Kit Harington, Liv Tyler and Dawn French to hit Australian screens as BBC programming prepares for tough 2018
BBC Worldwide Australia and New Zealand has revealed its lineup for 2018, with a new drama starring Game of Thrones’ Kit Harington and Lord of the Rings’ Liv Tyler, an extended comedy offering for UKTV and a new show on BBC Knowledge about astronauts all featured in the programming slate.
Next year’s programming , which aims to grow audience reach for the network despite a foreshadowed “tough 2018”, will see the launch of new drama Gunpowder, new BBC First crime thriller Rellik – which is written by Harry and Jack Williams – an adaptation of prize-winning novel The Child In Time with Benedict Cumberbatch and new UKTV comedy show Kevin Bridges: A Whole Different Story.
Kit Harington will be seen on Australian screens in all-new drama Gunpowder
Adding to UKTV’s comedy offering is Dawn French: 30 Million Minutes,Michael McIntyre: Happy and Glorious and new a series for Taskmaster and Insert Name Here.
Tim Christlieb, director of brand services, BBC Worldwide ANZ said the “strong line-up” will help the broadcaster “fight for every eyeball” possible.
“We are along with the rest of the entire TV landscape battling for advertising dollars. Nobody is making any secret of that. Total TV spend in advertising is backwards, depending on who you talk to between 3% and 5%. We are fighting hard to take as bigger part of the pie as we can. That means adapting our approach, targeting a younger audience, trying to make more people watch the channel live,” he told Mumbrella.
“There’s no doubt about that fact it’s a really strong lineup. There’s lots of noise there, there’s lots of big faces, they’re very broad in appeal, take Kit Harrington in Gunpowder – a cross-over talent that should pull a younger demo into BBC First. The comedy lineup on UKTV, the younger-skewing fresh faces on knowledge – we are in pretty good shape for what should be a tough year.”
Looking back on the year just gone, Christlieb said the company had successfully extended its audience reach and broad offering across the four channels.
“Top of the Lake China Girl came in and obviously that delivered an enormous TV moment regardless of what platform you are watching, as well as Tom Hardy and Taboo” he said.
“They proved that BBC First can attract really big audiences, really broad audiences. What both of the shows did was prove that First can also attract an audience slightly younger than our traditional viewers. We scored really highly in the 25-54 year olds for both those shows.”
Christlieb said a change in strategy with First also helped grow its audience.
Christlieb says BBC Worldwide is facing the same problems as the wider TV industry in Australia
“We’ve also had a slight change in strategy on First. We’ve introduced back seasons of some of our most popular dramas onto the channel, things like Call the Midwife, In Paradise, Silent Witness, have all come over in high volume onto the channel and been stripped, so programmed every day in day time. What that’s done is contribute to a really big uplift in live viewing and also amongst a slightly younger audience,” he said.
For UKTV, the rebrand and channel refresh which occurred last year, helped create a “comfortable” environment for younger audiences – between 40-45 year olds – to return to.
“What it does in honesty is when you bring the audiences into the channel who are slightly younger they want to feel comfortable in the environment they are in. What’s important is to be lively, fun, engaging, relevant, quirky, cheeky,” he said.
Looking to the new year, Christlieb said advertisers could except more social media marketing from UKTV.
And while Australia’s free-to-air commercial channels continue to rail against children’s programming quotas, Christlieb said BBC Worldwide’s multi-platform strategy for children’s programming has made it a success.
“The content that comes out of that engine as with all the content that comes out of the BBC and we exploit here is just so well developed, well-researched that it makes it reasonably easy to exploit in many ways and we just have to partner with the right people, making sure we target the right outlets and we’ve got a real good chance,” he said.
But picking UK programs for an Australian audience can be challenging. Christlieb said a mixture of science and gut helped him decide the incoming lineup.
“Talent is one of the key factors. I always look to some kind of credentials on the part of the talent. And the talent could be writing – for instance on BBC First we’ve got really really big name writing talent for instance the guys who wrote The Missing, The Williams Brothers – they are the writers of one of our upcoming dramas called Rellik which is on BBC First in the new year,” he said.
“We’ll run a lot of data as well. We’ll do a lot of number crunching and see what types of content resonates with what types of audience. Obviously things like ‘Insert Name Here’ have got no track record but Sue Perkins is the presenter, she’s very popular on lots of platforms through Great British Bake Off. There’s lot of connections, there’s lots of number crunching, a mix of science and arts in terms of data and experience and gut feel.”
Programs:
BBC First
Coming to BBC First in 2018 is Gunpowder, a re-telling of the legendary story of Guy Fawkes and the gunpowder plot set against the background of Catholic persecution in England. Starring Kit Harington (Game of Thrones) and Liv Tyler (Lord of the Rings) the series has won critical and popular acclaim in the UK. Other big series coming to the channel are Tin Star a tale of corruption and revenge set in the Canadian Rockies starring Tim Roth and Christina Hendricks, Rellik, a crime thriller told in reverse from the talented writers responsible for The Missing, the second series of The A Word and new series of audience favourites Call the Midwife, Death in Paradise and Silent Witness. BBC First will also screen adaptations of two award-winning novels. Romola Garai and Anna Taylor-Joy star in The Miniaturist, the international best-selling novel by Jessie Burton set in 17th century Amsterdam. Meanwhile Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) and Kelly McDonald (T2 Trainspotting) play parents struggling for to come to terms with their child’s disappearance in Ian McEwan’s The Child in Time.UKTV
In 2018 UKTV will build out its comedy offering with premieres of stand-up shows from some of the UK’s biggest comedians including Dawn French: 30 Million Minutes, Kevin Bridges: A Whole
Different Story and Michael McIntyre: Happy and Glorious which will screen in the Sunday night stand-up comedy slot . Tuesday nights which are home to the channel’s comedy panel shows will see new series of Taskmaster, Insert Name Here and 8 out of 10 Cats.BBC Knowledge
On BBC Knowledge two exciting series see members of the public taking on real life training exercises designed to test their capabilities to take on some of the most exciting and taxing jobs. Astronauts: Do You Have What It Takes sees 12 applicants being put through a series of grueling tests to win the ultimate reference – the backing of astronaut and former Commander of the international Space Station Chris Hadfield when the space agencies next take on recruits. In Spies three former members of the British Secret Intelligence Service put 14 men and women through a series of tests based on the Intelligence Officer New entry Course to see who has the skills to make it as a spy.Charismatic experts return to the channel with a new series of Ben Fogle’s Where the Wild Men Are as he explores the lives of people who live off-the-grid including a couple on Australia’s Wilderness Island. Singer, actor and angler Robson Green’s Ultimate Catch sees him pushing the boundaries of fishing and adventure traveller Simon Reeve takes viewers to Turkey, Columbia and Russia.
CBeebies
Meanwhile on CBeebies there will be a new series of the International Emmy and BAFTA award-winning pre-school favourite Hey Duggee. The loveable dog has been a huge hit around the world where it is seen in 150 countries. In Australia the popularity of the show has underpinned new licensing partnerships and product releases with plush toys, clothing lines, playsets, games and puzzles, books, DVDs and tableware lines in store with retail partners such as Big W, Myers, Target and ABC Retail online as well as a special Hey Duggee cinema special which is currently in cinema’s nationally.
There are also new episodes of Go Jetters, one of our top-rating shows which is continuing to grow in popularity with nearly a million new viewers coming to the show this year. As well as growing new global brands CBeebies is also home to some of the biggest established pre-school brands and this year Thomas and Friends will be joining the channel where it will sit alongside children’s favourites like In the Night Garden, Waybulu and Sarah and Duck.
What a disgrace – YOURS magazine was a wonderful publication – the only decent one for women – informative, topical and respectful. I shall miss it very much and can only hope the axing is reconsidered.
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