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.
Some channels are wholly owned by BBC Worldwide, others are operated as joint ventures with other broadcasters.
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The BBC's international operations initially consisted of a single channel - BBC World Service Television. On 26 January 1995 this was split into two stations - on 16 January 1995 the news-led BBC World (now BBC World News) and on 30 January 1995 formatted entertainment, leisure and factual channel BBC Prime (now BBC Entertainment).
The organisation subsequently launched localised stations focused on a particular area, such as BBC Food (Scandinavia) and BBC America alongside World and Prime.
In October 2006, BBC Entertainment replaced BBC Prime in Asian markets, and went on to replace it in other territories during the period 2007-09. Other channels being rolled out internationally include BBC Knowledge and BBC Lifestyle, and an international version of CBeebies. The aim of the new launches is to simplify and diversify the BBC Worldwide offering in the digital age. These launches will absorb some channels, such as BBC Food into BBC Lifestyle, though channels focused on a particular local market (such as BBC America or BBC Persian TV) will continue.
On 15 November 2010, BBC Worldwide sold 50% interest in Animal Planet and Liv to Discovery Communications for $156 million.[1]
In Canada, channels are required by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to have a certain quota of original Canadian content. The following BBC channels are operated in conjunction with Shaw Communications.
BBC Worldwide operates the following channels, formerly in a 20% joint venture with Foxtel (60%) and RTL (20%), but as of 1 July 2008, in a 100% ownership capacity[2][3]:
BBC Worldwide also operate the UKTV network in the United Kingdom and Ireland with Virgin Media.
BBC Worldwide also provides BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three, BBC Four, BBC Prime and BBC World News to cable providers in Belgium and the Netherlands.
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