Vertical integration for Stephen Fry and the BBC

The news in the Sunday Times that the BBC has invested in a 25% ownership of Stephen Fry’s production company Sprout seems like a good example of vertical integration. The BBC make the point that they are a distributor, and this relationship secures them content to be distributed for the future – so is an example of backwards vertical integration. It also gives them a footing in the camp of their competitors, as Sprout makes programmes shown on other networks, such as Kingdom, the ITV legal drama, as well as BBC series Stephen Fry in America, pictured above.