BBC Studios praised the virtues of its partnership with YouTube at Mipcon on Monday.
Jasmine Dawson, senior vice president of digital at BBC Studios, and Pedro Pina, head of EMEA at YouTube, appeared on a panel moderated by Map of Media’s Evan Shapiro at the Cannes teleconference to reveal how the two companies, ostensibly competing for the same audience, are working together to build fan bases.
“Putting our obsession with our audience at the heart of everything we do is what makes our business work so well today: being ‘fans first,'” Dawson said. “BBC Studios is proud to be building the largest fandom around the world, which is why our partnership with YouTube is so important because it enables and drives the idea of a ‘Creative Earth’.”
Mr Dawson cited the BBC Earth YouTube channel, one of the oldest channels on the BBC Studios platform, with 14 million subscribers, as an example of a successful partnership.
“But what we’re great at is finding fans all over the world who are interested in this and finding their own place to be a part of content that they love and that resonates with them,” she said. “For us, it’s not only about finding the fandoms they live in, but also understanding that we can monetize those audiences both on-platform and off-platform.”
Dawson also insisted that the company, the commercial arm of British broadcaster BBC, was “not sacrificing anything” by making its content available for free on Google-owned social media platforms. “We see this in so many of our IPs. It’s not a mutually exclusive game,” she said. “We’re not sacrificing anything. In fact, it’s incremental. And the dialogue with our distribution partners, whether it’s ‘Bluey’ with Disney or some of the BBC Earth titles with PBS and other distribution companies, is very strong. They understand that this is where fandom grows and it’s a place that fosters incrementality.”
YouTube’s Pina also made the case to the audience, which was made up of many TV industry executives, about why the company needs to partner with a company that many imagine is a competitor in the distribution and broadcast business.
“We all know that there is great content creation happening all over the world. BBC Studios is one of the best content creators in the world, but we found that there are a lot of content creators, and they actually flock here every year. We decided to come here this year to actually say that the same rules that apply apply to everyone who creates content. Anyone can be a YouTuber…you find a smart and great way to monetize it and share in that success. What we do is, if you succeed, I don’t succeed. It’s the best combination ever. The audience decides if the content is good.”
