Buoyed by record profits in its global operations last year, the BBC Worldwide service is now eyeing India to further strengthen its network here.The broadcasting behemoth beaming 28 channels in over 259 million-plus homes in 15 languages across the world, reported record profit for the year 2006-07 - up by 24% over last year.BBC Worldwide chief executive John Smith said there has been three-fold increase in profit over the last three years and the growth "exceeded expectations" in most BBC operations over the past 12 months."We are now investing to build our digital offering and strengthen our position in markets such as US, China, India and Australia, creating one of the world's premier content networks," Smith said.The British broadcaster has already expanded its operations in India and the South Asia region as indicated by the launch of prime time news capsule for India last week."Besides the expansion of BBC news operations in India, the broadcaster also secured a licence to launch Hello! magazine in a joint venture with The Times Of India."Despite BBC World becoming a pay channel last year, the viewership has increased from 15 million homes to 16.5 million homes in a year," Vaishali Sharma, marketing head for India, BBC World, said."Besides that we are already on the direct-to-home (DTH) platform of TataSky and Dish TV," she said.
