Annual Review 2009/10

Sales, before eliminating trading with other BBC Worldwide businesses, held steady year on year at £240.8m and profit increased 4.6% to £64.2m. This was a good performance given that many customers froze or reduced their content budgets. In 2009/10 the team sold around 60,000 hours of programming including 9000 hours to digital platforms. Profits increased mainly as a result of increased volumes, higher-margin licensing deals and exchange-rate benefits caused by a weak sterling.

BBC Showcase, our unique annual sales fair held in Brighton, UK, maintained high attendance (nearly 500 customers) and new digital buyers such as BT Vision and Nokia attended for the first time.

The Content Syndication team, which sells largely to the online distribution market, became a key supplier to iTunes during the year signing up Canada and Australia. In the US, Torchwood Children of Earth, Top Gear and Doctor Who all hit number one in iTunes Top TV Seasons charts. Sales to other digital partners, including Xbox, continue to grow.

EMEA

In a challenging economic climate across the region, sales fell slightly to £134.8m (£139.8m 2008/09). The strongest performances came from Scandinavia, Italy and our Sports Sales team. Sales to UK customers declined in tandem with the decrease in their advertising revenues, and in Germany sales were affected by fewer co-production opportunities. Profit was up by 4.7% to £42.6m because the sales mix included higher margin properties.

Sales drivers included Top Gear, Torchwood and Primeval. Significant deals in Scandinavia and Benelux realised the value from Top Gear's exceptional performance in these markets. We also emphasised the back catalogue, placing properties such as Inspector Lynley and Teletubbies with broadcasters throughout Europe.

Americas

Economic factors, including exchange rates, affected both sales and profits in this region - down 3.5% and 38.5% respectively. Public Broadcast Service (PBS) sales were strong in the year despite cuts to PBS funding and during the year co-production deals were struck for the drama series Sherlock, Aurelio Zen and Primeval, amongst others, all of which will come to fruition in 2010/11.

The Latin America team, aided by another successful Showcase event in Rio de Janeiro, made major sales to TBS Latin America (including HD content for the first time) and TV Azteca - Mexico.

In Canada sales were impacted by challenging market conditions. However sales highlights include Torchwood Children of Earth and Doctor Who to the sci-fi channel Space.

Asia Pacific

Sales in Australia and New Zealand rose by 31.0% year on year with over 6600 hours of programming sold (16% up on prior year). Among the top-selling titles by revenue were Top Gear, for which we negotiated a new free-to-air partner, Life and Waking the Dead. Significant exchange rate gains benefited sales and profits.

Asia enjoyed an excellent year in 2009/10 thanks to the establishment of new relationships and a sophisticated windowing strategy. Sales, driven by Life and Rocketmen (BBC Worldwide's first science film release), increased 37.6% year on year to our best result ever in this region. Video-on-demand business continued to grow including deals with SingTel and Chunghwa Telecom.

Outlook

Judging by discussions with buyers at Showcase and advertising forecasts, we believe the market for UK finished programmes should improve in 2010/11. Co-productions will be significant, particularly in EMEA and the US, as we look to developing alternative funding. We will continue to embed digital competencies across all areas of the business to maximise the value of our content.