BBC and Discovery Cut Back on Collaborations
The BBC and the Discovery Channel are essentially dissolving a relationship that dates to the 1990s and delivered natural history programs like “Blue Planet,†“Planet Earth†and “Life†to American viewers. Some of the BBC's wildlife documentaries and films will be co-produced by its cable channel BBC America instead of Discovery in the future, the British broadcaster said Wednesday. Discovery will continue to work with the BBC on some programs, but will also strike deals with other producers for science and natural history programs. The two collaborators have become more like competitors over the years. Discovery is increasingly an international brand, and it wants to have worldwide rights to its programming; meanwhile, the BBC wants to bolster its own branded channel in America. The two companies said they had mutually agreed to go their separate ways.
A version of this brief appears in print on October 11, 2013, on page C2 of the New York edition with the headline: BBC and Discovery Cut Back on Collaborations.
