Latest in BBC Studios

Upcoming snowboarding thriller Shiver is being adapted for television after Firebird Pictures, the indie set up by Bodyguard exec producer Elizabeth Kilgarriff, snapped up the rights to Allie Reynolds’ debut novel. The book is set in the French Alps and follows five friends who reunite years after taking part in a…

BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the British broadcaster, has combined its international sales and distribution businesses together, and named Paul Dempsey to the newly-created role of President, Global Distribution. Dempsey, who joined BBC Worldwide in 1998 and has held a number of senior positions, will relocate…

The Doctor is heading to HBO Max after the WarnerMedia streaming service picked up the exclusive streaming rights to long-running BBC Studios drama Doctor Who. The service will have all 11 seasons of the sci-fi fan favorite at launch in spring 2020 including the SVOD premiere of season 11, which stars Jodie Whittaker…

Netflix has appointed former BBC Studios exec Jackie Lee-Joe as Chief Marketing Officer. Lee-Joe will start at the online giant in September and will relocate to Los Angeles. She succeeds Kelly Bennett, who announced his retirement from the company earlier this year after seven years in the gig. Lee-Joe joins at a…

BBC Studios has become the latest investor in Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman's short-form digital service Quibi. The company joins the major Hollywood studios including Disney, Sony and Warner Bros as well as Viacom, MGM, eOne, Liberty Global, China's Alibaba Group and rival British outfit ITV as investors in the…

BBC Studios has won its first fully-funded commission in China – a six-part factual series about tea. The production division of the British public broadcaster is making One Cup, A Thousand Stories for China Mobile’s digital content subsidiary Migu. It comes 24 hours after BBC Studios won its first commission from…

The multi-million-dollar deal between Discovery and the BBC to carve up multi-channel broadcaster UKTV has received regulatory approval in the UK. In April, the two companies finally came to an agreement on the future of the Flack broadcaster with Discovery taking control of three channels and BBC Studios acquiring…

Iron Man and The Jungle Book director Jon Favreau is to produce a dinosaur documentary series for Apple. Favreau has teamed up with BBC Studios' Natural History Unit on Prehistoric Planet, which will use CGI to tell the story of the last days of the dinosaurs 66M years ago. The Natural History Unit is the division…

Former Fox and Dreamworks exec Dan McDermott is to lead BBC Studios and Lionsgate's television partnership. McDermott will run the venture, which was struck by the British public broadcaster's LA division and the Orange Is The New Black producer in October 2018. The venture will identify, co-develop and co-fund…

BBC Studios has scored its first commission for British commercial broadcaster ITV – a documentary series featuring exclusive interviews with The Prince of Wales. The production division of the public broadcaster is making Inside The Duchy (w/t) to celebrate his 50th year working as The Duke of Cornwall. It comes as…

A multi-year deal reached by MotorTrend Group and BBC Studios will yield the new U.S. series Top Gear America (working title) and provide North American streaming rights to the full library of more than 200 classic Top Gear episodes. The pact was announced by Discovery and the BBC in the lead-up to Discovery’s upfront…

Cheat creator Gaby Hull has written a six-part psychological thriller for UKTV's Alibi – the British broadcaster's second original drama since it moved into scripted commissioning. Hull, who wrote the ITV and Sundance Now college thriller, is behind We Hunt Together, produced by BBC Studios. This comes a week after…