BBC Worldwide will report a fall in profits this week as the corporation begins to look again at the ownership of its moneymaking arm.

The BBC is expected to examine whether it can spin off a stake in Worldwide, possibly through a stock market flotation, after the idea was promoted in Lord Carter’s recent Digital Britain report.

Worldwide, which sells DVDs and show formats such as Strictly Come Dancing around the world, has retained Goldman Sachs for advice.

The group is on track to make more money than ITV within the next two years. Profits, which stood at £118m last year, are expected to have dipped below its £111m return of two years ago because of costs associated with the barred internet TV venture Kangaroo, the bbc.com website and disruption from the collapse of Woolworths, which co-owned the group’s DVD venture 2 Entertain.

For the first time, Worldwide is expected to live up to its name by reporting greater revenues from abroad than at home, where it co-owns the UKTV channels, sells the Radio Times and is under political pressure to curtail its commercial activities after buying travel guide Lonely Planet.

Worldwide, which is in long-running talks to strike a commercial joint venture with Channel 4, is aiming to reach a profit of £220m in three years’ time. Analysts at Numis Securities forecast that ITV will report an operating profit of £150m this year and £151m next.

In his Digital Britain report, the communications minister Lord Carter wrote that “there is a case for greater financial and operational separation between BBC Worldwide and the BBC”.

He added that “these could include the sale of a part of BBC Worldwide” to create a powerful international seller of British media rights.

BBC Worldwide said: “Matters of BBC Worldwide ownership are the responsibility of the BBC Executive and the BBC Trust. There is no group looking at an IPO [initial public offering] within BBC Worldwide.”

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