Top of the Pops starts international roll-out

The BBC’s Top of the Pops (TOTP) will be screened on TV outside Britain for the first time this autumn as the programme continues its global push into new markets.

The show will be a localised version of the UK programme, which has run for 34 years, introduced by German presenters. It will include footage of local German bands in addition to the show’s usual mix of British and US bands.

RTL, the largest commercial station in Germany, will co produce the programme with the BBC. It runs two networks, RTL and RTL 2, which are transmitted across cable, satellite and terrestrial networks.

The new show will retain the TOTP name and is likely to be shown on RTL 2, which targets a youth audience. RTL shows general interest, news and documentary programmes.

In March, BBC Worldwide Music, which handles the commercial exploitation of BBC properties, appointed Leslie Golding to the newly created position of global brand manager for Top of the Pops, as revealed in Marketing Week (March 12).

The BBC launched a branded compilation compact disc earlier this year, and plans to roll the TOTP magazine across selected European markets.