BBC Worldwide to launch BBC Brit & BBC Earth

BBC Worldwide today announced new channel launches for BBC Brit and BBC Earth. The two consumer brands will launch as linear channels in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Iceland from April 2015.

Building on the global strength of BBC factual entertainment and premium natural history and science programming, the new channels will be home to Britain’s biggest stars and exclusive, first-run content.

BBC Brit is the destination for Top Gear with all new episodes having their Nordic premiere on the channel alongside shows featuring some of the biggest names in British TV including Graham Norton, Louis Theroux and Stephen Fry.

BBC Earth features a rich mix of premium factual content, from the stunning, landmark natural history series for which the BBC is universally renowned, to high-octane, adrenaline-charged documentaries that look at the planet from surprising perspectives.

Paul Dempsey, BBC Worldwide’s President, Global Markets said, “We know that viewers in the Nordics love our content and we can now give them more of what they want with these carefully curated new channels featuring exclusive first runs of the best of British TV.”

Tobi de Graaff, Executive Vice President for Western Europe, BBC Worldwide added, “These new channel brands were borne out of audience research that told us exactly what our fans want from BBC Worldwide. I am delighted that audiences in the region will now have dedicated spaces for territory premieres of Top Gear and some of the best natural history and premium factual content anywhere in the world.”

The upcoming launch will follow the successful debut of BBC First, a premium drama channel, in Australia last year and will be the second rollout of the new global brands with BBC Brit and BBC Earth set to premiere in Poland this February.

Available through DTH, DTT, cable and IPTV providers, BBC Brit and BBC Earth will be available in HD and sit alongside BBC Lifestyle and BBC HD across the Nordic market. They will replace BBC Entertainment and BBC Knowledge.

BBC Brit will offer premium factual entertainment where the meaningful and meaningless collide. Blending expertise with entertainment and fact with fun, witty and smart, BBC Brit will be the exclusive home of Top Gear and will cover a rich variety of subjects: cars, adventure, life-changing moments, quirky British characters, chat show and comedy.

Home to the world’s most successful factual entertainment series, BBC Brit will launch as a linear channel with social channels on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. The BBC Brit social community will have access to original content produced exclusively for these platforms and available globally. These new social channels will complement the existing Top Gear platforms that serve a 15 million strong global community through topgear.com, Top Gear and Stig Facebook pages and the Top Gear YouTube channel.

BBC Earth will inspire audiences by sharing the incredible wonders of our universe. The channel will showcase the work of the world’s foremost factual film makers as it seeks to take audiences on a thrilling journey of discovery. From the smallest creature under the microscope to the limitless expanses of space, BBC Earth will bring viewers face to face with heart pounding action, mind blowing ideas and the wonder of being human.

BBC Earth constantly innovates to bring people amazing ways to experience the wonder of their universe from immersive 3D films for cinemas and giant screen theatres, stunning concert performances that combine BBC Earth’s breath-taking imagery with live orchestral music and in 2013 in partnership with SEGA, BBC Earth launched a ground-breaking visitor attraction Orbi in Japan a multi-sensory visitor attraction which combines BBC Earth’s expertise in nature with SEGA’s cutting edge technology to bring visitors a supercharged nature experience.