In terms of the funding that we return to the BBC each year for investment in programming, we topped the £100 million mark for the first time this year – £106 million – double that of five years ago. Profit, before interest and tax, grew to £26 million. The underlying profit excluding BBC World and beeb.com grew by 23% to £43 million.

Our exceptional strength
in exports earned
us the prestigious
Queen's Award
for Enterprise 2002

At the same time, we have improved our efficiency, with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) as a percentage of sales increasing to 21% this year. For the first time this exceeded our long-term target of 20% – well above industry average.

These results have been achieved despite falls in advertising revenues, and an increased loss from BBC World. They endorse the strength of our strategy, which is designed to exploit the BBC’s brands and properties on a global, multi-format basis.

We will continue to grow the BBC brand around the world and drive further growth through joint ventures and acquisitions.


This year we have, again, taken landmark BBC programmes and developed them into best-selling brands and properties. Titles such as The Blue Planet, Walking with Beasts, The Weakest Link, Top of the Pops, Tweenies, and Teletubbies have been top-rated TV programmes in international schedules. From these, we produced best-selling books and videos, sought-after computer games, CD soundtracks, children’s toys, merchandise and popular audio products.