long-term gas export deals<\/a>, with one asking, \u201cis Australia even capable of making a good deal?\u201d<\/p>\nCameron Murray, chief economist at Fresh Economic Thinking, lamented that Bluey royalties could have \u201cfunded the ABC twice over\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cInstead, we just gave them away to the BBC in a dud deal. Now the BBC is rolling in cash.\u201d<\/p>\n
How much does the BBC make from Bluey?<\/p>\n
Bluey royalties and merchandise \u2013 everything from plush toys to pool floats \u2013 are sold in 50 countries and have become a major driver of revenues for the BBC\u2019s commercial arm, which raked in a record \u00a32.2 billion in FY 2024\/25, or $A4.1 billion. <\/p>\n
That cash is expected to keep flowing as the brand expands, with a CGI feature film slated for global release in 2027.<\/p>\n
Though the BBC hasn\u2019t explicitly said how much money it makes from Bluey, an executive has described the show as a \u201creally, really big chunk\u201d of global retail sales.<\/p>\n
A conservative estimate attributing 25 per cent of last year\u2019s sales to Bluey suggests the brand generates roughly $A1 billion per year \u2014 but it could be much more than that. <\/p>\n
For context, the ABC receives $A1.2 billion in funding from the federal government annually. <\/p>\n
Ben Eltham, lecturer in the School of Media, Film and Journalism at Monash University, agreed that the public broadcaster had botched the agreement. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe ABC signed a very bad deal,\u201d Mr Eltham told news.com.au.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t know why, exactly, but Joe Brumm is a smart guy; probably the ABC didn\u2019t have enough leverage on him or wasn\u2019t prepared to pay overs to get some stake in back-end merch. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s turned out to be a really bad outcome for the ABC, but it\u2019s important to remember no one realised that Bluey would be a massive hit.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was \u201cinherently uncertain\u201d whether a TV show would become a global phenomenon, Mr Eltham said, adding that there was \u201cprobably a warehouse full of unsold Bananas in Pyjamas (merchandise) somewhere\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe debate over Bluey misses the point to some degree, which is that the ABC is not set up to be a global screen studio. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think you want the ABC devoting itself to chasing long-odds merch riches just because they missed this one jackpot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Eltham said as the public broadcaster, the ABC should \u201cstick to its core purpose of educating, informing and entertaining Australians\u201d.<\/p>\n
Professor Gary Mortimer, an expert in retail marketing and consumer behaviour at QUT Business School, said it was unclear how the Bluey brand had become so popular.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could be because it\u2019s been driven by a childhood audience, and that childhood audience may have been looking for something new,\u201d Prof Mortimer said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen my kids were young it was Teletubbies, then it was the Wiggles; and maybe Bluey is the next evolution of childhood entertainment.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI guess it was just an oversight,\u201d he said of the ABC\u2019s failure to clinch a merchandising agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe at the time, the decision makers saw it as being a great kids\u2019 cartoon but didn\u2019t acknowledge or foresee the growth in popularity.\u201d<\/p>\n
ABC Managing Director Hugh Marks has talked openly about regrets over the loss of revenue from Bluey. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve spoken a lot about Bluey since I arrived (at the ABC), and we can all look back as to what happened in that particular situation,\u201d Mr Marks told the Screen Forever conference this week, according to industry website Mumbrella. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are always reasons why things happen. But that\u2019s probably $300 million of income that\u2019s going to the UK. If it was coming to Australia, (it) actually would change a lot of the people\u2019s lives in this room.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Marks said he was focused on preventing other Australian intellectual property from being monetised overseas. <\/p>\n
\u201c \u2026 The point for me now is, how do we get the industry to a position where we can keep more of that income, more of that activity in our ecosystem, in Australia, rather than outsourcing it internationally?\u201d<\/p>\n
An ABC spokesperson said when the broadcaster co-commissioned Bluey, the \u201cfocus for the ABC was acquiring rights for Australian audiences as cost effectively as possible and with minimal risk\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith hindsight, a different commercial decision would have been made,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBluey is an integral and much-loved ABC program for our audiences, especially children.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A leading entrepreneur has slammed the ABC\u2019s bungling of overseas rights for the hit children\u2019s show Bluey, arguing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[2620,2095,309692,64,63,689,309676,309667,309678,309670,2090,309672,5079,171345,309695,309675,309685,309671,212610,102276,15912,168386,134,309694,309669,309673,35262,309680,309687,309684,272752,309690,309682,309674,309689,309686,309691,309681,309688,309693,47830,673,2041,2067,677,309677,86321,309679,309668,427,158072,2614,60162,309683],"class_list":["post-639480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-america","tag-annual-budget","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-animator","tag-beloved-cartoon","tag-bluey-royalties","tag-brand-worth","tag-british-broadcasting-corporation","tag-broadcaster-billions","tag-cameron-murray","tag-cgi","tag-chasing-long-odds","tag-childhood-audience","tag-childhood-entertainment","tag-commercial-arm","tag-consumer-behaviour","tag-david-anderson","tag-decision-makers","tag-digital-health-startup","tag-entertainment","tag-feature-film","tag-film-and-journalism","tag-fresh-economic-thinking","tag-gary-mortimer","tag-gas-export-deals","tag-global-retail-sales","tag-global-screen-studio","tag-harrison-christian","tag-information-request-failing","tag-joe-brumm","tag-leading-entrepreneur","tag-long-odds-merch-riches","tag-long-term-gas-export","tag-lost-royalties","tag-massive-hit","tag-merchandise-deal","tag-merchandising-deal","tag-monash-university","tag-new-south-wales","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oceania","tag-production-costs","tag-public-broadcaster","tag-qut-business-school","tag-school-of-media","tag-tv","tag-ultimo","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-william-west","tag-zero-dollars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}