18.01.02
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ
Worldwide Brands are Top of the Shops at Christmas
Latest
sales and market share figures show the best festive season yet
for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Worldwide, the main commercial arm of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ, with its
wide range of businesses including television exports, books, video,
DVD, software and magazines, and star performances from 'The Blue
Planet', 'Walking with Beasts', Tweenies and Delia. In total, global
sales revenue to Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Worldwide, (eg licensing revenue for books,
videos, audio, DVDs, magazines etc from sales to trade, wholesale,
and bookclubs etc in the UK; revenues from sales of tv programmes
to overseas broadcasters, percentage of international book sales
and merchandise) reached Β£120 million in just two months in
the run up to Christmas. This represents an increase of over Β£23
million on the same period 2000. This trade figure indicates a consumer
spend on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Worldwide's products of approximately Β£300 million.
In
its most successful Christmas period to date for book sales, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ
Worldwide doubled the market growth rate clocking up 14% year on
year. This was driven by 13% growth in hardback sales and a 37%
growth in children's titles. Led by The Tweenies Annual 2002, in
the four weeks to Christmas, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Worldwide's share of the children's
book market soared showing a 20% year on year growth.
Shoppers
also went to town on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ book titles that include 'The Blue Planet'
(over 63,000 copies sold in December) and 'Walking with Beasts'
(47,000 copies). Figures also confirm that Worldwide remains the
number one UK food and drink publisher, despite strong competition,
with new books from Rick Stein and Ainsley Harriott performing strongly
as well as the launch of Delia's third best-selling 'How to Cook'
collection of recipes (300,000 copies sold in December*).
Enthusiasm
for the Tweenies gave them a festive hit single with 'I believe
in Christmas' claiming a Top Ten spot for three weeks and 'The Christmas
Album' going gold with 150,000 copies sold. Thousands of young fans
and their families enjoyed the Tweenies experience through 18 sell-out
shows at the Royal Albert Hall in London and 15 in Birmingham.
Another
children's phenomenon, Harry Potter, boosted sales of Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Worldwide's
audio division with Stephen Fry's rendition of the four JK Rowling
books which achieved sales of around Β£750,000. Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Shop.com
selling Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ titles on-line recorded a 40% sales growth in December
2001 compared with December 2000 with 'The Lord of the Rings' audio
box set also proving to be a hugely popular purchase. In total,
audio sales amounted to Β£2.7million over Christmas showing
the benefits of the acquisition of Cover to Cover (December 2000)
and Chivers (July 2001).
The
rising popularity of DVD players has fuelled high demand for quality
DVD titles and more than doubled the number of Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Worldwide DVDs
sold over Christmas and New Year compared with the same period last
year. Worldwide's best-selling title was 'The Blue Planet' (23,000
units sold in December) with comedy in the complete 'Fawlty Towers'
and series two of 'The League of Gentlemen' also showing strong
sales and maintaining Worldwide's position as the UK's leading distributor
of non-film DVD titles. Another strong DVD title was Bob Harris's
'Old Grey Whistle Test', which had previously topped the music DVD
charts in the first week of release.
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ
Worldwide's newest Robot Wars CD-ROM release, 'Robot Wars - Arenas
of Destruction' featured in Chart Track's top ten in the two-week
run-up to Christmas and Tweenies topped the children's PC CD-ROM
chart over Christmas with 'Tweenies - Play to the Music'. Robbie
the Reindeer danced, shrugged and froze his way onto computer screens
as the desk-top toy that attracted 50,000 new registrations to beeb.com
the on-line shopping portal owned by Worldwide (86%) and T H Lee.
Radio
Times accounted for one in three listings magazines bought for Christmas
and accounted for 40% of retail revenues for listings magazines
over that period (an increase of 1.5% year on year). Preliminary
figures show The Radio Times Christmas edition, the biggest in the
magazine's 78 year history at 246 pages, sold over 2.6 million copies.
This equates to sales of more than 200 per trading minute in the
lead up to Christmas Day. And Worldwide estimates that well over
half a million people turned to Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Good Food magazine for expert
help in the kitchen over Christmas with an additional 60,000 cooks
opting for the new one-off Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Good Food Vegetarian Christmas.
A strong
export performance generated television programme sales that topped
Β£11 million. In addition to sales of Teletubbies and Tweenies
in Eastern Europe, Conan Doyle's Lost World was the star performer.
The United States, France and Germany led the field of over 20 countries
that took up licensing agreements on the programme that premiered
on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ ONE on Christmas Day.
"Our
Christmas trading figures confirm the popularity of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ brand
among shoppers," commented Rupert Gavin, Chief Executive Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ
Worldwide. "It also demonstrates how using the brand across
a wide range of products from DVDs to books enables Worldwide to
deliver value for the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ. In difficult market conditions, we shall
be looking to build on this season's success throughout the next
quarter so that we make a positive financial contribution to the
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ at the end of the financial year."
Notes
to Editors
* Delia's 'How to Cook' book sale figure comprises 230,000 retail
sales and 70,000 book club
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