Television

Tristan O'Carroll, mediaweek.co.uk, 19 November 2008, 3:50pm

BBC Trust flags up BBC Worldwide review

LONDON - The BBC Trust is conducting a review of the commercial arm of the BBC, BBC Worldwide, with the regulator promising to "tighten" its remit.

BBC Worldwide: MPs told that remit of corporation's commercial arm is to be tightened

Addressing a House of Commons select committee for culture, media and sport yesterday, BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons said: "The Trust has already decided that we need to tighten both the mission and the guidelines around BBC Worldwide.

"It is now an appropriate time to review the boundaries of (BBCWW) and we are of the view that they need to be modestly contained and the detail of that we will make public once we have finished our inquiries."

He said that the results of the review should be published next year.

BBC Worldwide has come under fire from its UK commercial rivals in recent times for allegedly encroaching on their activities. Most recently, it was criticised for launching Lonely Planet magazine, following its acquisition of a 75% stake in the publisher. Its rivals argue that BBC Worldwide should only launch brand extensions around properties present on BBC TV or radio.

BBC Worldwide generated revenues of £919m in the last financial year, with profits of £117m, all of which are returned to the BBC. Among its operations it operates TV channels worldwide reaching 285 million homes. It is the UK's third-largest magazine publisher and accounts for around half of all UK TV programming sales.

BBC Worldwide and the BBC Trust declined to comment further.

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All Comments

Jeremy Lee - 19 November 2008

'Profits of £117m, all of which are returned to the BBC'. How wonderful.

Wouldn't it be better for these to be returned to the Treasury rather than used to further expand the Corporation into areas already served by the commercial sector?