Tony Elliott, the owner of Time Out, the entertainment listings magazine, called for a break-up and sale of the BBC’s commercial division yesterday as he accused the corporation of overreaching itself with the £75 million acquisition of the Lonely Planet travel guides.

The magazine proprietor said that Time Out, publisher of its own travel guides, could not compete with the BBC’s promotional muscle - and that the BBC should not publish books and magazines.

BBC Worldwide, the commercial division, should be split up, Mr Elliott told the Edinburgh Television Festival. “The parts that exploit BBC programmes internationally should be spun back into the BBC, and the other part should be sold off,” he said.

Mr Elliott has tried unsuccessfully to persuade the Office of Fair Trading to review the Lonely Planet acquisition and is working with Pearson, owner of the Rough Guide travel series, to try to force the BBC to disclose information about the rationale for the purchase under Freedom of Information legislation. However, data disclosed by the BBC so far was, he said, “so heavily edited to be meaningless”.

BBC Worldwide also publishes magazines such as the Radio Times, owns and invests in television producers, sells BBC content internationally and owns channels including a half-share of UK TV. Last year it earned £117.7 million, up 17 per cent.

Alex Graham, the chief executive of Wall to Wall, which makes the Who Do You Think You Are? television series for the BBC, said that there was not a transparent relationship between the BBC and its commercial unit. He said that it was not clear on what terms Worldwide had bought the rights to exploit programmes such as Strictly Come Dancing internationally. “I don’t think it would be right to assume that BBC Worldwide should continue to exist,” he said.

David Moody, director of strategy, BBC Worldwide, said that the business was “a force for good” because it was a significant exporter. He said that it was easy to highlight investments that appeared to have little to do with its core business, but such lightning conductors formed “a de minimis part of our revenues”.

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