Jana Bennett to leave BBC Worldwide board

BBC Worldwide has announced that BBC director of Vision Jana Bennett will step down from her position on its board next month in order to negate any potential "conflicts of interest".

A series of changes are coming into force at Worldwide to ensure that the BBC's commercial arm is operated in the most trustworthy way.

Under the new arrangements, Bennett and other staff at Vision - which creates the content sold by Worldwide - must no longer be involved in decision-making at the commercial body.

The BBC said that the move is intended to "reduce the potential for conflicts of interest" at the organisation. As part of the plans, Worldwide chief executive John Smith will also give up his seat on the BBC executive board.

Earlier this month, it was announced that Worldwide chairman Etienne de Villiers was stepping down from his position at the end of this month.

The organisation's next chairman will be taken from the non-executive directors on the BBC executive board in order to strengthen links between the two organisations.

In a further effort to build confidence in the Worldwide operation, the BBC Trust will also approve all transactions over £30 million that are made by the commercial body.

Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons said: "The BBC Trust believes that these changes will strengthen the ability of BBC Worldwide to deliver value to licence fee-payers through the return it makes on content owned and paid for by licence fee-payers. The changes also respond to concerns raised by commercial competitors and others."

BBC director general Mark Thompson recently revealed that the BBC is considering selling a stake in Worldwide as part of the wide-ranging operational review.

Sir Michael said that Thompson "is right to say that in the longer term the BBC will look at whether Worldwide needs to be 100% owned by the Corporation".

However, he added that the Trust "won't contemplate any loss of direct control over BBC rights created as result of investment from the licence fee-payer".