BBC Studios Natural History Unit

BBC Studios Natural History Unit
Company typeDivision
Industry
Founded1957; 67 years ago (1957)
HeadquartersBroadcasting House, ,
United Kingdom
ProductsBBC Studios Natural History Unit filmography
ParentBBC Studios Productions

The BBC Studios Natural History Unit (NHU) is a department of BBC Studios that produces television, radio and online content with a natural history or wildlife theme. It is best known for its highly regarded nature documentaries, including The Blue Planet and Planet Earth, and has a long association with David Attenborough's authored documentaries, starting with 1979's Life on Earth.

The Natural History Unit is a specialist department within BBC Studios Productions. Each year it produces around 100 hours of television and 50 hours of radio programmes, making it the largest wildlife documentary production house in the world.[1] The BBC commissions programmes from the Unit for broadcast on five terrestrial television channels (BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Four, CBBC and CBeebies) and BBC Radio 4. It also makes programmes for other broadcasters and services including Apple TV+, Warner Bros. Discovery, National Geographic Global Networks and NBC Universal. Content is marketed internationally under the BBC Earth brand. Original content is also broadcast on the Earth Unplugged YouTube channel.[2]

The Unit has been based in Broadcasting House, Bristol since its formation in 1957, and has been headed by Jonny Keeling since 2021.[3]

  1. ^ "Directory of Production Companies". The International Association of Wildlife Filmmakers. Archived from the original on 29 August 2010. Retrieved 6 July 2007.
  2. ^ "BBC Earth presents Earth Unplugged: A digital nature channel for YouTube". BBC Media Centre. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  3. ^ "BBC Studios appoints new Head of Natural History Unit". BBC Media Centre. Retrieved 10 October 2023.