The BBC and Global Streaming Platforms Co-Commissions: The Amplification of High-End Drama Series

This article examines co-commissioned high-end drama series between the BBC and streamers, focusing on three examples: Dracula (Netflix, 2020), Doctor Who series 14 and 15 (Disney+, 2024) and A Very English Scandal (Amazon Prime Video, 2018). Through analysing in detail these series’ genesis, subject matter, and aesthetics, the article demonstrates that these co-commissions reflects the BBC’s bespoke strategy, which varies according to the streamers’ different priorities and that they amplify – enhancing and extending the scale and stylistic range – of established traditions in BBC drama productions. Although such relationships have become necessary in the digital era as European Public Service Broadcasters evolve from national programme suppliers to digitally enabled international content providers, Public Service Media, the article contends that this development is precarious, has mixed outcomes and generates risks for the UK’s television ecology as a whole.