BBC Worldwide Ltd. was the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in January 1995. The company monetised BBC brands, selling BBC and other British programming for broadcast abroad with the aim of supplementing the income received by the BBC through the licence fee.
The company merged with BBC Studios on 1 April 2018, to form a new licensing, production, and distribution company under the BBC Studios name.
Contents
History
Origins
In addition to broadcasting, the BBC has for much of its life also produced additional materials for sale, the profits of which would be returned to the corporation to aid in the financing of these services. The highest profile of these early products was the listings magazine Radio Times, but the net revenue gained from this in 1928 (£93,686, 10s, 1d) only equated to 10% of total BBC income.
Prior to 1979, several BBC departments dealt with the exploitation and sale of BBC brands and programmes. BBC Publications, which produced magazines, books and other supplementary materials, had expanded rapidly in the late 1960s but still had difficulties with finances. In 1974, the division made a loss of £14,000. This was rectified however as the economic situation eased and by 1982, BBC Publications had a trading profit of £4.7 million. BBC Transcription Services licensed BBC Radio material to overseas broadcasters.
The selling of television programmes was at first handled in 1958 with the establishment of a business manager post. This gradually expanded until the establishment of the Television Promotions (later renamed Television Enterprises) department in 1960 under a general manager. In its first year, the department saw the sale of 550 programmes overseas with a turnover of £234,000, with a further 1,200 programmes sold the following year. Radio programmes were only exploited on the same level with the creation of the Radio Enterprises department in 1966. The two departments were merged to form the BBC Enterprises department in October 1968.
BBC Enterprises
On 15 May 1979, the department became BBC Enterprises Ltd., a subsidiary company wholly owned by the BBC. By 1982, the division were expanding with divisions responsible for home video (under the brand BBC Video), recorded audio (under the brands BBC Records and BBC Cassettes), film and merchandising. At this point the company had a turnover of £23 million. On 1 April 1986, all commercial activities of the corporation, including BBC Publications, was merged into BBC Enterprises Ltd.
In 1991, BBC World Service Television became the first commercially funded BBC broadcasting operation after the Foreign Office refused to pay for it. BBC Enterprises Ltd was subsequently reorganised on 1 January 1995 as BBC Worldwide Ltd. A review of the BBC's commercial activities took place in 2004 and concluded that the sell off of BBC Worldwide's assets would not be as advantageous as keeping the business and driving it harder. Instead, some changes to its remit, focus, structure and governance were made, e.g. that it would only publish titles in the UK linked to BBC programmes or key genres.
Acquisitions and restructuring
On 12 July 2004, BBC Worldwide and Woolworths Group plc announced they had entered into a joint venture to form 2 Entertain (stylized as 2 | entertain), which would combine BBC Worldwide's video publishing unit (BBC Video) with Woolworths Group's video publishing, music publishing and video production unit (Video Collection International). BBC Worldwide would hold 60%, while the Woolworths Group would hold 40%, additionally, both BBC Worldwide and Woolworths Group wanted 2 Entertain to better compete with the major studios. The deal was completed on 27 September with Video Collection International being renamed 2 Entertain Video Ltd. in October.
In 2005, the company sold Eve magazine to Haymarket Group and in 2006 the company sold a majority stake in BBC Books to publisher Random House.
In 2006, Ragdoll Productions & BBC Worldwide made a joint venture together named Ragdoll Worldwide.
In 2007, BBC Worldwide purchased a 75% stake in the travel guide publisher Lonely Planet, acquiring the final 25% of the company in 2011. The acquisition was part of the BBC's strategy to grow its online portfolio and to increase its operations in Australia and the USA.
In January 2009, it was announced that Ofcom had put forward the recommendation that Channel 4 merge with either the commercial network Five or BBC Worldwide. Channel 4's preferred option of a partnership with the latter was confirmed by chief executive Andy Duncan, who added: "We're in discussions with BBC Worldwide at the moment and they're really very exciting." In the same year, the company was awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise in recognition of the companies growth and success.
In 2012, the company began to reorganise their divisions from a product based system to a location-based system, resulting in Jana Bennett leaving the company.
In 2013, BBC Worldwide sold Lonely Planet to Kentucky billionaire Brad Kelley's NC2 Media for US$75 million (£51.5 million)— significantly less than the £130.2 million the BBC had paid for the company, at an £80 million loss.
Profit and sales (1995–2012)
In 2013/14, BBC Worldwide generated headline profits of £157.4m and headline sales of £1,042.3m and returned £173.8m to the BBC.
In 2012/13, it made a profit of £156.3m on a turnover of £1,115.8m. The company had made a profit of £104m on a turnover of £1,085m in the previous financial year.
BBC Worldwide's profit rate was 11.2% in 2011/2012, up slightly from 9.6% the previous year, down from a peak of 21.5% in 2002/2003, contrasting with 7.8% in 2003/2004.
Historical price conversion as per RPI figures from "Office for National Statistics – Dataset selector". Retrieved 24 August 2013.
Operations
In 2013, BBC Worldwide reorganised the company along geographical, rather than divisional, lines to better serve its audiences around the world and to position itself to take advantage of opportunities in high growth markets. The seven geographic markets are grouped into three regions: North America; UK, Australia and New Zealand; and Global Markets (Asia, CEMA, Latin America and Western Europe). The two global business areas – Content and Brands – set the strategic framework and parameters for activities within the regions and keep a close connection into BBC Worldwide's parent, the BBC. Digital is embedded throughout the business.
BBC Worldwide was responsible for a wide range of commercial activities, primarily connected in some way with the output and public purposes of the main BBC. In the past, the business was divided into five operating businesses which covered the entire operations of the company: Channels; Content and Production; Brands, Consumers and New Ventures, Consumer Products and Sales and Distributions.
The Channels division was formed in 2005 and is the company's largest generator of revenue and growth. It operates the broadcasting of several international channels and domestic networks:
BBC America – AMC Networks owns the channel and licenses the BBC brand
BBC Entertainment
BBC First
BBC Brit
BBC Earth
BBC Lifestyle
CBeebies
CBBC
British UKTV network of 10 channels (for a time owned 50/50 with Discovery, Inc.)
BBC UKTV in Australia and New Zealand
BBC Kids Australia
Assets and brands
Owned video publishing company 2 Entertain with products dual branded 2 Entertain and BBC.
Owned Demon Music Group.
The BBC Shops closed in 2016, although Worldwide still retains Doctor Who and Top Gear branded online shops.
Operated the BBC Motion Gallery.
Operated the BBC Store until its closure in November 2017.
Held 12.2% stake in production company Left Bank Pictures.
Held 25% stake in House Productions, an indie production company
Held 45% stake in Clerkenwell Films, a film and television production company
Held 25% stake in Cliffhanger Productions, an independent production company.
Held 25% stake in BBC Children's Books, an imprint of Penguin Group who hold a 75% stake.
Licensed the publishing of magazine titles to the Immediate Media Company. The titles were formerly published in-house by BBC Magazines.
Licensed audio content to Penguin Random House UK for global sales and distribution. Titles were previously published in-house by BBC Radio Collection and BBC Audiobooks and later by AudioGO, in which BBC Worldwide held a 15% stake.
Held minority share in BBC Books, with Random House Group taking majority share. Books published using BBC Books brand.