BBC Trust to reign in BBC Worldwide’s remit

The BBC Trust has confirmed that it will bring “greater clarity” to BBC Worldwide’s business activities in a bid to ensure they align with the corporation’s PSB purposes, in an interim statement on its review of commercial activities.

The Trust also plans to make changes to “BBC Worldwide’s detailed control framework to establish a more contained focus for its operations”, according to the report.

However, the BBC Trust will hold back from completing its final review of BBC Worldwide’s mandate, strategy and governance arrangements until it becomes clear whether the BBC’s commercial arm has a role to play in sustaining a second PSB entity.

Last month, BBC Worldwide’s chief executive John Smith wrote an article in the Sunday Times hinting that Channel 4 and BBC Worldwide were planning to create ‘4 Worldwide’ – a joint venture that will comprise of Channel 4’s E4, More4 and Film4 digital channels with some elements of BBC Worldwide (see BBC Worldwide and C4 join forces).

Although it remains unclear exactly what elements of BBC Worldwide would be included in the deal, which has primarily been thought up to solve Channel 4’s funding deficit, reports suggest that it could involve the recently re-branded UKTV channels.

However, if the proposed venture goes ahead, both Channel 4 and BBC Worldwide would retain their independence, each owning half of the new entity.

The BBC Trust said that as a result it would be “wrong” to make decisions based on its current review until the questions over a potential deal between BBC Worldwide and Channel 4 have been resolved.

However, the Trust said it believes that “much of the analysis in its review is relevant to the current policy debate” and therefore they have decided to publish an interim statement setting out initial thoughts.

The Trust said it fully supports BBC Worldwide’s aim to exploit the commercial value of its intellectual property and to return this value to the BBC’s PSB output, however, it wants to make sure its strategy is properly aligned with the BBC’s PSB interest and therefore has a positive impact on the corporation’s brand and reputation.

It also wants to ensure that BBC Worldwide’s strategy and operations are sensitive to the concerns of other commercial players in the market.

As a result, the Trust has summarised its “emerging thinking” as follows:

• “The Trust should bring greater clarity to the direction, parameters and strategic priorities of BBC Worldwide’s commercial activities in the UK and overseas, to ensure that they align properly with delivery of the BBC’s public purposes.”
• “We should make changes to BBC Worldwide’s detailed control framework to establish a more contained focus for its operations.”
• “None of this cuts across our ambition that BBC Worldwide should maintain and develop its commercial vigour and strength. In our view this is perfectly compatible with a challenging remit and clearer parameters for its operation and strategic focus.”

However, the Trust also said it “remained satisfied” with BBC Worldwide’s first look arrangements that gives it first refusal on distribution, format and merchandising rights to the corporation’s programming.

The Trust began the review into BBC Worldwide last July and confirmed that it would “return to the question of BBC Worldwide strategy as soon as there is sufficient clarity around the nature of the partnership options for the Trust to reach fully informed decisions”.