The UK government has included BBC Worldwide in the portfolio of assets it is considering selling and is urging the corporation to “look more widely at the options for greater financial and operational separation, including a sale or partial sale”.

The BBC responded that BBC Worldwide “is not up for sale”, although it continued “to keep an open mind about the appropriate ownership structure”.

This puts more political pressure on the BBC following a promise by the prime minister, Gordon Brown, to name and shame publicly-funded organisations that pay excessive salaries. At least 40 BBC managers who are paid more than £150,000 (E165,000) a year will now have to have their salaries approved by the Treasury.

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