The year has been a tough one for many UK publishers and retailers, with a general slowdown in sales particularly in the pre-Christmas period. Nevertheless, BBC Worldwide's sales in the UK division grew by 3.5% over the year.

Cross-media successes

This was the first year in which the UK division organised its operations into genre-based groups, which has enabled it to exploit brands across media more effectively. For example, David Attenborough's stunning series Life of Birds was a hit in both book and video format, selling 200,000 and 30,000 respectively, while Talking Heads 2 was launched simultaneously in book, video and audio with consistent branding.

BBC magazines outperform the market

Our magazines business, which includes 22 magazines and remains highly profitable, did particularly well this year, with total circulation growing by 9.4%, against a market decrease of 3.3% (based on ABC figures for July-December 1998).

Growth came primarily from children's titles, with circulation up by nearly 50%. Other highlights this year included:

- Radio Times, which has enjoyed continued success, maintaining its circulation of more than 1.4m and increasing its profitability still further.

- Homes & Antiques, the UK's biggest up-market home interest magazine, which improved its turnover by 17%.

- Gardeners' World, which achieved sales of £10m and consolidated its position as the UK's leading gardening magazine.

We also made difficult decisions to close two titles during the year, Family Life and Tomorrow's World, after concluding that we would not be able to raise circulation levels high enough to make them profitable.

Galleon Ltd, our subscription fulfilment company, made substantial improvements in service levels during the year.