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Another call for sale of BBC Worldwide

January 26, 2010

BBC Worldwide, the main commercial arm of the BBC, should be split from the corporation and turned into a global communications company brand to promote and sell British television programmes around the world, a committee of the Lords has recommended.

The Lords Committee on Communications wants part of Worldwide to be turned into a private company that can borrow money for expansion while keeping the link with BBC to give it a trusted brand name. The committee’s report, published today, adds that the British film industry also suffers from the absence of a successful worldwide company that can promote its work. That finding will please ministers and independent film producers, but is likely to irritate the BBC’s management which does not want to sell the division.

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