The Beeb Makes A Billion – US-FOREX.US
Here’s a media company making money for a change: BBC Worldwide, the main commercial arm of the public service British Broadcasting Corp., managed for the first time to post sales of more than 1 billion pounds , rising 9.6% from a year earlier, while profits before taxes fell, due to one-off writedowns.
The BBC, which is funded by television license fees paid by the British public, said its commercial arm’s profits fells due to the collapse of retailer Woolworths and the decision by competition authorities to block a video-on-demand venture.
The broadcaster, which also makes money from its own travel publisher, Lonely Planet, said net profit dropped to 40.8 million pounds in the year ended Mar. 31, from 77.6 million pounds in the previous year. Sales from outside Britain rose from 49% to 51% of its total income, while online sales grew from 2.7% of total sales to 4.6%.
BBC Worldwide took a 15-million-pound hit from the loss of its DVD publishing joint venture, 2entertain, with collapsed retailer Woolworths. The decision by regulators to veto Kangaroo, its proposed online video venture with Channel 4 and ITV, cost it another 9.1 million pounds .
But the British media institution said key TV brands, such as Dancing with the Stars, the international TV show based on Britain’s Strictly Come Dancing, had delivered “particularly good returns.” “In spite of volatile conditions and heavy investment in several parts of the business, we remain encouraged by the growth prospects and performance of our core operations and brands around the world,” said John Smith, chief executive of BBC Worldwide.
BBC Worldwide also said that profits took a hit from an increase in investment in its overseas TV channels, Web sites and production capability.
To cope with the drop in profits, the broadcaster said it was banning executive board bonuses indefinitely. The decision also follows public outcry against exorbitant executive pay at the BBC.