Tim Davie: Turkish delight just the start as BBC pushes UK creativity worldwide

This week sees the first Great Festival of Creativity take place in Istanbul.

Against a backdrop of the sad news over the past few days of the mining disaster in Turkey, UK companies including BBC Worldwide are gathering to focus on the potential to generate new business — showcasing the “great” in Great Britain.

Here in the city of Hagia Sophia and the Topkapı Palace, along with the Great organisers UK Trade & Investment, the Foreign Office and the Prime Minister’s Office, our collective purpose is to showcase the best of British creativity to potential investors and trading partners.

BBC Worldwide, as the BBC’s main commercial subsidiary, plays an active role in promoting British creativity around the world. We are the largest non-US distributor of finished programmes, and operate BBC branded channels in 110 countries. By improving the visibility of high-quality British TV outside the UK, we can help to raise the profile of the wider UK creative industries.

That creative sector, generating £71 billion and growing more than any other main industry sector, is material to the UK economy, and exports play a particularly important role.

Turkey is no stranger to British content. Last year, BBC Worldwide launched BBC Knowledge and BBC HD Channels on Turkish satellite platform Digiturk, joining BBC Entertainment and BBC World News.

Meanwhile, Turkish broadcasters have bought programmes from The Musketeers to Hidden Kingdoms. Dogus Media Group Turkey has acquired the Mastermind format, and we have recently licensed Deadly 60 to Kanal 7. Audiences in Turkey will shortly be treated to their very own Anne Robinson as we’ve just sold The Weakest Link format to TV8. And there are always more deals to be done.

According to PwC, the entertainment and media market in Turkey is now worth £8.2 billion, with further growth forecast. Analogue switch-off in March 2015 will mean a growing demand from digital platforms. Latest ZenithOptimedia predictions believe the ad market in Turkey is very healthy, and is expecting further growth of 15.1% this year.

For many creative companies, ours included, although it’s important to continue to build presence in established markets such as North America and Australia, it is not enough to look to the West alone. There is growing demand from high growth markets for the sort of high-quality, creative content the UK is so good at producing. The last Pact Television Exports Survey found that TV sales to China were up 90% on the previous year. A recent report for the British Film Institute identified Turkey, Egypt, Malaysia and much of Eastern Europe as places where opportunities exist for British film.

Each market has its own cultural, regulatory and commercial systems, so UK content companies — including BBC Worldwide — need to focus on understanding local audience demands and embrace new business models. In the next 12 months, the Great Festival moves on to Hong Kong and Shanghai — both important growth markets for UK creative industries.

The money BBC Worldwide makes goes back to our parent, the BBC. In 2012-13, we returned £156 million, equivalent to 8% of the BBC’s television content budget — money that enhances what UK audiences enjoy on screen. And we paid £91 million to the independent TV production sector on commissions, profit share and royalties.

So a host of other companies are benefiting by producing content we distribute. It all goes to prove the growing value of UK creativity across the globe.