BREAKING. BBC Worldwide rakes in record revenues and massive profit of £1,2 billion; sees the EMEA region as one of the 'key regions'.

BBC Worldwide, the commercial international arm of the British public broadcaster, just reported record revenues and massive profit in its latest annual results for the 2010/2011 period of £1,2 billion in the year to end-March.

This is an increase on the £1,1 billion of 2009/2010 and the third consecutive year that revenue for BBC Worldwide have exceeded £1 billion. BBC Worldwide made a sharp increase in profit to £167 million compared with £92,2 million last year. BBC Worldwide runs the channels BBC Entertainment (DStv 120), BBC Knowledge (DStv 251), BBC Lifestyle (DStv 180) and CBeebies (DStv 306) on MultiChoice's DStv platform in South Africa.

''By offering world-class British programming and brands that resonate with global audiences, we were able to lift revenues beyond a billion pounds for a third year in succession and also deliver impressive results," says BBC Worldwide chief executive John Smith in a just released statement.

Overall sales and distribution revenues and profit were up as especially the EMEA region in which South Africa falls as well as the Asia Pacific region lifted the total. Sherlock, Top Gear and Doctor Who are TV shows that perform well in bringing in revenue. In fact the top five selling programme titles according to the revenue they've generated for BBC Worldwide in 2010/2011 are Doctor Who, Sherlock, Top Gear (season 15), Top Gear (season 16) and Human Planet.

The EMEA region is being identified as one of the new ''key regions'' for BBC Worldwide together with Asia and Latin America.