Technological savvy and profit motivation are concepts quite remote from a public-funded body, but the BBC has managed to inject those ideas into its various commercial spinoffs.
BBC World, the BBC's global commercial 24-hour news channel, is tapping into the new market for mobile-phone TV through collaborations with telecom munications operators from Finland and France to Hong Kong, Malaysia and Australia.
It has also partnered PCCW's NOW Broadband to explore a new interactive internet portal TV service.
Jeff Hazell, director of sales and distribution at BBC World, said the company's aim was to transform the BBC World brand from linear television to an interactive BBC World on Demand model.
Originally set up in 1991 under the name BBC World Service Television, in December 2002 the channel was transformed into a commercial entity under the banner BBC World.
Anne Barnard, BBC World's chief operating officer, has estimated the channel will break even ahead of a 2009 schedule.
