Beeb builds on brand in States

Cabler BBC America is a work in progress

By JON WEISMAN

They might speak the same language, but the British and American television industries have such different sensibilities that the two parties have almost needed subtitles to understand each other.

And so, if the development of cabler BBC America is a work in progress, the progress is nothing to dismiss.

For the chief Yankee in King Arthur's smallscreen court, BBC Worldwide America prexy Garth Ancier, it has been a rollicking adventure, requiring nerve, flexibility and patience all at once.

"Understanding (the U.K.) market and how the U.S. market interacts with that market has been a fascinating thing to watch," says Ancier, who oversees BBC America while also liaisoning with U.S. networks on behalf of Los Angeles-based BBC Worldwide Productions.

Though there's no shortage of material for BBC America to choose from, Ancier can't simply pluck items for his shopping cart at will.

"If we just ran everything that we had in the cupboard as it plays out in the U.K., we'd have a schedule that would be very tumultuous," Ancier says.

Numerous factors are at play, but the fundamental hurdle is the small number of episodes in each series. Top programs in Blighty often max out with a pair of six-episode seasons plus a finale, in contrast to U.S. series that can run exponentially longer (illustrated most clearly by the two versions of "The Office").

Ancier would like to see the top U.K. series exploit their worth over longer periods.

"If you asked anyone in the U.K.," Ancier says, "I'd probably be the broken record advocating that position."

But as he explains, brevity in the U.K. isn't just a mere whim or tradition like bangers and mash. The BBC's operating charter includes a requirement "to offer value to everyone in the U.K., whoever they are, wherever they live," obligating the pubcaster, for example, to have enough shows from every region in the country. Durability often gets sacrificed for diversity.

The practice of having small or even single-person writing staffs also tamps episode quantity. Nevertheless, Ancier sees more opportunity than aggravation in both the programming and production aspects of his job.

"There is this wild creativity in the British market because of how many different shows are commissioned," Ancier says, "not just BBC channels, but ITV channels, Channel 4 channels and occasionally Five channels.

"The part that I had not anticipated is there would be such a cultural resistance to making longer series, so you would not be able to fundamentally alter the scheme of things to make (multiple seasons of) 13 episodes like an AMC or TNT, like everyone else makes."

These limitations affect BBC America's ambition to become a network to rival those basic cablers mentioned by Ancier, who with Fred Silverman is one of two people ever to run the entertainment side of three U.S. broadcast networks (Fox, NBC and the WB).

Distribution for BBC America has grown to just shy of 65 million homes, but that's still roughly two-thirds of its potential audience.

"As ratings have gone up -- they've more than doubled in the past two years -- that does drive distribution," Ancier says, "because people sit up and take notice and say, 'Why can't I get that on my TV set?' Then they call their cable operator and the cable operator puts it up.

"I think as long as you run your business properly, (and) you keep putting good programs on and are promoting and marketing them, I think you get there."

BBC America's strategy begins with looking for the longer-running British series, while airing the multiple short seasons of U.K. series as one single season.

"We tend to almost automatically give shows with longer series length the best shots (in the U.S.) because we know it takes American audiences a while to find a show," Ancier adds.

Further, BBC America continues to emphasize adventure, fantasy and science fiction ("Doctor Who," "Torchwood") along with nonscripted shows like "Top Gear," because, as Ancier says, American audiences struggle more with British accents in contemporary, everyday fiction.

More recently, BBC World News America has provided a boost -- 2008-09 viewing totals were 63% higher in the 25-54 demo than the season prior, with a median viewing age more than a decade younger than CNBC, CNN, MSNBC and Fox News -- contributing to a building momentum for BBC America and putting its larger dreams within reach.

"The priority has to be to get BBC America to at least the high-70 millions in distribution in the next two years, which seems achievable," Ancier says.

"We've had a very strong uptick in ad sales over the last two years, despite how bad the economy has been. Between that revenue coming in and additional homes available, I think we'll be in position to start making (bigger programming) investments a year from now and have them on the air two years from now."

Already, BBC Worldwide is more pursuing "true co-productions between the U.K. TV networks and BBC America," that would fit BBC America's Blighty-flavored niche, with the not-so-fringe benefit of being saleable to U.K. networks. On Sept. 29, BBC Worldwide announced it would replace ITV as the biggest funder of dino-themed drama "Primeval," keeping that show alive through at least 2011.

"If ITV can't make a show without the money you provide," Ancier says, "you compromise."

With the business model in place, the main concern for BBC America is betting on the right horses when it comes to future scheduling.

"The real final frontier is to do what FX did a few years ago," Ancier says. "What is the original programming you're going to do that will appeal to the core BBC America audience? ... How do you capture that in a show that has British sensibility but also has an American sensibility?"

Though some might consider him a stranger abandoned in a strange land, outside the spotlight he has been accustomed to, Ancier clearly seems to relish steering the BBC America ship.

"The fun part is exposing the public to this sort of interesting and wilder creative community over in the U.K.," he says, "and seeing how (its shows) grow in this market.

"You have to look at it as an adventure, to be honest with you. Everyone running a cable network of any size is on an adventure anyway. ... What's fun is just exploring. How do we keep reinventing the medium?"