Your article (Why BBC Worldwide must open its books, 16 November) appears to imply that we are less transparent than our industry, particularly on the question of profit and loss (P&L) reporting. This is wrong. We do not believe any major competitor active in the UK market discloses more financial information about business areas than BBC Worldwide. We manage our business through regional P&Ls, and duly report these segments in line with accounting requirements. We also provide top line information by type of business, such as channels and TV sales.
The article also implies that our achieved profit margin is behind industry averages by referring to “distribution” margins. In fact, BBC Worldwide is not solely a distributor, but a content business also in TV channels, programme production and digital investment. Some of these activities deliver lower margins than pure distribution, but nonetheless benefit total returns to licence fee payers. None of this means that BBC Worldwide doesn’t constantly strive to improve efficiency, and we are currently engaged in an active round of cost reduction to support margins and free up further investment funds.
BBC Worldwide does not receive a penny of licence fee income and our commercial relationship with our parent, the BBC, is governed by fair trading regulations and reviewed each year by external auditors. Our primary objective is to return sustainable amounts of money to the BBC. This cash – £1.75bn over the past decade, and £1.2bn pledged for the first half of the next charter – is the most important measure of our success for the BBC’s primary stakeholders: UK audiences.
Andrew Bott
CFO, BBC Worldwide
• Owen Gibson complains that the BBC is letting go of various sporting events in the cost-cutting exercise forced upon it by government cuts (Sportblog, 18 November). Why is it always sport, he asks?
The answer is simple. Sport is being cut because it is already catered for – abundantly – right across television. From Sky to ITV to Eurosport, the sports fan gets his or her fill.
So bravo to Tony Hall for prioritising the arts. The arts are under far more threat on television than sport will ever be. If it was not for the BBC there would barely be any arts on television at all. The BBC is the last bastion of civilisation. Let’s all rush to its defence!
Waldemar Januszczak
London
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