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| Profits up 50% at BBC Worldwide |
| Written by Administrator | |
| Tuesday, 14 June 2005 | |
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On the back of the global success of Strictly Come Dancing and other formats, Europe's biggest TV distributor BBC Worldwide has seen its 2005/05 profits leap by 50% to a record £55m.
Strictly Come Dancing, which has redefined the UK pubcaster's Saturday night schedule and has since been sold into 14 territories overseas, drove an overall sales increase of 7% to £706m. Some £171m of this was from TV programme sales, up from £167.7m the previous year, while profits from TV sales also rose from £23.2m to £31.7m last year. As for the BBC's 19 wholly-owned and joint-venture TV channels, sales rose from £122.2m to £140.6m, while profits jumped from £2.7m to £4m. As well as rising TV sales, totaling 40,000 hours shifted overseas, BBC Worldwide also started a new strategy of acquiring ITV and Channel 4 shows to sell internationally; forged a DVD joint-venture with Woolworths called 2 Entertain; and said BBC magazines' circulation climbed 8% year-on-year. The company's new ceo John Smith described the year's results as "excellent," adding that BBCWW was "halfway towards the target of doubling profits over 24 months." The cash returned to the BBC from both profits and direct investment into programming was also a record £145 million, he said. Last year also saw the BBC's commercial arm shave £5m off the overhead and receive the first ever dividend from its UKTV joint-venture with Telewest-owned Flextech, ploughing some £2.1m back to the BBC company. This news will be watched closely by those companies currently eyeing Flextech and the UKTV division as a possible acquisition target. US giant Viacom is looking at the company, with a reported pricetag of some £800m. Smith's recent emphasis on profits over revenues or sales has been interpreted by some as privatisation-friendly, and the leap in profits at BBCWW will certainly renew interest in the company from possible US buyers, plus perennial calls for privatization. But Smith and BBC director general Mark Thompson have repeatedly said that BBCWW isn't up for sale, though divisions such as BBC Technology and women's magazine Eve have been offloaded. Today Smith said: "The BBC's review of commercial activities last year has ended, and we now have a clear understanding of our role, scope and objectives, and of BBC Worldwide's relationship with the BBC. "We have acted to address major concerns by, for example, selling the women's magazine Eve and stopping the trailing of magazines on BBC television." He added that BBCWW "is on a journey and the Review highlights where there is still work to do to meet the challenge of doubling profits by 2005/06." Source |
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