BBC and Discovery go separate ways

BBC and Discovery have jointly announced to end their long-standing relationship which would lapse “by mutual agreement” but added that the two companies would continue to work together on a number of forthcoming projects, including the shows Hidden Kingdom and How to Build a Planet.

The BBC and Discovery have enjoyed a longstanding and successful relationship and although this phase of our partnership is now coming to an end, we look forward to working together on a number of projects in the future. Science and Natural History programmes have always been a core part of the BBC’s DNA and we have ambitious plans for the future, with an exciting range of new content in the pipeline, said Bal Samra, Commercial Director, BBC.

Tim Davie, CEO, BBC Worldwide said, Demand for our factual content has never been higher and this investment opens up opportunities to work with new partners worldwide to produce an exciting and varied slate of content that will appeal to everyone allowing us to bring BBC factual content to an even wider audience.

The news came as the BBC’s commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, announced that it would make a “major new investment” in factual content – spanning natural history, science and history  and become the principal co-production partner with the BBC’s Natural History Unit.
Worldwide said that the agreement would allow the BBC and BBC Worldwide to work with a wider range of co-production partners and create an “ambitious and varied slate of premium factual content” for viewers in the UK and around the world.