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November 15, 2010
The BBC has unwound part of its long-standing joint agreement with Discovery Communications, selling BBC Worldwide's 50 per cent stake in global channels Animal Planet and Liv for $156m (€114m). The programme co-production and acquisition part of the agreement, which dates back to 1998, has been renewed for another two years.
Animal Planet is Discovery's major factual brand after its flagship Discovery Channel, reaching a claimed 250m subscribers in 170 countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Liv (formerly People and Arts) reaches 24m subscribers in Latin America.
Discovery has funded a series of high-end natural history documentaries produced by the BBC, including Walking with Dinosaurs, Blue Planet, Life and Planet Earth. The extension of the deal to 2014 will include new series Frozen Planet, already in production and due to air next year.
The BBC's move to cash in its stake in the two channel brands comes as the corporation is facing a freeze in the licence fee and an imperative to fund a wider range of services, including the World Service and S4C. The windfall from the sale will be used to fund the further development of BBC-branded channels, including BBC America, BBC Entertainment, BBC Knowledge, BBC Lifestyle, BBC HD and CBeebies.
Under the original agreement, BBC Worldwide has a 20 per cent stake in the US Animal Planet, which was sold in 2006, while Discovery offered support in rolling out BBC America on US cable networks. BBC Worldwide has gradually assumed more control of its channel business, taking back control of ad sales.
On its side, Discovery was reported to be unsatisfied with parts of the agreement relating to DVD and video-on-demand rights.
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