BBC Studios sets eyes on regional markets

livemint.com:

Criminal Justice and Jhalak Dikhla Ja in India, BBC Studios has recently launched new projects such as The Broken News 2 for ZEE5. “Before the pandemic when the industry had just seen the birth of OTT, there were international formats that were getting picked up, and we could work on existing scripts. Covid allowed us to develop our own slate and start writing for the Indian audiences, instead of just catering to briefs," Sameer Gogate, general manager, production, BBC Studios India, said in an interview.

While the company doesn’t function as a pure play studio, producing shows, it invests in developing scripts, he added. BBC adapted British shows such as The Broken News, Criminal Justice and Rudra-The Edge of Darkness in collaboration with Aditya Birla Group’s Applause Entertainment for India, and an original series, titled Kaisi Yeh Yaariaan on Voot, and the 10th season of Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa for Colors. Besides, it also announced a suspense thriller, 36 Days, partnering Applause Entertainment for SonyLIV, and the second season of The Broken News for ZEE5.

That apart, it also produced the Telugu version of Dead Pixels along with Tamada Media for Disney+Hotstar. “These are early days for BBC Studio’s regional journey but we have ambitions to grow in the Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and Bengali markets, Gogate said, adding that it was increasingly looking at non-fiction, and OTT and linear television now has an 80:20 ratio. For linear TV, BBC will only focus on large-format reality shows.