BBC Worldwide’s trade event BBC Showcase is taking place in Brighton England till 1 March 2007. 560 buyers from all over the globe are in attendance. The annual event sees BBC Worldwide generate programme sales and broker international funding deals for co productions on behalf of the BBC, other UK networks and independent producers.

Delegate numbers the BBC says have grown as buyers from traditional television networks are increasingly joined by a new generation of buyers looking to license content for digital media platforms such as mobile television, independent video on demand services and digital extensions to traditional television networks.

The past year has seen BBC Worldwide secure content deals around the world with major digital media platforms across Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas, including Vodafone, Orange, T-Online, Telstra, ONO, Netflix, Amazon US, Hanaromedia Korea and Telefonica. Combined with strong growth in traditional programme sales, these new markets for content are seeing BBC Worldwide’s Global TV Sales division well on target to make around £190million (US$370million) this financial year, up from last year’s £171million (US$333million). (more…)