ITV

Tag: Pam Masters

  • BBC Broadcast becomes Red Bee Media

    MUMBAI: A new name and corporate identity for BBC Broadcast has been announced. As of 31 October, BBC Broadcast will be known as Red Bee Media marking its final transition from BBC ownership. As had been reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com BBC Broadcast was sold to a Macquarie consortium following the BBC’s review of its commercial businesses.

    Red Bee Media can trace its heritage back to the beginning of BBC Television providing vital playout, channel branding and promotion, and access services for the broadcaster. The former Broadcasting and Presentation BBC department was incorporated into a commercial subsidiary, BBC Broadcast, in April 2002.

    Since incorporation, it has won significant commercial business capitalising on the merging broadcast and IT markets to build the state-of-the-art Broadcast Centre where it relocated in October 2003. The name Red Bee Media followed many months of work within the company to come up with a brand that both reflects its BBC history, and is appropriate for the breadth of its services.

    The visual identity was created by the ideas company Antidote, working in close collaboration with Red Bee’s in-house design teams. The distinctive logo, featuring a stacked “Red” and “Bee”, includes horizontal bars which reference graphic equalisers, mobile phone strength bars and even the Broadcast centre architecture. The core proposition of the new company is described as ‘Bringing stories and people together’.

    Red Bee Media CEO Pam Masters said, “We wanted to find a simple human expression of what we stand for. We recognised that everything we do across the company is ultimately about stories. All our services bring stories and people together – whether it be a news story on BBC World , subtitling Lost on Channel 4, a promotion on UKTV Food for Ready Steady Cook , delivering last week’s episode of Eastenders over broadband on the Interactive Media Player, or the latest football highlights to a 3G mobile.

    “We wanted a name that reflected where we have come from. When we were Broadcasting and Presentation we were known as B&P. As BBC Broadcast we have been known as BBCB. So an evolutionary step was to play with the sound ‘B’. The spelling as ‘Bee’ came from an internal brainstorm when we were looking at nature’s expert navigators, because as a company facing the digital future we need to help the consumer become equally adept as navigators. We have always used Red as our colour property and this gave added strength to the name.”

  • Creative Broadcast Services to acquire BBC Broadcast for £166 million

    Creative Broadcast Services to acquire BBC Broadcast for £166 million

    MUMBAI: The BBC has announced that a contract has been signed with Creative Broadcast Services Limited for the sale of BBC Broadcast. BC Broadcast is involved with designing the look, logo of channels among other activities.

    Completion of the sale is subject to approval from the Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport. Creative Broadcast Services Limited owned by the Macquarie Capital Alliance Group and Macquarie Bank Limited, has been selected as the new owner following an extensive and rigorous evaluation of final bids from financial and industry buyers. The sale follows on from the corporation’s internal review of its commercial businesses. The review team concluded that, whilst the services provided by BBC Broadcast are vital to the BBC, they did not necessarily need to remain owned by the BBC.

    The list of financial bidders had included – Advent International, Apax Partners Worldwide LLP, Bank of Scotland Corporate, Barclays Pvt Equity, Bridgepoint, Exponent Pvt Equity, HgCapital, Kleinwort Capital, Montagu Pvt Equity, Palamon Capital Partners LP and The Carlyle Group. The BBC believes that the new ownership and its commitment to a long-term partnership will mean that the BBC can continue the strong relationship it has built up with BBC Broadcast. Creative Broadcast Services will provide the business with opportunities for growth which are not available whilst it is owned by the BBC, but with the stability of an on-going contract in place with the BBC. As well as delivering the best deal to the BBC, Creative Broadcast Services has also given assurances on pensions, terms and conditions for staff in BBC Broadcast.

    BBC COO and executive board sponsor John Smith said, “Creative Broadcast Services made the BBC a great offer and showed real capabilities in managing a contractual long-term partnership with a commitment to growing and investing in the business.” Macquarie Capital Alliance Group CEO Michael Cook said, “BBC Broadcast has state-of-the-art facilities and services delivered by very talented people and is in a strong position to take advantage of growing opportunities in Europe as well as developing demand from new communication media. The BBC Broadcast management team has extensive experience and strong industry relationships across all aspects of the business.”

    BBC Broadcast MD Pam Masters said, “I am delighted with the BBC’s decision for Creative Broadcast Services to acquire BBC Broadcast. The Board and I have built this company from an internal BBC department through incorporation and three successful years of trading under BBC ownership.

    “It is now time for the business to flourish under new ownership with increased investment. We feel confident the decision is right for our business and our staff, and I look forward to working with them to fulfill the potential of this fantastic business.”