Your article (Why BBC Worldwide must open its books,16 November) appears to imply that we are less obvious 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 approximately commerce areas than BBC Worldwide. We manage our commerce through regional P&Ls, and duly report these segments in line with accounting requirements. We also provide top line information by type of commerce,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, or but a content commerce 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.
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Source: theguardian.com