About BBC Worldwide

About BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide Limited is the main commercial arm and a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
The company exists to maximise the value of the BBC's assets for the benefit of the licence fee payer and invest in public service programming in return for rights. The company has five core businesses: Channels; Content & Production; Sales & Distribution; Consumer Products; Brands, Consumers & New Ventures; with digital ventures incorporated into each business area.
BBC Worldwide is funded from commercial activity, not from the licence fee paid to the public-service BBC by British television-owning households.
BBC Worldwide operates under the BBC Charter and Agreement, which sets out four commercial criteria with which our activities must comply. BBC Worldwide's activities must:
•Fit with the BBC's Public Purposes as set out in the Charter;
•Be commercially efficient;
•Not jeopardise the good reputation of the BBC or the value of the BBC brand
•Comply with the BBC's Fair Trading Guidelines and avoid distorting the market
BBC Worldwide provides a global showcase for the best of British creative talent including actors, journalists, presenters, writers, directors, musicians, designers and technicians. We sell programmes and formats produced by more than 500 different UK independent producers. Through our activities we build the reputation of the BBC globally and in April 2009 we were awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise which recognised the company's substantial growth in overseas earnings over the past three years.
Over the past five years we have invested more than £1bn in the UK's creative sector, making BBC Worldwide a major supporter of this increasingly important area of 'UK plc'.
BBC Worldwide operates to the highest standards of ethical practice. The BBC Worldwide Ethical Policy Code of Conduct has been in place since 2006 and all licensees and suppliers must sign up to this before they can work with us.

In Australia:
Australia is a priority territory for BBC Worldwide, focusing on growth across all five of its core businesses.  Based in Macquarie Park, Sydney, the company’s addressable market share has trebled in three years. BBC Worldwide Australia wholly owns five channels; UKTV, BBC Knowledge and CBeebies in Australia; UKTV NZ and BBC Knowledge NZ in New Zealand; and is responsible for the sales, promotion and distribution of World News which transmits in both countries.  It distributes great British content from the BBC and other producers to all free-to-air and most subscription channels in Australia and New Zealand.  BBC Worldwide Australia is a stakeholder in Australian production company Freehand and has a joint venture company with ACP, Park Publishing, which publishes BBC-branded magazines in the territory.  It works with partners to bring BBC Worldwide DVDs, digital apps, innovative products and live events to the local market, as well as offering advertising opportunities for the BBC’s world renowned bbc.com news site and lonelyplanet.com.  BBC Worldwide Australia has recently launched the global BBC iPlayer in Australia.

Annual Reviews
You can find out more information in an online version of our 2010/11 Annual Review. You can also view previous Annual Reviews.

For further information http://bbcworldwide.com/