Strategic review – BBC Commercial

Review of financial performance

BBC Commercial has delivered stable revenue and growth in EBITDA in 2025/26, its key performance indicators, which are used at an operational level to monitor the business.

EBITDA is the non-statutory measure of financial performance which BBC Commercial believes best provides a benchmark comparable to peers in the market year-on-year, and is closely correlated to operating cash flow. The business calculates EBITDA as statutory operating profit, with the following operating expenses added back: depreciation; non-content-related amortisation and impairments; earnout costs and non-cash settled long-term incentive plan costs; deal costs; transformational restructuring costs and other non-recurring exceptional items; and share of EBITDA of associates and joint ventures. In calculating EBITDA, the business also offsets costs with creative sector incentive tax credits, which aligns to market practice.

Reconciliation of EBITDA to statutory operating profit 

BBC Commercial returns to the BBC of £377 million (2025: £391 million) comprised cash dividends of £197 million (2025: £161 million), content investment of £154 million (2025: £200 million) and other returns of £26 million (2025: £30 million). The cumulative total of £1.4 billion returned since 2022/23 ensures that BBC Commercial is on track to meet the ambitious five-year target set in 2021 to deliver £1.5 billion of returns to the BBC between 2022/23 and 2026/27, with one year remaining.

Free cash flow was at £94 million at year end (2025: £133 million), with the decrease on the prior year due to higher payments made to acquire programme related assets, while BBC Commercial’s net debt was £575 million (2025: £447 million). The business defines free cash flow as cash generated from operations less cash flows relating to capital and less expenditure, net interest, and tax. It excludes cash flows relating to investing activities and dividends.

The topline results across the two main business segments are set out in the table below.

Performance by business segment

BBC Commercial’s largest subsidiary, BBC Studios, delivered revenues of £2,128 million, consistent year-on-year (2025: £2,131 million) against significant market pressures.

Overall EBITDA increased year-on-year by 17% to £263 million, driven by a combination of factors including a revenue mix weighted towards higher margin sales, delivery of cost savings, and favourable foreign currency hedges that more than mitigated the related revenue downside.

For the content studio, revenue increased by 1% and EBITDA increased by 42%, amidst continued evolution for the business to respond to structural changes in the sector internationally. Consumer products grew by 14%, thanks to a strong performance from partnerships and deals for the Bluey brand across live events, merchandising and games.

In media and streaming, revenue was stable and EBITDA was up by 3%. This was led by the profitable BritBox, which is growing along with other digital on-demand services, offsetting the decline in linear advertising revenue. Against this backdrop, UKTV’s share of the commercial advertising market rose alongside its expanding on-demand service U.

BBC Commercial operates in a challenging international competitive marketplace. Consolidation amongst partners in content commissioning and consumer services, both in the UK and internationally, is leading to further structural change across the industry, coupled with the ongoing impact of inflation on costs across the business for BBC Studios and its suppliers.

Looking in more detail at the business segments, a slower content commissioning market for the content studio means fewer available commissions for programme makers, which can affect the onward pipeline for the development of new ideas and intellectual property into future brands. For media and streaming, there is ongoing pressure on advertising revenue, due to the structural shifts of audiences moving from linear viewing to on-demand and advertiser spending moving to digital and social media platforms.

The result is there are growing opportunities for digital services across all platforms including social video, whilst the audiences for traditional channels are in decline.

During the year, alongside organic investment BBC Commercial has continued to focus on its EBITDA margins across the business to protect future EBITDA growth. The business evolved its structure to meet the needs of global partners, combining commercial and sales teams in BBC Studios Global Content as the home of development, production and sale of new ideas, and streamlining global direct-to-consumer operations.

Content studio

Storytelling and programme-making innovation in the most awarded UK production company was rewarded with 91 awards from 361 nominations for BBC Studios’ production units and labels across both scripted and unscripted genres.

Six-part crime series Death Valley, made by BBC Studios Comedy, successfully launched on BBC One and iPlayer in May 2025, delivering the UK’s highest overnight audience for a new scripted comedy in five years and an immediate recommission, with the second series airing in May 2026.

The first series sold to over 100 markets internationally and on BritBox in North America, it was the second most-watched show in its first 30 days on the platform amongst series launched during the 2025/26 financial year.

New eight-part crime family drama Mint, made by BBC Studios’ House Productions, premiered at the Berlinale International Film Festival in February and launched on BBC One and iPlayer in April 2026. Created, written and directed by Charlotte Regan, it stars acting newcomer Ben Coyle-Larner (aka musician Loyle Carner) and The Brutalist’s Emma Laird.

Comedy drama feature film The Ballad of Wallis Island, made by BBC Studios’ Baby Cow Productions, and starring Carey Mulligan, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won three British Independent Film Awards including Best Screenplay, and received three BAFTA nominations.

In the year of its 40th anniversary, long-running BBC One continuing drama EastEnders won 18 awards in 2025/26, including a BAFTA Television Craft Special Award, recognising its commitment to nurturing talent, and an RTS Craft & Design Award for the special anniversary live episode.

In Kids & Family, new coming-of-age drama series Crookhaven, based on J.J. Arcanjo’s international hit book series aired in March. Made by BBC Studios Kids & Family for the BBC, the eight-part series features Dougray Scott and Julie Hesmondhalgh alongside Adolescence’s Amari Bacchus.

In unscripted, Dancing with the Stars US, made for ABC and Disney+, had a strong year (see case study below). Following series 23 of the brand’s UK version, Strictly Come Dancing, presenters Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman stepped down after 21 and 12 years respectively, with a new presenting line-up to be introduced in autumn 2026.

The Americas, narrated by Tom Hanks, which debuted on NBC, was the most watched natural history documentary on linear television in the US in over 15 years. The ten-part series from the Natural History Unit (NHU) reached audiences of over 60 million worldwide and received two Emmy award nominations.

The latest instalment of the award-winning natural history series Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age, made by the NHU for AppleTV, looked at life on Earth after dinosaurs, with narration by Tom Hiddleston. The NHU also made six-part landmark series Kingdom for BBC One, which depicted the struggle for supremacy between four animal species in Zambia. Narrated by Sir David Attenborough, and with an average audience of 5.4 million, it was the most watched multi-episode documentary series across all broadcast TV and SVOD platforms in the UK in 2025.

Civilisations: Rise and Fall, made by the BBC Studios Specialist Factual Unit for BBC Arts in a collaboration with the British Museum, explored the downfall of four key ancient cultures. Narrated by Sophie Okonedo, the series was called “gripping” by the Financial Times.

A fresh look at America’s highest-profile female serial murderer Aileen Wuornos, 40 years on from her original crimes, was the number one series at launch in the UK and US for Netflix. Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers, was made by BBC Studios Documentary Unit, with the series receiving critical acclaim and a 2026 News and Documentary Emmy Award nomination.

To mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two, a series of live events was produced by BBC Studios Events Productions for the BBC to commemorate Victory in Europe (VE) Day in May 2025 as well as Victory in Japan (VJ) Day three months later, and Remembrance Sunday in November. These included a special live concert, VE Day 80: A Celebration to Remember, VJ Day 80: The Nation’s Tribute, a live event from the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire in collaboration with the Royal British Legion, and The Cenotaph for Remembrance Sunday, with the latter using green alternatives to fossil fuel in generators providing power to the event, which are quieter and have much lower emissions.

VE Day 80: A Celebration to Remember was the number one programme for the day across all linear television and went on to win the BAFTA TV Award for Live Event Coverage in April 2026, and The Cenotaph broadcast achieved a peak audience of 4.1 million, alongside other programming segments in Morning Live and The One Show and a VE Day special of Antiques Roadshow – all produced by BBC Studios Entertainment.

In addition, BBC Studios Events was responsible for delivering coverage of Holocaust Memorial Day 2025, which won an RTS Programme Live Event Award for being “so thoughtfully produced”.

New comedy gameshow format Nation’s Dumbest, where players compete to lose, launched in France on TF1, Germany’s ProSieben and Finland’s MTV3, after deals were signed for three new international licences. The series won awards and audiences after its first series on Norway’s TV2 and TV2 Play, and the show debuted in Sweden on TV4 during the year. Hit entertainment format The 1% Club reached 15 territories as it became the bestselling UK format created in the past eight years.

Reunion, a four-part thriller for BBC One and iPlayer from Sheffield-born deaf writer William Mager, distributed internationally by BBC Studios, won the 2026 BAFTA TV Craft Award for Scripted Casting. The series also saw lead actor, Matthew Gurney, win Best Actor at its world premiere at Series Mania in France, followed by a North American premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, highlighting the series’ groundbreaking use of sign language as storytelling.

Ghosts continued to build on its international success, with new local adaptations launching in France, Germany, Greece and Australia during 2025 and a further version announced for the Czech Republic. The format also returned to screens in the US in October 2025, with an audience of 6.1 million viewers on CBS and an additional 2.1 million on Paramount+ for its season five premiere.

Outside the UK, BBC audio podcasts drew 116 million listeners, with over 515 million downloads over the financial year from RSS feeds. Documentary Stalked was the number one true crime series, and included in overall Best Series lists in end-of-year round-ups, on both Apple and Spotify in 2025, whilst In Our Time returned in January with new host Misha Glenny receiving favourable reviews.

A collaboration with BBC Sounds and BBC World Service saw the launch of The Global Story, a daily news podcast hosted between London and Washington, whilst a new video podcast for Netflix, The Big Pitch, where celebrity guests put movie ideas to comedian Jimmy Carr, was nominated for an Ambie Award.

The business continued to invest in future creative talent. For owned or invested indie labels, in May 2025 BBC Studios moved to full ownership of Mothership, the unscripted label which made Secret Genius with Alan Carr for Channel 4. The series achieved a launch audience of over 2 million and has been recommissioned for an extended second series. The AI Creative Lab, a team dedicated to safely and ethically harnessing creative opportunities presented by artificial intelligence for storytelling, production efficiency and formats, launched in July 2026.

In brands, Bluey was the most-streamed title in the US in 2025 across all series and films for two years running, with over 45 billion minutes watched on Disney+. The brand also ascended to the number one pre-school toys property in the US for 2025 by dollar volume. As the brand launched nationally in Japan, and The Bluey Movie feature film went into production for release in August 2027, a series of new collaborations developed, including Lego sets, and customisable branded Converse footwear, clothing and accessories. Bluey won an International Emmy for Kids Animation, whilst BBC Studios picked up the 2025 People’s Voice Webby Award for Bluey’s social media activity.

As Bluey’s Big Play reached 2.5 million fans worldwide, award-winning immersive experience Bluey x CAMP expanded to six US cities, with Bluey’s Backyard experience opening in Miami and Minneapolis in early 2026.

Meanwhile, Bluey and Bingo debuted at Disneyland Park in March 2026, and will feature at Disneyland Resort, Walt Disney World Resort and aboard select Disney Cruise Line sailings in the year ahead.

In December, shortly after Bluey made her fourth appearance at the Macy’s Parade 2025, a new Bluey game, Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen, was launched.

Written by Bluey creator Joe Brumm, the original story-led adventure game topped the charts for iPad downloads immediately after launch. Other notable gaming collaborations included Bluey themed downloadable content launching on Minecraft, Just Dance and Fruit Ninja, whilst in publishing there are now four Bluey New York Times bestsellers, and a new orchestral album, Up Here, was released in March 2026.

Doctor Who spin-off series The War Between the Land and the Sea, made by Bad Wolf and BBC Studios, starring Russell Tovey, was one of the BBC’s biggest new drama launches of the year, and the BBC has commissioned a pre-school animation series for CBeebies, inspired by the Whoniverse, as the Disney+ partnership draws to a close. A dedicated fan exhibition, Doctor Who Worlds of Wonder: Where Science Meets Fiction, returned to the Comic-Con Museum in San Diego in early 2026 for the second year running.

Social video teams had a strong year, with revenues up 23% year-on-year as watch time to BBC Studios’ content on YouTube nearly doubled and was ahead of global streamers and UK broadcasters with 14.7 billion annual views. In January, the BBC Group expanded its relationship with YouTube to create content and nurture talent, building on the success of training programmes like BBC Studios TalentWorks.

Other digital brand milestones included year on year growth in watch time of 100% and 76% to Top Gear and Bluey YouTube channels respectively.

Teams across BBC Studios are working closely with BBC Group to improve sustainability in both production and wider operations, targeting 100% BAFTA Albert certification for all in-scope productions.

The business supported BAFTA Albert’s SPARK, announced in late 2025, which provides a roadmap for a permanent shift to clean temporary power by 2030, and is also a signatory of an accompanying industry statement of intent to accelerate sustainable screen production practices in energy use.

Media and streaming

Within this business segment, BritBox continued its rapid growth trajectory. This is due in part to a strong performance for the service in North America, with revenues increasing by 20%, whilst the August 2025 launch of BritBox Premier – an annual subscription tier offering early access to an ongoing selection of new programming, documentaries from BBC Select, and additional features – exceeded expectations by almost 60%.

Key series reaching audiences in the year included original commission Lynley, co-commissions Outrageous and Agatha Christie’s Towards Zero, BBC Studios’ production title Death Valley, and distribution title Blue Lights, with BritBox named as one of Fast Company’s 2025 Brands That Matter for its growth in the US and investment in original content.

Meanwhile, North American documentary streaming service BBC Select showed record growth, with standalone subscriptions up 39% year-on-year. Revenues increased by 61% whilst viewing reached an all-time high.

UKTV had a strong viewing performance during the year, hitting a record viewing share for its channels, up 3% in 2025. Its Share of Commercial Impacts (SOCI, a measure of UKTV’s share of the commercial TV audience) also hit a record high of 9.08%, whilst views to its free streaming service U grew by 15%, with registrations for the service up 18%.

In October 2025, a multi-year, first-of-its-kind carriage deal was signed with Channel 4 to carry the U streaming service on its own on-demand platform, launching to the public in January 2026. However, annual revenue and EBITDA both decreased mainly due to year-on-year linear advertising market declines, with the decrease in EBITDA partially mitigated by cost base savings.

A modern remake of crime series Bergerac, starring Damien Molony, was the highest rating show on the network for U&DRAMA, watched by 2.4 million viewers, with strong ratings for other drama originals, including Mark Gatiss’ crime drama Bookish, and new series Outrageous about the Mitford Sisters, made by BBC Studios’ Firebird Pictures.

BBC Commercial continues to expand the reach of the BBC’s trusted journalism and news output through the growth of BBC.com and the BBC app. BBC.com had 149 million average monthly visitors outside of the UK across the financial year, up 9% on the previous year, with 71 million average monthly visitors from North America. In June 2025, BBC.com launched a paid subscription service for US visitors, giving subscribers unlimited access to BBC’s global news and reporting, including full-length news articles, feature stories, podcasts, the 24/7 livestream of the BBC News channel, and ad-free documentary series and films, with the subscription expanding to the BBC App in January 2026.

Engaged visitors increased by 20% and habitual visitors grew by 16%, with this momentum culminating in a record 77 million US visitors in September 2025, and the highest ever Comscore ranking at number 13.

Separately, BBC Studios’ FAST (free international ad-supported streaming services) channel portfolio is now operating 30 channel brands and over 300 feeds globally. Multi-genre VOD service, BBC Player, continued to expand its footprint across EMEA, launching in Spain, Malta, Turkey and Slovenia. The business entered into a strategic partnership with Cosmoblue Media to launch a brand-new general entertainment channel in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Turkish region, adding BBC Player to their existing offer, CosmoGO, and acting as distribution agent for BBC Studios’ linear channels in the region. BBC NL+ launched in the Netherlands as part of a partnership with KPN.

In international partnerships, BBC Studios further strengthened its global reach through renewed and expanded strategic deals, including a multi-genre output agreement with Finnish PSB Yle. The business signed its first co-production agreement with Globo for an upcoming documentary series about the Amazon. It will be produced by BBC Studios Specialist Factual Productions and distributed by BBC Studios.

Outlook

Looking ahead, trading conditions continue to be challenging for BBC Commercial, with an ever more competitive global media landscape. Competitors are merging, audiences are shifting to digital, and commissioning from traditional broadcasters has reduced.

Despite this backdrop, we believe BBC Commercial’s diversified, international business is well positioned to continue delivering sustainable growth in support of long-term BBC Group strategic goals. In its three key areas – direct-to-consumer services, British storytelling and brands – there are future opportunities for growth for the business.

Here, the scale of BBC Commercial’s response will be dependent on our ability to compete on a level playing field with global players at scale through greater flexibility in access to capital to support investment, and regulatory reforms, as indicated in the BBC’s response to the Government’s Royal Charter Review Green Paper. The ability to continue to grow BBC Commercial is important in enabling an expansion of commercial returns that can supplement public finding of the BBC and be reinvested into public service content.

For audiences, after year end, a week-long celebration was held to mark Sir David Attenborough’s 100th birthday in May, including Sir David Attenborough’s 100 Years on Planet Earth, a live broadcast from the Royal Albert Hall produced by BBC Studios Music Productions and Natural History Unit, whilst this summer, The One Show celebrates its 20th anniversary.

The third series of acclaimed landmark underwater documentary Blue Planet will air later in the year on BBC One and iPlayer, made by BBC Studios Natural History Unit with new technology, whilst forthcoming astronomy series Meet the Planets (working title), made for National Geographic by BBC Studios Science Unit in a co-production with Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort, combines animation and scripted comedy to expose the workings of the solar system.

Filming for the third series of Nottinghamshire drama Sherwood, made by BBC Studios’ House Productions, began in early 2026, whilst Deadpoint, a mountaineering thriller made by BBC Studios’ Clerkenwell Films, and Break Clause, a new romantic comedy produced by BBC Studios Comedy, will both launch on Channel 4 later in 2026.

A new adaptation of Pride & Prejudice, made by BBC Studios’ Lookout Point and written by Dolly Alderton, airs on Netflix later in the year, whilst Cold War spy drama series Honey for BBC One comes from BBC Studios’ Sid Gentle.