It was once said that the sun never sets on the British Empire, which is pretty logical if you colonise somewhere in every available timezone. Those days are long gone, although we still have the Commonwealth, which is fun for everyone, and not in the slightest bit pointless.
Never mind. There’s still a British business empire, exporting iconic British products to the world. Just think of Rolls-Royce cars. Oh wait, they’re German these days. Cadbury chocolate? Forget it, the Americans own that now. Walkers crisps? Also American. Dulux paint? Dutch.
Strength to strength
Look, the world changes. Deal with it. Both colonial and business empires rise and fall, and/or get sold to foreign conglomerates. However, there’s one British export that is going from strength to strength. It seems like the rest of the planet has forgiven the United Kingdom for colonising them, and now can’t get enough of British TV.
Three forms of success
Successful British TV exports can be broadly grouped into three different categories. These are shows that were remade for local audiences and became wildly successful; shows that were sold to international territories and became ratings powerhouses; and shows that were snapped up by streaming services for simultaneous global consumption.
The remakes
There’s a difference between British TV that’s exported in its original form, and British TV that is remade for local (or rather, American) audiences. Consider BBC’s The Office. It’s a sitcom in English, so surely American network NBC would just want to pay the broadcast fee to include the show on their roster? Not exactly.
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Format difficulties
A BBC show structured to be shown without commercials would be difficult to schedule in an American broadcast. Those commercial breaks would have to be edited in somewhere. Those swear words would have to be edited out. There’s also the comparatively abridged seasons of British TV, with each season typically running for a mere six episodes, as opposed to the 20+ of a standard US broadcast show.
All about the money
It’s a question of money. By purchasing the remake rights, a US network can make their own version of the show, tailored to local audiences, which they can then licence to other broadcasters around the world. This results in a product packaged to work within the confines of network TV.
By remaking a show, a US network can maximise their profits – profits that wouldn’t exist if they had simply broadcast existing content. If you’ve ever wondered why American TV so rarely presents non-American English language content, it’s all about capitalism.
A two-way street
This remake approach is very much a two-way street, and it’s simply that shows remade for the US often have a higher international profile than US shows remade for other territories. Do you remember the 1993 UK sitcom, Brighton Belles? Don’t worry, nobody else does either. This UK remake of the US hit The Golden Girls was pulled from the schedule after six (out of eleven) episodes had aired.
While the appearance of a foreign remake can indicate the popularity (and potential profitability) of a British show, there’s a lot of British content which has become globally successful in its original form.
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Still a part of Europe… sort of
The UK is the biggest producer of film and TV programming in Europe. But wait, doesn’t Brexit mean that the UK isn’t technically part of Europe anymore? It’s slightly more complicated than that. The UK reaps some £1.4 billion in selling the broadcast rights to its content each year, but this amount could be reduced in the coming years if European nations act to implement quotas that prioritise European Union productions over UK content.
However, this isn’t a clear-cut scenario, as UK content is still covered under the European convention on Transfrontier Television of the Council of Europe. This means that (for the time being) UK content is still regarded as European content. And in any event, streaming services have changed how viewers access content, so any reductions to the availability of UK content is likely to only affect broadcast TV.
Successful in their original form
And then there are TV shows that are British to their very core, meaning that a remake would be redundant. Chat show host Stephen Colbert has already conclusively proven that Downton Abbey wouldn’t work with American accents. Originally intended as a spin-off from Gosford Park, the show’s US broadcaster (PBS) very much enjoyed the rewards of its popularity. At the peak of Downton mania, the show averaged some 13.3 million US viewers per episode.
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Not quite a masterpiece
Many US viewers found the show’s presentation to be awkward, since it was shown as part of PBS’s Masterpiece series, meaning it had to be edited to fit the network’s allotted running time (a problem that US remakes are engineered to overcome). Additionally, Masterpiece had a presenter (actress Laura Linney) who explained certain aspects of the show, putting them into context in a way that some viewers found patronising and unnecessary.
220 Markets
However, the US is only one of many, many markets for this exceptionally successful show. It was sold to some 220 individual territories, meaning that it doesn’t matter if a viewer is in Beijing, Berlin, Brisbane, or Birmingham – they’ll still be able to tune in for their Downton fix. The resulting (and extremely profitable) merchandise added to the Downton Abbey bank account, as did the 2019 film continuation (global box office just north of $194 million), with its sequel (and the likely sequels after that) demonstrating that a hit British TV export can sometimes be a licence to print money.
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British with a boost
This licence to print money is most easily attained by licensing a show to a platform with a global reach. This is where the streamers enter the equation. A Netflix original isn’t necessarily something original that Netflix has produced itself. It simply means that they have obtained exclusive rights for the show in question, in the territory where the viewer is located.
A Netflix unoriginal
Peaky Blinders is a BBC show for UK viewers. It was a BBC America show for US viewers, until Netflix swooped in and purchased the rights (from Harvey Weinstein, years before his better late than never downfall). This made it a Netflix original in dozens of territories, with lucrative licensing fees then being funnelled back to its initial broadcaster (the BBC) and production company. Netflix spent some $17 billion on content in 2021, and this includes producing their own work, and purchasing the exclusive rights to existing content for key territories. So yes, this is why Peaky Blinders is a Netflix sort of original, depending on where you live.
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The direction of the concept
Just how much a streaming service can amplify a show also plays a role in the direction of the concept. Back in 2010, Idris Elba was a fairly well-known actor whose BBC show Luther began airing. The show and its leading man were well-received, with Elba’s career then becoming rather successful, to state the obvious. Still, the Americans thought that Luther was ripe for a remake, and this was in the works as early as 2014, around the same time Netflix paid for a five-year licence to show Luther in the US.
Why bother?
It eventually became a case of, why bother? Elba had name recognition that exceeded any of the potential casting choices for the American remake (which was quietly dropped back in 2017). The very fact that the show was widely available in American households presumably also contributed to the remake’s death. Why bother remaking a show that was already readily available, with a recognisable leading man? Had Netflix not licensed the show, it’s quite possible that the remake would have already aired (and been cancelled).
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A successful partnership
Essentially, a multibillion-dollar American multimedia company helped to keep a British show, well… British. And it’s Netflix, so there’s (unsurprisingly) a Luther movie in the works for the streamer. As a BBC co-production, naturally. Sometimes a successful export involves a successful partnership… with a partner who has $17 billion to play with.
