MUMBAI: BBC Worldwide has announced that John Smith has decided to step down after eight years as CEO during which period the BBC‘s commercial arm posted record growth.

Tim Davie, who is currently BBC Audio and Music director, has been announced as Smith‘s successor Under Smith‘s leadership, BBC Worldwide grew into a major global media company, doubling its revenue, growing profits four-fold, almost tripling margins and returning more than ?1.3 billion to the BBC.

Smith, who has helped turn Doctor Who, Top Gear and Dancing With The Stars into global franchises and recently unveiled profits of ?155 million in the last financial year, told staff he is leaving the BBC to pursue new opportunities in the commercial sector.

Prior to this, Smith was the BBC COO and finance director and is responsible for the transformation of the BBC‘s property estate, including New Broadcasting House in W1.

BBC DG George Entwistle said, "I want to thank John for his enormous contribution to the success of BBC Worldwide in recent years. He has turned the company into a truly global phenomenon delivering a fantastic financial injection into the BBC every year. He leaves the company ideally set up for the future challenges it faces in a digital world."

On the appointment of Tim Davie, Entwistle added, "Tim has done an excellent job leading the BBC Audio and Music division and has a fantastic vision for the opportunities that lie ahead for BBC Worldwide. Building on John‘s success Tim will now take the BBC‘s commercial arm into the next chapter of its development. I am delighted he will be joining the team at this crucial time."

Smith said, "It has been a huge privilege to lead this powerful business, owned by the BBC that does so much to supplement the licence fee income and takes the BBC brand to audiences around the world. I am extremely proud of what we have achieved over the last eight years but I am excited to be moving on to new opportunities in the commercial world as our revenue and profits reach record highs."

Davie said, "BBC Worldwide is an outstanding business that plays a unique role in building the BBC‘s global reputation and it is an honour to be asked to lead it. John‘s legacy is a company with a strong performance record, leadership in digital and rising international creative exports. I look forward to leading BBC Worldwide through its next phase of growth, delivering further dividends to the BBC and championing great British content around the world."

MUMBAI: George Entwistle will take over as BBC director general following the exit of Mark Thompson.

Thompson had announced in March that he was leaving the UK pubcaster.

The BBC Trust said it had appointed Entwistle as DG, elevating him from the position of BBC Vision director.

Thompson will continue to lead BBC over the next couple of months.

Entwistle, who was the favourite to take over, said: "I?m delighted the chairman and Trustees think I?m the right person for the job. Mark Thompson will be a tough act to follow. But it?s a privilege to be asked to lead the greatest broadcasting organisation in the world and a privilege to be able to continue to serve our audiences in this new role."

MUMBAI: BBC Vision director George Entwistle has unveiled a reorganisation of BBC Vision and rights and business affairs that will stimulate new ways of working and help free-up significantly increased content spend.

Completing BBC Vision?s original ambition to unify all parts of the business, the new structures and new ways of working aims to benefit the audience by maximising on-screen spend, while reducing internal costs.

In the new business core, activity will be structured around three new genres: Knowledge and Daytime; Comedy and Entertainment; and Drama, Film & Acquisitions. Smaller central business teams will be retained in Vision and Rights and Business Affairs to ensure the genres are working to the same high standards.

Changes within the business already announced under DQF, and enhanced by Vision?s reorganisation, will free up ?27million for reinvestment in 2013/14. Simplifying the business should also ensure improved commissioning and business effectiveness for all suppliers, both in-house and independent.

The new genre-based working model will also allow better alignment with the emerging structures of BBC UK Network Production and will facilitate the creation and operation of genre boards, which will be used to align editorial and commercial strategy across BBC public service, BBC Worldwide and all other commercial partners.

As part of the restructure, three new senior Controller of Business roles will be created. Reporting to Bal Samra, each will lead on business affairs for one of the three main genre groups and will be responsible for all the key business functions within their genre. The Controllers of Business will work in new leadership teams alongside the Commissioning and Production Genre Controllers in each of the key genre groups.

BBC Vision director George Entwistle said, ?The key to the creative future of the BBC is to ensure good people and good money spend less time tied up in process and more time creating the very highest quality television programmes and multiplatform output. The hard choices we?ve already made through DQF, plus the radical new ways of working implicit in this reorganization, will help simplify what we do ? freeing people and money to concentrate on serving our audiences."

BBC Vision Productions director of vision operations and director of right and business affairs Bal Samra and chief creative office Pat Younge have worked with George Entwistle to help shape the future structure of the division.

Samra will continue to be responsible for all Vision Operations and Rights and Business Affairs, while taking full responsibility for the production management teams across the genres. He will also sponsor the changes required to create the new genre business teams and central roles.

Younge?s new role will see him freed up from operational obligations to focus on the creative leadership of all network TV production in Drama, Factual, Entertainment and Comedy.

Pat will continue to line manage the key production controllers and editorial staff in Vision?s in-house production teams, and will be responsible for driving creative standards and innovation in content creation for all platforms.

Vision?s new structure will be implemented in phases, with changes complete by 2013. The recruitment process for the new Controller of Business posts will start immediately, with appointments due in the summer.

MUMBAI: UK pubcaster The BBC has announced a bumper feast of new programmes and seasonal specials for Christmas.

Leading the line up of drama is an adaptation of Charles Dickens?s ?Great Expectations?, featuring Ray Winstone, Gillian Anderson, David Suchet and Douglas Booth.

In another adaptation, Mary Norton?s classic children?s books will be brought into the 21st century in ?The Borrowers?, starring Stephen Fry, Victoria Wood and Christopher Eccleston.

The story of children?s book ?The Gruffalo?s Child? is told through a magical animation and voiced by Shirley Henderson, Helena Bonham Carter, Rob Brydon, Robbie Coltrane, James Corden, John Hurt and Tom Wilkinson.

There will also be a Doctor Who Christmas Special where the Doctor, played by Matt Smith, will be joined by a stellar cast including Claire Skinner, Bill Bailey, Arabella Weir and Alexander Armstrong.

In comedy two new episodes of ?Absolutely Fabulous? will see Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley reprise their roles as the champagne-swigging Edina Monsoon and Patsy Stone. They will be joined by the original cast of Julia Sawalha as Saffy, June Whitfield as mother and Jane Horrocks as Bubble.

Sir David Jason is back in a comedy role on BBC One for the first time in 20 years leading the cast of The Royal Bodyguard, and Sue Johnston stars in a new Christmas comedy, ?Lapland?.

Leading the laughs on BBC Two this yuletide will be a new four-part comedy adventure series ?The Bleak Old Shop Of Stuff?. Kicking off the series there will be a one-hour Christmas special featuring an impressive cast of Robert Webb, Katherine Parkinson, Stephen Fry, David Mitchell, Celia Imrie, Pauline McLynn and Johnny Vegas.

There will be a Michael McIntyre Christmas Special to look forward to and Christmas editions of Mrs Brown?s Boys, Rev, Outnumbered, John Bishop?s Britain, Have I Got News For You and The Graham Norton Show.

The ?Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special? will bring some seasonal sparkle to the Christmas schedule with five new celebrities donning their sequins and dancing shoes to battle it out for the crown of Strictly Christmas champ.

Spreading a bit of Christmas cheer will be a one-off special edition of Jim?ll Fix It. Presented by Shane Richie the programme will see a whole new generation of children have their dreams fixed for them.

In this year?s ?Top Gear Special?, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May set out to boost the British economy by embarking on a trade mission to India. Equipped with three old British cars and a range of uniquely British products, they set off on an epic road trip across one of the world?s most fascinating and challenging countries.

Aled Jones introduces a very festive Songs of Praise, Big Sing from London?s Royal Albert Hall; meanwhile Carols from King?s tells the Christmas story, assisted by carols from the world-famous Chapel Choir of King?s College, Cambridge.

Heralding the 2012 bicentenary celebrations of Charles Dickens, Dickens on the BBC includes the documentary strand Arena on BBC Four, which opens the door on the vast Dickens onscreen archive that has been generated over a century across the globe. On BBC Two, Sue Perkins exposes the lesser-known reality of the Dickens family Christmas, looking at the marriage of Charles Dickens through the eyes of his wife, Catherine, in Mrs Dickens?s Family Christmas, and Armando Iannucci uses Dickens?s masterpiece David Copperfield to unpick the language and analyse the characters to explore the revolutionary development of Dickens as a storyteller.

BBC Vision director George Entwistle said, "At the heart of our 2011 Christmas offering, we have a number of programmes inspired by the work and life of one of Britain?s greatest writers, Charles Dickens. From a bold adaptation of Great Expectations to a brilliant new comedy The Bleak Old Shop Of Stuff, and high-quality documentaries from Armando Iannucci and Sue Perkins, we have something to keep every member of the family entertained over the festive period.

"With the return to our screens of Absolutely Fabulous and Sir David Jason, with the Royal Bodyguard, it will be truly unmissable television here on the BBC this Christmas.??