BBC Worldwide Hails Record Returns to Pubcaster

LONDON: BBC Worldwide says it delivered record returns to the BBC of £226.5 million ($352.5 million) for the year ended March 31, 2015, while its headline profit in the period fell by 11.9 percent to £138.6 million ($215.8 million).

Its overall revenues for the year were £1 billion ($1.6 billion), down 3.9 percent from last year. BBC Worldwide attributed the reduction to its sale of a stake in BBC America to AMC Networks.

“Through focusing on transformation and investment in 2014/15 BBC Worldwide delivered a solid performance, including record returns to our parent, the BBC, which remains our primary objective," said BBC Worldwide's chief executive, Tim Davie. "Mindful of the ever-changing and competitive marketplace in which we operate we made a number of decisions to secure our future performance. This included entering into a significant partnership with AMC Networks for BBC America, which can be seen in our results this year. We are proud to have launched our three genre brands BBC First, BBC Brit and BBC Earth in three key markets and delivered BBC Store, which will launch in the coming months in the U.K. Our results announced today reflect these decisions as well as highlighting our ongoing ambition to deliver the highest quality content to our audiences and our ambitions to continue to support creative talent across the U.K. independent community.”

The £226.5 million ($352.5 million) returned to the BBC is equivalent to about 12.6 percent of the content spend at BBC Television. BBC Worldwide's investment in BBC-commissioned content rose by 6.2 percent to £94.4 million ($147 million). BBC Worldwide is embarking on a five-year goal to hit £1 billion in returns to the BBC.

Highlights for the year include Doctor Who season eight being the top-selling program, licensed to 189 territories.