BBC Worldwide Limited is the wholly-owned commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in 1995. BBC Enterprises had been operating the commercial exploitation of BBC programmes and other properties for the previous twenty years, having been a successor of BBC Exploitation, a department set up to oversee the commercial exploitation of programme properties through books, toys and the like in the early 1960s. BBC WWLogo This is a copyrighted and/or trademarked logo. ... Commerce is the trading of something of value between two entities. ... This article is an overview article about the Crown chartered British Broadcasting Corporation formed in 1927. ... 1995 (MCMXCV in Roman) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969, inclusive. ...

Worldwide is responsible for a wide range of commercial activities, primarily connected in some way with the output of the main BBC. The company's work includes investment in film and television production - Worldwide will often provide additional budget for BBC productions in return for various commercial rights to the programmes, and has recently experimented in doing so for non-BBC programmes as well, such as the Red Production Company drama Mine All Mine for the BBC's rival ITV network. Film refers to the celluloid media on which movies are printed. ... Red Production Company is a British independent television production company, formed in 1998 by Nicola Shindler, an experienced television producer who had worked on such prestige dramas as Our Friends in the North and Cracker. ... Current ITV logo. ...

Other major areas of business include international programming sale and distribution, foreign and domestic satellite and cable television channels (such as UKTV in the UK, BBC America in the United States and BBC Canada in Canada), book and magazine publishing (most famously the Radio Times), VHS and DVD releases, spoken word and music audio products, CD-ROMs, English language teaching, videos for education and training, interactive telephony, library footage sales, magazine subscription fulfilment, exhibitions, live events, film and media monitoring. Artists impression of a Boeing 601 satellite, as configured for digital television transmission by SES Astra Satellite television is television delivered by way of communications satellites, as compared to conventional terrestrial television and cable television. ... Coaxial cable is often used to transmit cable television into the house Cable television or Community Antenna Television (CATV) (often shortened to cable) is a system of providing television, FM radio programming and other services to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted directly to people’s televisions through fixed optical... One of the United Kingdoms largest TV companies, UKTV is a joint venture between the BBCs commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, and the cable television company Flextech. ... One of several BBC America idents, used since 2005. ... BBC Canada is a general entertainment Canadian category 2 digital cable television channel. ... Radio Times logo Radio Times is the BBCs weekly television and radio programme listings magazine. ... Top view VHS cassette with U.S. Quarter for scale Bottom view of VHS cassette with magnetic tape exposed The Video Home System, first released in September 1976, better known by its abbreviation VHS, is a recording and playing standard for video cassette recorders (VCRs), developed by JVC (with some... It has been suggested that Dual layer recording be merged into this article or section. ... The CD-ROM (an abbreviation for Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (ROM)) is a non-volatile optical data storage medium using the same physical format as audio compact discs, readable by a computer with a CD-ROM drive. ...

These commercial activities allow BBC Worldwide to return profits to the BBC to re-invest in public service programming (£145 million during 2004/05). However, the BBC has often been criticised in recent years for the amount of money it makes from Worldwide, given that it is supposed to be a non-commercial organisation, and commercial rivals for the goods and services Worldwide provides protest at the huge advantage the company has from being associated with and able to exploit the programme catalogue and resources of the BBC. There has been much speculation that the BBC is planning to sell off at least some of Worldwide's assets, such as the magazine publishing arm (one of the largest in the UK), to appease these criticisms and make a large profit from the sale in the process. 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In July 2004, it was announced that Worldwide's DVD release company, BBC Video, which had been releasing BBC programmes on the format and previously on videotape since the early 1980s, was to be merged with VCI, a video release company controlled by Woolworths Group plc. The new company created, '2 entertain Ltd', is to be controlled 60% by Worldwide and 40% by Woolworths Group plc. This creates the sixth biggest video company in the UK market, and the largest British-owned brand. Worldwide would retain rights in all the BBC output released by the new company. 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The 1980s decade refers to the years from 1980 to 1989, inclusive. ... Woolworths Group plc is a general merchandise business in the United Kingdom. ... Woolworths Group plc is a general merchandise business in the United Kingdom. ...

See also

• BBC Books

BBC Books is the book publishing division of BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation. ...

External links

• BBC Worldwide site
• BBC press release on the BBC Video-VCI merger