BBC Studios Ltd. as a production company was first registered on 27 February 2015. The proposal was described by
The Guardian as being "one of the biggest changes to the BBC in its 93-year history". The proposal attracted criticism from independent studios, who felt that it would result in the formation of a "super-indie" that would unduly benefit from "guaranteed" programme commissions from the BBC. As part of the split, the BBC planned to
tender its programmes, so that independent producers and BBC Studios could bid for the rights to produce its non-news programming, outside of top shows (such as
Doctor Who) assigned to BBC Studios. In September 2016, the BBC announced that it would tender its non-news programmes over the next 11 years, beginning with programmes such as
A Question of Sport,
Holby City and
Songs of Praise. The
BBC Trust subsequently approved the creation of BBC Studios as a commercial subsidiary, with the process expected to be completed in April 2017. On 29 November 2017, the BBC announced that BBC Worldwide would be merged into BBC Studios effective 1 April 2018. The BBC stated that by handling both the production and sales of its programming within one unit, it would improve efficiency and be in line with the "global norms" of other major international media companies. Technically, BBC Ventures Group Ltd. was renamed BBC Studios Group Ltd. on 3 April 2018, and then BBC Studios Ltd. 1 October 2018; In February 2018 two months before BBC Studios and BBC Worldwide merged, BBC Studios established its in-house Australian production division entitled BBC Studios Australia to expand its local content in the region, the new Australian production division would handle partnerships & would produce original scripted & unscripted projects and would also produce local adaptations BBC's formats in Australia with BBC Studios' MD, Production and COO, Anna Mallett and BBC Worldwide ANZ's MD Jon Penn would lead BBC Studios' new Australian division which began two months later in April of that year as BBC Studios Australia would create ANZ executive management team with
Stargazing Live 2 would be the first production made by the new division. In February 2019, BBC Studios had announced that they've taken a 25% minority stake in the new independent drama production company founded by former BBC executives Elizabeth Kilgarriff and Craig Holleworth which was named Firebird Pictures and signed an international distribution deal to distribute Firebird's programmes. Three years later in October 2022, BBC Studios announce that they had taken full control of independent drama production label Firebird Pictures by acquiring the remaining stake in the indie outfit and placed Firebird Pictures under their subsidiaries, marking Firebird Pictures a subsidiary of BBC Studios. In April 2019, BBC Studios announced various agreements with
Discovery, Inc.; the companies agreed to break apart their
UKTV joint venture, with Discovery (which had acquired a stake in UKTV after its purchase of
Scripps Networks Interactive) acquiring the BBC's stake in UKTV's lifestyle channels, and BBC Studios likewise acquiring Discovery's stakes in UKTV's entertainment channels and the video on-demand service
UKTV Play. In addition, Discovery announced a 10-year agreement with the BBC's
Natural History Unit to acquire exclusive subscription video-on-demand rights to its content worldwide (which would be incorporated into a forthcoming
global streaming brand), and co-fund a development team. Discovery had previously served as the Natural History's Unit U.S. partner until 2013. In August 2019, BBC Studios announced a long-term deal with
WarnerMedia's upcoming
HBO Max for streaming rights to past seasons of top BBC programmes such as
Doctor Who,
The Honourable Woman,
Luther, and
Top Gear. In January 2020, it also sold second-window streaming rights to 14 series to
CW Seed (a video on-demand platform operated by
The CW, a television network co-owned by WarnerMedia). In February 2021, BBC Studios launched a new streaming brand in North America known as
BBC Select, dedicated to factual content. On 22 February 2021, BBC Studios signed a first-look deal with Gobstopper Group. In March 2021, it was announced that the BBC Children's Productions and BBC Global News units would also be transferred into BBC Studios. With the change, BBC Studios will handle international distribution and advertising sales for
BBC World News, while the public service BBC News operation will assume editorial control of the channel. More recently, the studio had set up a development deal with EbonyLife Media, which was affiliated with
Sony Pictures Television, headed by
Mo Abudu. In August 2022, it was revealed that BBC Studios planned to launch an international newsletter business, initially focusing on Canada and the US, the BBC's second largest non-UK news market behind India. In October 2022, BBC Studios who inherited a minority stake in London-based unscripted production company Curve Media following its merger with BBC Worldwide back in 2018 had sold their minority stake in unscripted production company behind
Salvage Hunters Curve Media to German production and financial company
Night Train Media with Curve Media founders Camilla Lewis and Rob Carey continued to led the company under its new parent company Night Train Media. In November 2022, BBC Studios acquired London-based unscripted production company behind 'Inside the Factory' Voltage TV to expand its unscripted production portfolio with BBC Studios taken over
Channel 4's stake in the unscripted production firm. Thus, Voltage TV became a subsidiary of BBC Studios with Sanjay Singhal and Steve Nam continued leading Voltage TV under their new parent with BBC Studios started distributing Voltage TV's future productions. In June 2023, BBC Studios announced the acquisition of Copenhagen-based Scandinavian production company STV to further expand its international production output and to create a significant regional production base, expanding BBC Studios' Scandinavian production activities with them rebranding the Copenhagen-based production company UTV as a division of BBC Studios changed its name to BBC Studios Nordic Productions. In October 2023, press reports confirmed that BBC Studios had reached a multi-million pound financial settlement to compensate Top Gear presenter
Freddie Flintoff for the injuries he sustained in a car crash when filming a Top Gear episode in December 2022. One month later, on 9 November of that year, BBC Studios launched its Liverpool and London-based scripted production label called River Pictures with BBC Studios executives Andrew Morrissey and Michael Parke leading BBC Studios' new scripted production subsidiary. In March 2024, BBC Studios expanded its Australian productions operations by announcing that they've acquired Melbourne-based Australian live-action production powerhouse company Werner Film Productions based and placed the acquired company under their Australian division BBC Studios Productions Australia expanding their operations in Australia. On August 28, 2025, BBC Studios under its national production arm BBC Studios Productions expanded its high-end scripted business by launching its fiction production division based in London, Liverpool and Glasgow called BBC Studios Fiction and had appointed Josh Cole heading the new fiction production division BBC Studios as head of fiction & comedy with River Pictures executives Michael Parke and Andrew Morrissey joining the new fiction division as managing directors. In November 2025, BBC Studios had merged its Australian & New Zealand media production & streaming operations with its Asian media production & streaming operations into one new Asia-Pacific streaming operation unit under BBC Studios ANZ alum Robi Stanton which she will lead the newly merged APAC streaming operations unit as president while BBC Studios' Australian production operation was interrogated into the merged unit and continued to be led by Kylie Washington. ==Assets and brands==