BBC Select: A New Streaming Service
By João Santos
Having generated a total revenue of $6.64 billion (or just over £4.7 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2020 alone and entertaining over 200 million subscribers worldwide, Netflix is the prime example that streaming platforms might just be the future, especially as people significantly increased their use of these services during the pandemic.
Netflix, though, is just one big fish in an ocean of 200+ streaming services. So to say that this market is saturated and extremely competitive would be anything but an over exaggeration.
Nonetheless, as February comes to an end and the pandemic keeps forcing us to stay at home, a new streaming service, BBC Select, has finally entered the picture after its launch being announced back in December of last year.
What is BBC Select?
Not to be confused with the overnight television service run by the BBC in the early ‘90s, BBC Select is a new North American streaming venture managed by the BBC’s commercial subsidiary, BBC Studios.
The service is more unique than meets the eye. In effect, unlike some other partnered ventures such as BBC America, BBC Earth and even Britbox; BBC Select represents the first solo adventure in the North American market.
BBC Select will aim to spark “fresh perspectives and thought-provoking content – for the independent thinkers of this world,” wrote Louise la Grange, launch director and general manager at BBC Select. This will be done, it states, by focusing “on the big stories that shape our world as well as the small details that make life so interesting.”
Like La Grange, editor-in-chief Jon Farrar (the man responsible for the conceptualisation of the project), has been outspoken about his vision relating to BBC Select; one that sees its audience “come to understand the forces that shape what it means to be alive in 2021,” he said.
“[BBC Select will bring] fresh perspectives and thought-provoking content – for the independent thinkers of this world ”
It is also important to note that Farrar is, amongst what has already been established, the VOD director at BBC Studios, and has led the product development on Britbox as a global proposition, which begs the question: Why not just expand the already popular Britbox in order to encompass this vision?
To understand this decision, we have to take into account the type of content that BBC Select aims to produce in relation to Britbox’s. For instance, the joint venture between ITV and the BBC has, over the years, produced predominantly scripted content from high-quality dramas to hilarious comedies, whereas BBC Select is going in the direction of a more factual, educational type of content.
Having worked intimately in both projects, Farrar has noted that Britbox fails to reach the specific niche that BBC Select aims to appeal to with its purely non-fiction-focused content.
“We live in incredibly complicated times and I felt there wasn’t a service to pick apart the complexity and get under the skin of the age we live in” says Farrar.
Saying one thing, however, and achieving it are two very different things, so how will BBC Select achieve this?
Firstly, it has vouched to focus an extensive and rich array of content on three main themes: culture, politics and ideas. Secondly, it will draw from pre-existing programming that has been known to be of the highest quality—so far this can be seen in its release of BBC Two’s The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty, Channel 5’s Charles and Di: The Truth Behind Their Wedding, and BBC Two’s Louis Theroux: The Night in Question.
Finally, and this is the most exciting part, it will also produce its own original content through a weekly collection of shows that has been named “The Drop”. The latter will cover themes, BBC Studios states, ‘from love and sex, to war and rebellion, from parenthood and power, to race and consumerism.’
To give an edge to “The Drop,” BBC Select has, well, selected several people to give voice to its vision, such as Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza and her program in the theme of power, in the first-ever drop to be available on the new streaming platform. Other voices will follow in the following weeks such as The New York Times best-selling author Roxane Gay, and Women's Prize for Fiction winner Lionel Shriver.
How will it fare against its competition?
Considering that it’s a venture directly borne out of the BBC and led by people with vast knowledge in the field, it’d be fair to assume they know what they’re doing.
One other point of success for BBC Select could be the competitive pricing it’s set. In effect, as it stands, the service is available on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV for a price of $4.99 per month in the US and $6.99 in Canada. This, in turn, suggests that the pricing could be an advantage in its niche audience when directly competing against giants such as Netflix which costs $8.99 per month.
As mentioned previously, it is also important to understand that, unlike other platforms - including sister SVoD Britbox - BBC Select seems to be aiming at a very specific audience and, as such, we shouldn’t expect numbers like that of the big players.