BBC Worldwide (BBCWW) will take another year to achieve its target of deriving two-thirds of its revenue from outside the UK, while digital growth is on track to deliver 15% by 2015.

The UK pubcaster’s commercial arm today restated its intent to become “more international” in the year ahead, having missed a target set in 2007 of earning 66.66% of its revenue overseas by this year.

BBCWW’s annual report for 2011/12 revealed today that 64.3% of headline sales came from beyond UK shores – up from 55.5% in 2010/11. The US and Australia were the biggest growth markets, generating US$500m and A$140m (US$142.9m) respectively.

Trading in EMEA was impacted by the Eurozone crisis, particularly in Southern Europe, but growth in Germany and Russia limited the impact. In Asia Pacific, Australia and New Zealand were strong.

Programme sales and distribution remained the division’s biggest profit centre, returning £72.3m (US$112.3m) to the BBC, up 13.0% from the previous year on the back of revenue up 32.1% to £292.7m.

BBCWW licensed over 100,000 hours of content globally in the year. The top shows were all BBC commissions: Top Gear, Doctor Who, Frozen Planet, Torchwood, Spooks, Sherlock, Planet Earth and Natural World, all of which sold in at least 100 markets.

In sales, BBCWW said its single biggest source of growth was to digital services –to both proliferating OTT operators and established platforms and broadcasters.

The US in particular stood out here, thanks to deals with Netflix and Amazon, and an exclusive digital-first content partnership with Hulu.

China was also a digital driver thanks to strong subscription VoD uptake and use of mobile devices. “Smartphone penetration continues to rise and, in some markets, particularly in Asia, laptop, tablet or smartphone is the ‘first screen,’ not television,” BBCWW said in its annual report.

Overall, the corporation is on track to hit its target of achieving 15% of revenue from digital activity by 2015. In the past year, the figure was 12.8%, against 2.7% when the target was set, again in 2007.

The division that houses BBC.com and the Global iPlayer scored VoD sales deals with the likes of LoveFilm and Netflix in the UK; Rostelcom and Tvigle.ru in Russia; Spiegel in Germany; FetchTV and Quickflix in Australia; Hulu in Japan; and Youzee in Spain.

BBCWW clocked up 12.5 million downloads of its apps in 2011/12, taking it to a total of 25 million to date.

The Beeb has changed the way it reports its digital activities in the past year, bundling the majority of them into its ‘Global Brands’ segment, while the Global iPlayer has been hived off into ‘Channels.’

Global Brands reported a 34.1% larger loss of £17.3m on the back of revenue that rose 1.7% to £146.6m. BBCWW said it was still intent on turning BBC.com into a profitable business – something that has so far eluded it.

Channels, BBCWW’s biggest revenue generator, reported a 13.7% increase in sales to £344.6m. This was in large part thanks to 10 channel launches including BBC HD in Spanish-speaking Latin America and BBC Lifestyle in Indonesia.

BBC America achieved its highest ratings ever, up 23% for daytime viewing, with monthly reach averaging 24 million, up 10% on last year, according to BBCWW. Doctor Who series six was BBC America’s best series ever, averaging more than 1.2 million total viewers per episode.

As a result, BBC America revenue was up 31%. In the UK, the UKTV joint venture with Scripps Networks Interactive grew revenue 9%, reflecting its highest ever share of commercial impacts.

For BBCWW’s overall financials, click here ^[1].