At a Glance

BBC Worldwide has seven operating businesses which all create, acquire, develop and exploit content and brands. More information about each business is given in Business Review.

Business Area Description Sales* Profit/(Loss)*

Channels
Channels

Channels provides a global showcase for the best of British TV via a portfolio of 41 channels, 29 of which are BBC branded. In the UK our pay-TV joint venture with Virgin Media, UKTV, provides a secondary window for BBC programming.

 £262.6m 2008/09 £225.6m +16.4%
 £39.2m 2008/09 £29.2m +34.2%

Content & Production
Sales & Distribution

Content & Production generates a growing pipeline of content by investing in BBC and indie-produced programming, developing funding solutions to help greenlight new shows and building relationships with talent. It licenses and produces TV formats for other broadcasters and creates new programming via its production network.

 £97.6m 2008/09 £88.2m + 10.7% £17.6m 2008/09 £16.8m +4.8%

Digital Media
MacBook Pro Laptop with BBC Website

Digital Media develops new opportunities to deliver our content to consumers via digital platforms including mobiles. Traffic to our websites, including BBC.com, the international version of the BBC's website, has risen to 66m unique users globally.

 £30.0m 2008/09 £27.5m +9.0% £(20.8)m 2008/09 £(29.0)m +28.2%

Global Brands
Global Brands

Global Brands drives greater long-term value from our premium multi-format brands, including Top Gear and Lonely Planet. It also operates businesses such as licensing that generate the majority of revenues from these hit brands.

Memo reporting for key brands †

Sales & Distribution
Sales & Distribution

Sales & Distribution licenses our extensive catalogue of principally UK programming and ancillary rights to customers around the world. BBC Worldwide is the biggest exporter of finished programmes outside of the US studios.

 £214.8m 2008/09 £204.9m +4.8% £57.9m 2008/09 £45.8m +26.4%

Home Entertainment
Home Entertainment

Home Entertainment creates consumer products that complement programming and extend brands. It includes 2 entertain, our DVD publishing business, and Audio & Music, which markets great spoken word and music content around the world.

 £230.0m 2008/09 £225.3m +2.1% £40.3m 2008/09 £34.2m +17.8%

Magazines
Magazines

Magazines extends viewers' enjoyment of BBC programming in the UK through a portfolio of high-quality consumer magazines and events. Its international licensing operation and joint ventures take this print content to an even wider audience in over 50 countries.

 £168.3m 2008/09 £170.6m -1.3% £18.4M 2008/09 £16.2m +13.6%


*Percentages refer to year-on-year change.
†Memo reporting includes brands such as Top Gear, Doctor Who and BBC Earth. See Global Brands.

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* Throughout this Review, sales include Group revenue and the Group’s share of joint-ventures’ revenue, and profit refers to operating profit before specific items. Specific items are not defined under IFRS and may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. Specific items are material items which are highlighted by virtue of their size or importance to enable a full understanding of BBC Worldwide’s performance. A full definition of specific items and a reconciliation to profit before tax is provided in Financials.

During the year, BBC Worldwide has voluntarily chosen to employ International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), as adopted by the European Union, as the basis for the preparation of its consolidated financial results. This is in line with best practice and to allow greater comparability with other organisations. Throughout this Review all results are extracted from BBC Worldwide’s financial statements and presented consistently under IFRS, unless otherwise stated.