International BBC television channels

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The BBC is forbidden under its charter to directly undertake any commercial operations on-air within the United Kingdom, however no such restriction applies to operations in other countries. Therefore the BBC exploits its massive television archive by operating a number of commercial television channels outside the UK through its BBC Worldwide subsidiary.

These services carry advertising and have regular commercial breaks because the licence fee collected in the UK is not allowed to be spent on non-UK focussed activities.

Some channels are wholly owned by BBC Worldwide, others are operated as joint ventures with other broadcasters.

1 Wholly owned channels
2 Joint Ventures
3 Other
4 External links

[edit] Wholly owned channels

BBC America - entertainment channel available in US
BBC Prime - entertainment channel available in Europe, Africa, Middle East, and Asia
BBC World - formerly World Service Television's news and information

BBC Food - Southern Africa/Scandinavia

BBC Japan, an entertainment channel available in Japan ceased broadcasting in 2006, owing to the closure of its local distributor.

In October 2006, BBC Prime will be replaced by a new channel called BBC Entertainment. Other channels planned will include BBC Knowledge and BBC Lifestyle

[edit] Joint Ventures

[edit] With Alliance Atlantis

In Canada, channels are required by the regulator to have a certain quota of original Canadian content. The following BBC channels are operated in conjunction with Alliance Atlantis.

BBC Canada - entertainment channel available in Canada
BBC Kids - children's channel available in Canada

[edit] With Discovery Channel

The following BBC channels are operated in conjunction with Discovery Channel.

Animal Planet - Natural History documentaries (also available in the UK)
People+Arts - Lifestyle and reality programming broadcast in Latin America, Spain and Portugal