British giant forms close partnership with Rapid Blue for spin-off shows
|||Rapid Blue’s relationship with BBC Worldwide has manifested in the UK network investing in the local production company, writes Debashine Thangevelo
LAST year, BBC Worldwide opened an office in Joburg and appointed Joel Churcher as its vice president and general manager for Africa.
The idea was to boost local programming, content sales and digital delivery.
Given their pull with BBC First, BBC Brit, BBC Lifestyle and CBeebies, BBC Worldwide has also been making concerted efforts to appeal to South African audiences with content that resonates with them.
And Rapid Blue, which has been behind the local adaptations of Strictly Come Dancing, Come Dine with Me: South Africa and The Great South African Bake-off, has been key in helping them achieve their objective.
That’s not forgetting the other shows they have made – Pawn Stars SA, Four Weddings SA, SA’s Got Talent, So You Think You Can Dance, The X Factor, Dragon’s Den – for multiple channels across the free-to-air and pay-TV options.
But BBC Worldwide’s commitment to generating more locally flavoured content has been taken a step further – they have turned their established relationship with Rapid Blue into a partnership by investing in the production company, helped by dynamic husband-and-wife duo, Duncan and Kee-Leen Irvine.
On how this joint venture came to be, Kee-Leen said: “We’ve been in discussions around this partnership on and off for the last 18 months. We are deeply honoured to have been identified, due to the quality of our work and our track record in South Africa, Africa and the rest of the world, as the most compelling partner to join forces with BBC Worldwide in our shared goals of development across the African continent.”
Although BBC Worldwide has spread its tentacles with several partnerships internationally, this is the first time they are doing so in Africa.
And it is mutually beneficial.
She adds: “The benefits (are) that we have access to a tremendous pool of resources and training opportunities that will serve both our internal staff and other production personnel who work with us, all to the benefit of the greater industry. In addition, we have access to development funding to fast-track selected local productions.”
She adds that Rapid Blue is also hopeful that this partnership will be viewed as an advantage for other broadcasters with whom they work.
“It should make us more attractive to all broadcasters to work with as we will have greater resources, capacity and a deep pool of combined experience to draw on, and this should be seen as an advantage. I understand that there might possibly be some initial nervousness from pay TV as they compete with the BBC channels, but we have always worked across all the pay TV and free-to-air channels and never shared confidential information before and this won’t change. So outside of the benefits as mentioned there are no negatives and all the broadcasters Duncan has spoken to have been very supportive and proud of the deal for SA and our industry.”
Although it’s a little premature to discuss the next show Rapid Blue will be making for BBC Worldwide, Kee-Leen says she and her husband remain as committed and passionate to producing relevant content for the African content as they have been for the last 26 years.