It was another record-breaking year for Global TV Sales with sales rising across all regions. In 2006/07, revenues grew to £216.4m from £188.9m in the previous year, with profit growing 19.3% year on year to £40.2m.

The unrivalled breadth and depth of its catalogue remains the most significant factor driving Global TV Sales' growth. BBC Worldwide continues to lead the world in the distribution of Natural History programming with Planet Earth, Blue Planet and The Natural World among its strongest-selling brands. In drama, a new generation of titles has caught the imagination of audiences across the world with series such as Doctor Who and Torchwood all finding strong markets. The high production values of titles such as Primeval, Spooks and Hustle and the return of a classic title, Robin Hood, all fed the international appetite for UK drama. Docudrama also continued its recent emergence as a key international genre with successes such as Ancient Rome - The Rise and Fall of an Empire and 9/11 - The Twin Towers.

In February 2007, Brighton was again the venue for BBC Showcase - the most important event in the Global TV Sales calendar and the world's largest trade event hosted by a single distributor. The event attracted over 550 buyers, a record-breaking level of attendance driven by expansion of the sales business into new digital areas such as mobile and IPTV. With over 600 hours of new content on show, the lead titles included The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle, Michael Palin's New Europe, In the Night Garden and Sarah Jane Adventures. Buyers were also invited to trial state-of-the-art digital booths as part of a new system enabling them to call up hundreds of hours of programmes directly onto their own viewing screens.

EUROPE

During 2006/07, Global TV Sales focused on defining programme tastes across Europe, then adapted its sales approach to span all platforms including co-producing, introducing windowing, localising content and creating branded blocks.

The developed European markets act as engine rooms for the business by driving steady revenues rather than high-level growth. However, the expansion of digital media and the explosion of channels across new platforms have produced a rich seam of opportunities for BBC Worldwide to mine across the region to raise both its profit and brand profile.

In Scandinavia, there is a strong demand for dramas such as Robin Hood, Life on Mars and Bleak House. In Benelux, BBC detective series remain particularly popular, with Dalziel & Pascoe, Inspector Lynley Mysteries and Silent Witness attracting robust sales. German audiences particularly enjoy factual programming, with Ancient Rome - The Rise and Fall of an Empire and 9/11 - The Twin Towers both selling well.

Two classic dramas, Robin Hood and Jane Eyre, were sold to a major Italian terrestrial channel while in Germany, a remarkable 36% of youngsters aged between three and five tuned in to the Teletubbies on the country's children's channel, Kika. The confidence generated by these successes was reinforced when Global TV Sales renewed a number of major first option deals with key broadcasters such as NRK in Norway, YLE in Finland, SIC in Portugal and Italy's RAI. BBC Worldwide also brokered its first ever co-production in Spain with Wanda Films signing up for the Natural History Unit's forthcoming series, Earth's Great Events.

In contrast to developed markets, emerging markets offer high growth and a fast-evolving customer base. Sales to Eastern European countries were especially strong, with 51% growth overall, fuelled by strong sales across drama titles and BBC-branded block launches in Poland, Russia, Croatia, Slovakia and Hungary. Other notable deals included a collaboration with UNESCO for their Science Awareness Programme that also triggered deals in South Asia and the Middle East.

	07	06
Europe	112.3	97.5
Americas	78.2	66.7
Rest of World	25.9	24.7
Total	216.4	188.9

	07	06
Europe	28.8	23.9
Americas	2.9	3.1
Rest of World	8.5	6.7
Total	40.2	33.7