Meaningful metrics

Ah, the opacity of Anglo-American business language. BBC Worldwide boss Tim Davie has just sold 49.9% of cable channel BBC America (and presumably 49.9% of any future profits) to AMC, which runs a small cluster of channels of its own, but owes its current success to series like Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead.

Daive says the new joint venture has “a very sensible, growing business plan,” that will work through “the electricity of premium content and great collaborations creatively.” And, on the choice of AMC as a partner: “There’s no doubt about it that scale is a meaningful metric. But we weren’t looking for scale at all costs.” AMC head Josh Sapan says “Because the editorial alignment and point of view is so similar in terms of smart, quality and premium, we think that we will find lots and lots and lots of places to join on things that we are not yet doing today," So that's all good, as we say in W1A.

The new joint venture will promote BBC World News in the States, although AMC takes no equity there. Tim Davie can reduce his directly employed headcount, and adds £125m to his 2014/5 balance sheet.  BBC America ranked in 66th position in the most recent total day viewing figures for US cable channels. I still can't find ratings for BBC World News across the pond.