Lord Patten, the new chairman of the BBC Trust, will throw his weight behind the corporation’s commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, in a speech next month, diminishing rivals’hopes that it could be sold.
The Tory peer will use an event at the Royal Television Society on July 6 to defend the BBC’s right to exploit its intellectual property for the good of the licence fee payer. BBC Worldwide, which sells programmes around the world, has proved controversial in the past for using its state-owned might to launch websites and magazines at home that make it hard for rivals to compete.
Patten is expected to say it is better for the BBC to capitalise on money-making opportunities than hand its properties over to a commercial partner. His