BBC Worldwide may be sold off

It is a staggering thought, but could the BBC really be thinking about selling off a part of the corporation? Well it certainly would seem so and would be a fast way of raising cash to the fund the BBC’s expansion plans.

The BBC’s finance director Zarin Patel has been quoted as saying that the deal would be very “Tempting” but the simple true is that the deal is on and plans are already being put in place to find the right deal by around 2012.

The BBC Worldwide division has been estimated to be worth something in the region of £2 billion, but the BBC will only sell off around twenty five per cent, this would raise around £500 million which is considerably higher than the amount that they are allowed to borrow every year; this figure is set at £350 million.

But the problem that would face them is control, they would be giving up some control of the BBC to some outsider, maybe even the likes of Rupert Murdoch or Richard Branson and then where would they be?

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