The Bookseller.com

2nd December 2008

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Time Out boss calls for BBC to leave publishing

26.08.08

Tony Elliott, the owner of entertainment listings and travel book publisher Time Out, has called for the BBC's commercial division to be broken-up and sold off and accused it of overreaching itself following the broadcaster's £75m acquisition of Lonely Planet.

The Times reports that Elliott told an audience at the Edinburgh Television Festival that he could not compete with the BBC's promotional muscle. “The parts that exploit BBC programmes internationally should be spun back into the BBC, and the other part should be sold off,” he said.

Elliott has tried to convince the Office of Fair Trading to review the acquisition of Lonely Planet. He is also working with Rough Guide owner Pearson to force the BBC to disclose its rationale behind the purchase under the Freedom of Information Act. However, data disclosed by the BBC so far was, he said, “so heavily edited to be meaningless”.

The Times

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