Head of Content Studio, Digital

JOB DETAILS

Job Reference: 23651

Contract: Perm

Band: E

Salary: Up to 70760 London Weighting (5319) depending on relevant skills knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.

Bonus : 15%

Location: Office Base is London: This is a hybrid role and the successful candidate will balance office working with home working)

ABOUT BBC STUDIOS

BBC Studios is a world-renowned content studio and channels & streaming business powered by British creativity with a reach that touches audiences in every corner of the globe.

We work with outstanding creative talent who are responsible for platform-defining shows from Strictly Come Dancing to Bluey Prehistoric Planet to Planet Earth III.

The range and quality of our content is unsurpassed creating critical and commercial successes and global phenomena.

From BAFTAs to RTS Awards BBC Studios is Britains most awarded production company and the only producer with three of the top ten shows on IMDB; were the home of the widest-read English language news website in the world; and the UKs largest distributor of British content.

ABOUT DIVISION

About Brands and Licensing

The BBC Studios Brands & Licensing division is the driving force in extending BBC Studios IP through innovative brand extensions fostering deep fan engagement worldwide.
Partnering our iconic brands - including Doctor Who and Bluey - with the worlds biggest brands promoters and publishers ignites the imagination of fans and creates memorable brand-fame moments.
Our diverse portfolio spans consumer products live entertainment gaming and publishing while BBC Studios Social drives digital presence with over 6.5 billion social video views in 2023 offering advertising and branded content opportunities.
Supported by award-winning teams we focus on finding visionary opportunities to enhance global brand impact and digital growth.

Through BBC Studios Brands & Licensing global audiences have collectively spent a monthly average of:
-4.75m hours listening to our music
-1.5m hours reading our books and magazines
-29.3m hours playing with our toys and figures
-Over 48.8m hours engaging with our social media (Bluey hit over 2 billion global views across BBC Studios social portfolio last year reaching every age not just pre-school)
-And have spent over 2.5m hours attending BBC Studios Live Events in 2023.

This role sits within the BBC Studios Digital Brands division who curate commission and commercialise social first content to cultivate and amplify the fandoms behind some of the worlds most iconic franchises including Bluey BBC Earth Doctor Who and Top Gear. Twice named Lovie Awards European Publisher of the Year and with two diamond YouTube Creator Awards the division creates and publishes premium inclusive content that resonates deeply with audiences reaching a massive global audience of over 350 million people across 20 countries. Digital Brands helps partners unlock dynamic opportunities in advertising sponsorship influencer and branded content ensuring their brands can connect with fandoms in meaningful and impactful ways.

THE ROLE

The Head of Content Studio oversees the remit of our new Content Studio team. They will provide inspirational creative and practical production leadership and are ultimately accountable for the budgeting production and delivery of content across a range of formats and digital platforms.

They will drive efficient excellence in output skilfully balancing the need for copywriting graphic design and video production to be delivered at both speed and scale but also safely and at high quality ensuring maximum reach revenue and relevance with our audiences.

They will lead and develop a high performance team of production management and creative staff guiding change and continuous improvement. They will also work to develop our in-house videography function exploring cost-effective ways of making our own content where appropriate.

The Head of Content Studio will also be responsible for signing off on production budgets schedules and risk assessments.
As the team is newly formed they will play a pivotal role in setting the tone and culture of the Studio through sensitive leadership as well as developing and formalising ways of working to deliver an effective efficient and user-friendly service.

They will work closely with the Head of Content Development to support delivery of impactful original commissions and branded pieces to drive reach revenue and reputation. They will work cross functionally with key stakeholders including the Portfolio team Delivery Planning Compliance BBC Studios Production indie partners freelancers and other suppliers.

This is a strategic high impact leadership role responsible for delivering high quality content at speed scale and quality to hit our commercial targets.

Key Responsibilities

• Oversees a large production team including copywriters videographers editors and designers and provides inspirational creative and practical leadership in delivering content within the legal and budgetary frameworks.
• Work in partnership with internal stakeholders ensuring the timely arrival of briefs ensuring appropriate resource allocation and articulating issues and concerns at the most senior level with a clear focus on driving return on investment.
• Ensure compliance with BBC/BBC Studios policies guidelines legislative and regulatory requirements (with particular emphasis on health and safety and Editorial Policy) in all processes.
• Accountable for approving budgets within a slate and signing off on financial viability of new content ideas.
• Use senior production experience to work with internal legal teams to advise on all aspects of contractual licensing copyright and rights usage across all materials produced
• Engagement and negotiation with third party suppliers/partners to identify opportunities for commercial maximisation for the BBC resolving any issues and recommending solutions.
• Accountable for consistency of approach in scheduling budgeting and managing and delivering productions across the portfolio.
• Responsible for delivering demonstrable value for money through effective and efficient management of people and resources.
• Leads on driving innovation in both audience-facing and back-end business contexts.
• Responsible for assisting the development of policy and guidelines where appropriate.
• To lead and develop a diverse team identifying training and development needs.
• Contributes to development of operational and financial strategy linked to the divisions long-term content strategy highlighting and mitigating areas of risk.
• Ensure productions are taking steps to reduce their environmental impact.
• Build share and demonstrate a team culture of creative excellence through openness sharing and authenticity.

WHAT DOES IT TAKE

Key Criteria

• Leading a large production team including copywriters videographers editors and designers to deliver quality content at safely at speed and scale within the legal and budgetary frameworks.
• Responsibility for the correct application of BBC/BBC Studios policies guidelines legislative health and safety and regulatory requirements in content production.
• Considerable experience of budgets and senior budgetary capabilities including budgeting for branded responses original digital content production and content licensing plus experience of procurement processes.
• Significant knowledge of end-to-end digital production across video copywriting and design with a level of technical understanding to ensure quality and efficiency.
• Ability to balance inspirational commercial leadership with the openness and authenticity required to drive a team culture of creative excellence

Desirables

• Considerable experience of multi-platform content production production management and senior budgetary capabilities in a digital context
• Experience of working on fast-turnaround commercial responses to brief including supporting on creative ideation budget creation resourcing and presentation
• Demonstrable experience of leading and driving significant change in a complex environment and of implementing strategy and contributing to its development.
• Experience of driving efficiency through innovation with a proven track record of delivering quality content at speed and scale.
• Manage trade production and the production pipeline for trade and commercial requirements.
• Proven experience of delivering multiple complex projects. Management of conflicting demands to meet deadlines.
• Has a thorough knowledge and awareness of audience trends and a track record of using data and insight to drive content output.
• Ability to contribute and develop ideas for working more efficiently and effectively encouraging a culture of ideas generation and knowledge sharing.
• Sound business and finance skills. Able to suggest feasible options for maximising value from productions.
• Experience of managing co-productions and/or complex rights and funding models.

NEXT STEPS

We appreciate your interest in this position and understand how important this opportunity is to you. Due to the high volume of interest we may need to close the application period earlier than anticipated. This step is necessary to ensure we can provide a high level of attention and service to all applicants. Thank you for your understanding.