Â鶹Éç

Â鶹Éç Worldwide is the commercial arm of the Â鶹Éç. Last July the Â鶹Éç Trust launched a review of Â鶹Éç Worldwide's mandate, strategy and governance arrangements.

The aim was twofold: to see if any changes were needed to reflect experience since the present arrangements were established in the current Â鶹Éç Charter; and to consider concerns expressed by others in the market about the impact of Â鶹Éç Worldwide.

Since then, however, the public policy debate about Â鶹Éç Worldwide has broadened to take in the new question of whether it has a role to play in sustaining a second public service broadcasting entity. In our view it would be wrong for the Trust to take decisions based on its current review until this new question about Â鶹Éç Worldwide has been resolved.

The Trust does, however, believe that much of the analysis in its review is relevant to the current policy debate. We have therefore decided to publish this interim statement setting out our emerging thinking.

Strategy and remit

Successive governments have encouraged the Â鶹Éç to exploit the commercial value of its intellectual property and to return this value to public service output. The Trust fully supports this aim, and alongside the primacy of the public services welcomes Â鶹Éç Worldwide's record of increasing profitability and the benefits it brings to licence fee payers.

Our review has been driven by two concerns. The first is to ensure that Â鶹Éç Worldwide's strategy is properly aligned with the Â鶹Éç's public service interest and so has a positive impact on the Â鶹Éç's brand and reputation. The second is to ensure that in its strategy and operations Â鶹Éç Worldwide is duly sensitive to the concerns of other commercial players in the market.

Our emerging thinking can be summarised as follows:

The Trust should bring greater clarity to the direction, parameters and strategic priorities of Â鶹Éç Worldwide's commercial activities in the UK and overseas, to ensure that they align properly with delivery of the Â鶹Éç's public purposes

We should make changes to Â鶹Éç Worldwide's detailed control framework to establish a more contained focus for its operations

None of this cuts across our ambition that Â鶹Éç Worldwide should maintain and develop its commercial vigour and strength. In our view this is perfectly compatible with a challenging remit and clearer parameters for its operation and strategic focus

Other considerations

As part of the review the Trust has considered the rationale for the "first look" arrangements under which Â鶹Éç Worldwide has an opportunity to acquire most Â鶹Éç rights before they are offered to competitors. The Trust remains satisfied that the rationale in favour of the first look arrangement within existing structures remains strong. In particular it enables proper control of the Â鶹Éç's brand and reputation to be maintained as its content is exploited commercially. The Trust is also mindful of the economies of scale it creates and has noted that many other content producers use similar 'vertically integrated' approaches.

The Trust and the Â鶹Éç Executive have also been considering whether any adjustments to the current governance arrangements for the Â鶹Éç's commercial activities might be necessary to ensure that the mechanics underpinning the controls are both streamlined and effective. This work is closely linked to the current public policy debate about Â鶹Éç Worldwide and is ongoing.

Next steps

Rather than reach final decisions on the strategic priorities for Â鶹Éç Worldwide ahead of the broader public policy debate, we will now work with the Â鶹Éç Executive to assess more fully the potential benefits for audiences emerging from partnership options that the Â鶹Éç and Channel 4 are currently developing. We will remain fully engaged in the public debate. We will return to the question of Â鶹Éç Worldwide strategy as soon as there is sufficient clarity around the nature of the partnership options for the Trust to reach fully informed decisions.