BBC Studios has announced its flagship content and customer event will return as an in-person experience in 2023.
The event will have a fresh focus on upstream creative projects from across its range of production houses, labels and partners.
BBC Studios Showcase will take place on 27th and 28th February and relocate to London following nine years in Liverpool.
Rebecca Glashow, CEO Global Distribution, BBC Studios said: “As the market, and our own business changes, so does Showcase. Expect to see our offer to customers evolve from a content juggernaut to a series of highly curated match-making opportunities that brings our most valued partners, producers and programmes together so the richest conversations can take place.”
Ralph Lee, CEO, BBC Studios Productions, said: “Reconnecting with customers for those early co-pro and pre-sales conversations was invaluable to our producers at the recent Natural History, Science and Docs Days and we’re looking forward to doing the same thing, across the whole range of our content at Showcase.”
The BBC’s Showcase began its life in the Old Ship in Brighton in 1976 when 25 European buyers squeezed into the old seafront hotel to watch classic BBC shows like Fawlty Towers, The Good Life and Doctor Who.
During the 1980s, the event moved around Sussex, Bournemouth, Edinburgh, Bristol, Stratford-Upon-Avon and Harrogate before returning to Brighton and then, in 2012, finding a new home at Liverpool’s ACC. The last two Showcases were virtual.
Alongside the new look Showcase, BBC Studios will maximise its global network of local experts, from L.A. to Beijing, to bring content to customers in ways and times that best suit them throughout the year.
Louise McNab, director of content sales said of the showcase’s association with Liverpool: “We owe all at the ACC and the city of Liverpool a huge debt of gratitude for hosting us for many memorable years. The welcome we received was unparalleled and we had some wonderful times that will live long in the memory. I’d like to thank everyone involved for the part they played.”
The BBC Studios’ International Production & Formats teams will also be at BBCS’ Showcase and will present their newest slate of launches to global partners, sharing fresh ideas and key successes from around the world.
Further details about BBC Studios Showcase will be announced in the forthcoming months.