BBC Studios expands reach of premium British drama through new partnership with MX Player

BBC Studios on Friday announced a new content deal with MX Player, marking the inaugural partnership between India’s entertainment super app and BBC Studios.

This new deal is set to strengthen MX Player’s content portfolio with award-winning bold, British drama and will be catering to the demands of audiences in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Pakistan.

The announcement reflects BBC Studios’ commitment to building new partnerships in India and was made as part of BBC Studios’ Showcase.

With over 300 million Monthly Active users globally, MX Media has varied offerings across genres and languages - be it web series, TV shows, movies, music or games. Today, its premium OTT platform - MX Player is second only to YouTube in India and has achieved the phenomenal 1 billion download milestone on the app store in a very short period.

To kickstart the partnership, viewers on the OTT platform will be able to access the following premium drama titles from BBC Studios with plans to expand the list in time to come:

* The Watch-The Watch follows an unlikely group of misfits, The City Watch, who are forced to find the guts to save the world, surprising even themselves in the process. The comedic yet thrilling series pits trolls, werewolves, wizards and other improbable heroes against an evil plot to resurrect a great dragon that would lead to the destruction of life as they know it.

From lead writer and executive producer Simon Allen, the modern and inclusive series is inspired by the characters created by Sir Terry Pratchett’s famous “Discworld” novels, including the captain of The City Watch Sam Vimes (Richard Dormer), the last scion of nobility Lady Sybil Ramkin (Lara Rossi), the naive but heroic Carrot (Adam Hugill), the mysterious Angua (Marama Corlett) and the ingenious forensics expert Cheery (Jo Eaton-Kent) together with The Watch’s own idiosyncratic depiction of Death (Wendell Pierce).

The stellar cast for the series also includes Sam Adewunmi as Carcer Dun, and Matt Berry as Wayne, a magical speaking sword. This title has been distributed to over 10 countries globally. A BBC Studios Production, originally commissioned for BBC America.

* Critical - 24 meets ER in this nail-biting medical drama, created by BAFTA-nominated writer, Jed Mercurio, and starring Lennie James (Storm Damage, The Walking Dead).

Set in a gleaming new Major Trauma Centre that only deals with the most serious cases, every episode of Critical is an emotional and medical rollercoaster ride, as an emergency medical team battles through the vital first hour of care to save lives that hang in balance. A Hat Trick production.

Stanley Fernandes, BBC Studios’ VP for Distribution, South Asia, commented on the deal: “BBC Studios has a track record of attracting viewers with a discerning eye for premium content through its powerful storytelling that has the ability to resonate with a global audience. We are glad to embark on this partnership with MX Player and together, I am confident we will bring our bold British content to more audiences within India and beyond.”

Mansi Shrivastav, SVP and Head - Content Acquisitions & Alliances, MX Player said, “Our vision has always been to entertain India, the way India wants. Adding International shows to our library, dubbed in local Indian languages is our attempt at democratising content for our large and diverse audience base. We’re delighted to partner with BBC Studios that will see their compelling British narratives being added to our rich catalogue of shows and we look forward to expanding this slate further in the near future.”

BBC Studios, a global content company with British creativity at its heart, is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC Group and BBC Studios in APAC covers Australia, New Zealand, Greater China and the Asia region. Operating from six offices, with its main bases in Sydney, Beijing and Singapore, BBC Studios APAC comprises of Content Sales and Co-productions, Branded Services, Production, Format Sales, Consumer Products and Live Events.

The BBC Studios business in Asia licenses to and co-produces with digital and linear platforms across the region with some significant pre-sales and co-productions with major broadcasters and platforms. Our channels, BBC Earth, BBC Lifestyle and CBeebies, are available in 15 markets; BBC First is available as a VOD service in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan and Hong Kong; branded blocks feature on third party channels; while the BBC’s own SVOD service BBC Player offers curated content from BBC global brands in Singapore and Malaysia.

In India, the Mumbai-based production business produces local versions of BBC hit shows and Indian originals with partners. BBC Studios also licenses BBC formats to third parties across Asia. The business has forged strategic JV relationships, including with Sony India for Sony BBC Earth channel and major partnerships across the region including CCTV, Tencent, Bilibili, Migu, Bytedance and Huawei in China, and has a range of partnerships for consumer products and ancillaries.

MX Media has built the largest digital entertainment ecosystem in India with 1Bn-plus app downloads on Android, 300Mn MAUs globally and 200,000 hours of content across 10 languages. MX Media includes MX Player - India’s #1 OTT, as well as MX Games, MX Music and more. MX Player offers a critically acclaimed slate of MX Original/ Exclusives, movies, web series, TV shows and news. The app is available across Android, iOS, Web, Amazon Fire TV Stick, Android TV and OnePlus TV amongst others.

MX Player is India’s largest growing OTT platform today with a large and diverse audience base in India as well as a global reach of 17-plus markets including UAE, US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Maldives amongst others.

It currently operates on an ad-supported model and with a keen understanding of the pulse of the audience, it has recently had several record-breaking shows across genres like Bhaukaal, Aashram, Matsya Kaand, High, Samantar and Campus Diaries.

It is also the only OTT platform to deploy H.266 technology that cuts down video streaming data consumption into half. According to the App Annie State of Mobile Report 2022 - MX Player ranks #2 in India and at #6 Worldwide in terms of Downloads in Video Streaming.