Make the World BBC

The BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, is to launch a further 30 channels internationally, as well as a high-definition outlet and an on-demand service in the United States, as part of the next stage of its aggressive expansion plan.
The launches, which will be based on four thematic brands - BBC Entertainment, with shows such as Doctor Who; BBC Knowledge, featuring programmes such as Top Gear; BBC Lifestyle, with What Not To Wear; and children's outlet CBeebies, featuring the Teletubbies - come on top of 21 channels it already plans to launch before the end of this financial year.
There will also be a mixed-genre high-definition channel, while Worldwide also looks after the distribution of BBC World, the international news channel, which is due to relaunch next year. The 30 new channels will launch over two years from the beginning of April. They will join existing brands such as BBC America and BBC Canada to take Worldwide's channel count to nearly 70 in more than 160 countries.
The launches come as Worldwide, which has been given the task of doubling the profits it pumps back into the BBC to at least £222m within five years, is pushing for rapid growth across its businesses.
It recently bought a 75% stake in the Lonely Planet travel guide firm for around £75m as well as opening a production hub in India - the third of eight planned around the world, following offices in Australia and the US, which makes the highly successful American version of Strictly Come Dancing. Worldwide will also benefit from the controversial decision to allow advertising on the bbc.com website, which is due to bring in £70m a year, while it also plans 15 "passion-based" global portals based on brands such as Top Gear as well as a commercial version of its video on demand service, iPlayer.
The US is a key target of the expansion plans, with Worldwide aiming to build on the success of its BBC America entertainment channel with a simulcast high-definition version, which is due to launch early next year. BBC America is now available in 58m homes in the US - up nearly 15m in the last year - while a new strategy of concentrating on contemporary programming, at the expense of classic shows such as Benny Hill, has seen ratings reach their highest peak since 2003, with the drama Robin Hood recently pulling in its biggest ever audience.
Worldwide will also launch its four thematic channels as branded video on demand services through BBC America, while there are also plans to expand BBC World, which is currently only available in New York, across the country.
An American-focused news programme, BBC World News America, was launched on BBC World in the US and BBC America at the beginning of October, doubling that channel's news ratings. The programme has already made a splash with an interview with former president Jimmy Carter, in which he attacked vice-president Dick Cheney. Worldwide is looking to launch its channels in nearly every other major territory globally. The first in Europe are due in Poland in December, with four channels going live, with France, Germany and Scandinavia set to follow.
In Asia, Malaysia and the Philippines will follow 10 channels launched in the continent in just five months, while two are due to go live in Latin America this year. Launches are also planned in Africa, while the new high definition channel is planned for developed markets such as Japan, South Korea, Australia and Italy.
"There is not a market we are not looking at," BBC Worldwide's managing director of channels, Darren Childs, told the Guardian. The new channels would commission locally produced content as well as broadcasting core BBC shows.
"We are not doing expat channels any more," Mr Childs declared. He said the ambitious roll-out of channels would help build the BBC brand internationally as well as challenging the big American media companies such as Viacom, owner of MTV, and Turner, which broadcasts CNN.
"It will take us three to five years to take us to the scale of our competitors, but I am confident we can do it," he said.
"We are taking on the big American channel providers and there isn't another UK competitor who can."
He said the BBC's plans had been met with enthusiasm by global channel providers. "This is a brand-led business and we are trying to build the BBC brand overseas by understanding our audiences better than our competitors," he said.
Worldwide's aggressive expansion has met with criticism from some quarters, particularly from the online world over its plan to sell advertising on bbc.com. "Where it is not helping UK plc is in doing anything that has a negative impact on private businesses in Britain," said Hugo Drayton, chairman of the British Internet Publishers' Association.
"Selling ads is not very helpful and is clearly detrimental to others." The BBC still wanted to "park its tanks on every lawn. It is too big and too insensitive to the needs of commercial operators."
Worldwide's managing director of digital media and director of strategy, David Moody, dismissed the concerns. "No business wants more competition. People want us to be only moderately successful but we have very clear instructions to go out and use our commercial returns to subsidise the licence fee."