical concerts, plays, interviews and profiles, as well as live special event screenings of music, theatre, opera and ballet.
Showcase – will initially be broadcast by a strand of UK Gold and will feature the highest quality and most popular programmes from both BBC 1 and 2.
Sports Entertainment Network – will consist of entertainment programming with a sporting theme and will provide a platform for viewer involvement and interaction.
One-TV – will build on BBC Radio 1’s relationship with the media industry. The core programming will be music videos.
Catch-Up TV – will feature high profile top-rated programmes shortly after their first transmission on BBC 1 or 2.
At this stage, channel names and concepts are illustrative only and are subject to change. However, the joint-venture Board is committed to launching the first channels in late 1997.
The channels will be funded by subscription and advertising. Flextech will seek to distribute the channels across all available services, be they be satellite, cable, terrestrial, digital or analogue. The partnership has agreed to give first option support to the DTT bid by British Digital Broadcasting.
Adam Singer, deputy chairman of Flextech commented: “This venture creates a television entity which blends the best of the BBC with the commercial skills of Britain’s leading thematic channel supplier. At last real ‘telly’ will come to cable and satellite.”
Speaking on behalf of the BBC, Bob Phillis said: “The formation of these joint ventures marks a historic development in the BBC and BBC Worldwide’s history. We have a partner with a successful track record and considerable expertise in managing satellite and cable channels. These new channels will reflect the BBC’s commitment to quality, will complement the schedules of BBC 1 and BBC 2 and will enable BBC Worldwide to greatly increase revenue flow back to the BBC, without risk to the licence fee payer.”
The joint ventures will be based at Flextech’s new premises at Great Portland Street, London, W1.
…..Flextech is also considering making an investment in European Channel Broadcasting and European Channel Management, the companies responsible for the broadcasting and distribution/marketing of BBC Prime and BBC World in continental Europe.
BBC: 0181 576 2488
Flextech: 0171 299 5128