The BBC’s highly profitable commercial division, BBC Worldwide, could be part-privatised in a major review of the corporation’s operations.

The director general, Mark Thompson, said that the business could be listed on the stock market or a stake offered to a rival broadcaster at home or abroad.

A partial sale is among the options which will be examined in a major review of the BBC’s operation ordered last week by its governing body, the BBC Trust. The review will begin in 2012, when the switchover to digital services will be complete.

“One of the things we should look at over this period is whether 100 per cent ownership of Worldwide is essential going forward," Mr Thompson told The Guardian, adding that the corporation was looking at “a whole range of things”.

BBC Worldwide made £103 million profit on revenues of £1 billion by selling BBC programmes last year, and the rights to formats including Strictly Come Dancing, to international buyers. The commercial arm also publishes a range of magazines and licenses merchandise from programmes including Top Gear.

Even if it does sell a stake, the BBC will retain control of the division.

BBC Worldwide had been in talks with Channel 4 with a view to launching a joint venture and in July, BBC Worldwide’s chief executive, John Smith, told The Times that they were on the verge of an agreement following a period of deadlock thought to be over the value of the assets each could offer.

This would appear to be no longer on the cards, as Mr Thompson told The Guardian that a merger with Channel 4 “misses the fundamental point of what Worldwide is".

The BBC has come under fierce fire this summer from its commercial rivals, angered by its licence fee-funded expansion of its web operation and digital television and radio channels.

Last month James Murdoch, chief executive of the European and Asian operations of News Corporation, parent company of The Times, said the BBC’s “expansion of state-sponsored journalism” in the form of BBC News online was “a threat to plurality and the independence of news provision.”

Mr Thompson said the BBC's free online news was "non-negotiable", adding: "I would rather the BBC was abolished than we started encrypting news to stop people seeing it.

"I think politicians and the leadership of all the parties understand the affection the public has (for the BBC).

"I don't want to claim that we are the same as the NHS but there are similarities."

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