For Broadcast January 23, 2008

It's not just shampoo and washing powder that have brands any more.

Posh and Becks are a brand (or two) and in the US there is the rather unsettling rise of the "personal brand", exacerbated no doubt by Facebook et al.

The "brand it and they will come" movement has now come to the BBC. At the Broadcast-backed Media Summit last week, BBC Worldwide boss John Smith revealed he is busy hiring experts from the world of FMCG (that's fast-moving consumer goods, TV folks) so that Worldwide's 2,850 different brands (yes, he's counted them) can hit consumers smack between the eyes.

The plan could reap big rewards. The Beeb's research found that punters outside the UK have a rather fuzzy idea of what the BBC is, and "news" comes up most often as a descriptor. Smith is interested in building the BBC umbrella brand beyond news and is rightly more focused on building programme brands like Top Gear and Strictly Come Dancing into "super brands" that can go global.

These two are already well on the way to super status. Top Gear has 7 million regular viewers in the UK, but is licensed around the world and all kinds of spin-off products are on the way: a virtual version of the test track is integrated into the newest Gran Turismo video game and a US version of Clarkson (and the Stig) are being recruited for a NBC version to air on the lucrative Sunday night slot.

Nestled next to Sunday Night Football and Gladiators, it should be a very popular and profitable show for the network and the BBC.

The purchase of the Lonely Planet travel guides last October was also part of the super-brands strategy. Not only does it fit with the 500 or so hours of BBC travel programming but it also is a "passion brand" that attracts a stridently loyal audience.

Given the focus on brand building, it is no wonder that BBCW finds itself reportedly jostling the likes of ITV for control of Hotel Babylon producer Carnival Film & Television. Smith is on the prowl for brands that he can supercharge, and armed with a £350m bank facility, he clearly means business.

What is the US writers' strike doing to UK schedules?

We lost the Golden Globes to the writers' strike and David Letterman and Jay Leno for a while, but it is only in the past couple of weeks that the full effects of industrial action by the penmen and women of Hollywood has began to hit UK television schedules.

Fans of Jack Bauer will have to wait a year for the new 24, while Lost, House, the CSI franchises and Prison Break only have a limited number of episodes in their current season.

It adds up to a bit of rethinking by UK broadcasters, but not everyone is following the same script. Channel 4 is delaying running the truncated season four of Desperate Housewives, while Sky One is planning a marketing bonanza around the eight episodes of the new season the channel does have of Lost.

Five, with CSI, Law & Order, House, Grey's Anatomy and Shark, arguably the hardest hit by the writers' strike, has one advantage: it is a season behind on House and Grey's Anatomy and it has 11 new episodes each of CSI: New York and CSI: Vegas to show. Plus (Five argues) CSI and Law & Order both do respectably in rerun.

My guess is that the need for a televised Oscars will focus everyone's minds in LA over the next few weeks and the fact the Hollywood directors signed their own new media deal with the studios gives the writers a template. One winner of all this is animation fans: The Simpsons - the show with perhaps the cleverest scripts on TV - is unaffected by the writers' dispute along with other animated shows. Cue drama execs everywhere saying: "Doh!"