Top Gear was BBC Worldwide's biggest-selling TV show internationally last year and – alongside its fellow mega-brands Doctor Who, BBC Earth and Lonely Planet – helped earn more than £200m in revenue and more than £40m in profits.
The exploitation of everything from TV programme sales to live events, DVDs and magazines from Doctor Who, Top Gear and BBC Earth – an umbrella brand for natural history output – raked in £147.3m in revenue for BBC Worldwide, the corporation's commercial arm, in the year to the end of March.
This represented a 15% year-on-year increase in revenues, while profits from these brands rose 33.8m year on year to £51.5m.
When a 19% increase in revenues at Lonely Planet is added in, total sales across the four brands rise to almost £200m. Lonely Planet, which is now available in seven international editions and saw digital revenues grow by 37% year on year, turned a £3.2m loss into a £1.9m profit.
The global brands division produced total revenues of £218m and profits of £44m. Revenues are up 15% year on year and profits up 39% at the division.
The top five TV programme brands sold internationally by BBC Worldwide in the year to the end of March were Top Gear, Life, Planet Earth, Being Erica and Doctor Who.
Sales of the Top Gear TV show were "exceptional" in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, and it was the biggest-selling BBC programme in Asia Pacific.
Love him or loath him the accountants like the revenue TG brings in.