--
BBC Worldwide channelling African viewers as part of its global strategy --
Fri, 28 Apr 2017 14:32
--
The BBC World Service has through the years manifested itself as one of the leading news corporations in TV, radio and digital. Moreover in 1998 it became the first international broadcaster to establish a news production bureau in Africa by relocating its London office to Nairobi, Kenya, as a strategic move to reinforce itself on the African market. Since then, the news service has enjoyed more audiences in Africa than anywhere else in the world.
So when BBC Worldwide - an extension of BBC s other channels besides its news service - established an office in Johannesburg, in the hopes of bringing more diverse content and channels to the South African audience; it also had plans to blossom across the African continent at large.
In September 2015, BBC Worldwide introduced three new global brands to South Africa: BBC First, BBC Brit and BBC Earth alongside the already established BBC Lifestyle and CBeebies channels. South Africa became the first country to host all five BBC global brands following the successful European debuts of BBC Brit and BBC Earth in Poland, the Nordics, Hungary, Romania and Turkey, comments BBC Worldwide Africa s vice-president and general manager, Joel Churcher.
BBC First features gripping British drama in all its forms; BBC Brit offers entertaining reality sitcoms and talk shows; while BBC Earth gives viewers insight to the greatest human discoveries as well as the magnificent wonders of the universe.
Churcher confirmed that all the channels are brimming with premium and award-winning content. In addition BBC First is said to be doing exceptionally well and has been ranked as the number one channel for international drama on DStv based on the average time spent by viewers glued to their screen.
The content hosted on these channels is designed to reach a diverse pan-African audience, reflecting a wide range of voices, ages and cultures. Our African viewers clearly have a deep affection for BBC programming, and as a leading content distributor, we will continue to deliver high quality, premium content to our channels for many years to come, says Churcher.
Churcher confirmed how the move to Johannesburg has also led the broadcaster to partner with a local production company, Rapid Blue and as a result BBC Worldwide has since commissioned several programmes which were either specifically filmed in South Africa or across the African continent.
BBC viewers have come to enjoy localised formats of the broadcaster s best-selling shows which include The Great South African Bake Off, Come Dine With Me and Strictly Come Dancing.
Besides these adaptations, the country has also gained favour as a film location of choice not only based on its scenic views but also because of the great value of shooting here. BBC Brit has seen increased ratings after Top Gear series 23 showcased some breathtaking African landscapes in Durban and Lesotho. BBC First s Call the Midwife drama series has also made a point of using actors from South Africa when it shot its Christmas episode on the outskirts of Cape Town, while BBC Earth s show Planet Earth II also featured the African continent. African countries that have also enjoyed the spotlight in other BBC programmes include Ethiopia, Namibia, Kenya, Zambia and Botswana.
While the brands are doing very well in South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa through MultiChoices digital satellite TV service, DStv; Churcher highlighted how the growth in the television sales business has seen other brands reaching further into the African continent such as the CBeebies brand, which was launched as a 24-hour channel on the Zuku TV platform in East Africa last year.
There has also been recent news of other new buyers from Africa including NET2 TV, a free-to-air channel in Ghana and the Econet Media Group, which recently established a new pay-TV platform.
The African continent has become one of the fastest growing economies in the world. To ensure that BBC Worldwide taps into its growing audience base, it is important that our channels host a well-executed balance of international and local content, which feature local voices and faces, Churcher says.
The brands success in making these great executions were awarded with South African wins at the 2016 Loeries for shows on BBC Brit and BBC Lifestyle as well as another award at the Pendoring Advertising Awards for a Zulu radio advert made for BBC Brit. The team also bagged gold at the PromaxBDA Africa Awards for their drama and reality promos.
We are extremely proud of our accolades and look forward to producing more award-winning campaigns that capture the hearts and enthusiasm of our audiences on the African continent, comments Churcher.
During the recent MipTV market in Cannes, BBC Worldwide announced that its reach in Africa has led to the licensing of over 400 hours of programming across Africa in just the first part of 2017.
Shows that have been reported to be most popular to the South African market include, War and Peace, Doctor Who and Luther on BBC First while BBC Brit s motoring show Top Gear has been the biggest show ever since the channels launched.
We re very excited by the rise in local African programming especially the popular shows coming out of Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa, and are focused on localising our popular formats to appeal to a wider audience across not just South Africa but the entire continent, concludes Churcher.
- Gezzy S Sibisi
Related Articles
BBC Worldwide invests in SA production company Rapid BlueBased in South Africa, Nigeria and Angola, Rapid Blue produces shows for African and international audiences...
Read more...
BBC: Head of talent rights negotiation Duties include line managing, motivating, leading and managing the perfor
Most recent headlines
16/12/2025
Hawkins has landed on Spotify, just in time for Stranger Things Season 5, Volume...
16/12/2025
Wherever you are, your favorite music and audio content should go seamlessly with you. That's why Spotify has partnered with NAVER Corp, Korea's leading...
16/12/2025
2025 Wrapped arrived bigger and bolder than ever. This year's experience is designed to be ultra personal and shareable, with new features like Wrapped Part...
16/12/2025
Three 12-kilowatt Advanced Electric Propulsion System thrusters, supplied by L3Harris Technologies, form the core of Gateway's propulsion system. Pictured i...
16/12/2025
The challenge facing America's defense industrial base is not just about speed - its about rebuilding the foundation that makes speed possible. Our nations ...
16/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
16/12/2025
SEVILLE, Spain Canal Sur, the public broadcasting service for Andalusia, Spain, has completed a total technology refresh based on Pebble's resilient, softwa...
16/12/2025
NEW YORK Teleprompting hardware provider Telescript International has acquired all software code and intellectual property previously owned by Telescript West. ...
16/12/2025
As cable operators face increased competition from 5G fixed wireless access providers, a new report from Ookla Research finds that T-Mobile is the FWA speed lea...
16/12/2025
Apple has announced a major upgrade to the Apple TV app for device owners outside the Apple ecosystem with news that the Apple TV app for Android now supports G...
16/12/2025
Space42 grows Direct-to-Device partner ecosystem through a Memorandum of Underst...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON Announces Release Date for Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2025 R...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON's Kyivstar Invests in Renewable Energy in Ukraine with Acq...
16/12/2025
Back to All News
Emma Appleton, Fares Fares, Frida Gustavsson and Jakob Oftebro...
16/12/2025
Back to All News
Docu-reality My Korean Boyfriend Gets a Trailer and Premiere D...
16/12/2025
Harmonic's XOS Advanced Media Processor Improves Streaming Video Quality and Boosts Viewer Engagement SAN JOSE, Calif. - Dec. 16, 2025 - Harmonic (NASDAQ: ...
16/12/2025
RT Sport Awards 2025 live on RT One and RT Player at 8:05pm on Saturday 20 December.
On Saturday 20 December live on RT One and RT Player at the earlier t...
16/12/2025
Singer -songwriter Brian Kennedy has been announced as the final celebrity dance...
15/12/2025
Harlem Globetrotters Celebrate 100th Anniversary With New Brand Campaign From Th...
15/12/2025
Top L-R: La Tierra Del Valor (The Home of the Brave), Mangittatuarjuk (The Gnawe...
15/12/2025
L3Harris will leverage 15 years of experience supporting the E-4B Nightwatch and...
15/12/2025
CONWAY, Ark. In a notable example of how the loss of federal funding is forcing public stations to make massive cuts and operational changes, the statewide pub...
15/12/2025
BOULDER, Colo. Public Media Venture Group (PMVG), Venture Technologies Group (VTG), and WQED have completed a multipart agreement that they say will significant...
15/12/2025
Cape Town, November 13, 2025 - SES and International artist and humanitarian, Fo...
15/12/2025
Luxembourg, December 15, 2025 - SES, a leading space solutions company, and Abra Group launched fast and reliable multi-orbit inflight connectivity service on t...
15/12/2025
How Rivian s Design Puts Drivers First-And Why That Matters Published on Dec 15, 2025 Categories: Business Solutions
LinkedIn Corporate Communications
Sha...
15/12/2025
Space42 and Cobham Satcom completed the full range of advanced terminals for the...
15/12/2025
15 Dec 2025
VEON's Beeline Kazakhstan Delivers First Starlink Direct to Cel...
15/12/2025
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor finds himself the topic of year's cracker jokes
Oasis, David Harbour, Celebrity Traitors and Angela Rayner all feature in this y...
15/12/2025
Comscore Expands Cross-Platform Campaign Measurement to Include Audio and Social New capabilities strengthen cross-platform campaign reporting suite; CCR rebran...
15/12/2025
NVIDIA today announced it has acquired SchedMD - the leading developer of Slurm, an open-source workload management system for high-performance computing (HPC) ...
15/12/2025
RT .ie has reached one billion page views this year and is on track to finish 2025 2% ahead of last year. Average time spent on the site is up 3% on 2024, with ...
15/12/2025
Modern workflows showcase the endless possibilities of generative and agentic AI on PCs.
Of many, some examples include tuning a chatbot to handle product-supp...
13/12/2025
Powering Client Growth: Horizon Deepens Nielsen Partnership, Enabling More Effic...
13/12/2025
In a move that will help it offer more flexible and less costly programming options, YouTube TV has announced that it will be launching YouTube TV Plans with mo...
13/12/2025
SINGAPORE Magna Systems has designed, built and completed what is believed to be the first full UHD and IP-based OB truck in Southeast Asia for a Singapore medi...
12/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Everything You Need to Know for Next Week's Big Sho...
12/12/2025
Hailey Gates at the Atropia premiere (photo by George Pimentel / Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)...
12/12/2025
Last month, Spotify announced a new collaboration with the ATP Tour, the global governing body of men's professional tennis, aimed at bringing the next gene...
12/12/2025
CONWAY, Ark. In a notable example of how the elimination of Federal federal funding is forcing public stations to make massive cuts and changes in the way they...
12/12/2025
Wisycom and DPA Microphones announce the appointment of Ren Moerch as Group Product Director, Wireless, a strategic leadership role that will guide the combine...
12/12/2025
SMPTE , the home of media professionals, technologists, and engineers, in conjuncture with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the Entertainment Technolog...
12/12/2025
Keepit, the vendor-independent, cloud-native data protection provider, today announced a strategic go-to-market relationship in Poland with Ingram Micro, a lead...
12/12/2025
Atomos announced the immediate availability of a new firmware update for its Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX monitor-recorders, unlocking Open Gate 48P RAW recording w...
12/12/2025
Professional Wireless Systems (PWS) once again played a critical role in delivering flawless wireless coordination and support at the 2025 Latin Grammy Awards a...
12/12/2025
The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), together with the Video Services Forum (VSF), the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and the European Broadc...
12/12/2025
DHD audio will demonstrate the latest additions to its range of digital audio production solutions on Booth 321 in Hall B6 at Hamburg Open 2026. The show will b...
12/12/2025
Chaos today announces the release of V-Ray for Blender, update 2, bringing its award-winning rendering technology to even more Blender users by adding support f...
12/12/2025
Lighting specialist UltraLEDs has launched Precision LED Tape, a high-CRI lighting solution designed specifically for professional film, TV, and studio use.
P...
-- 
