The BBC is planning a more aggressive push for international audiences and advertising revenues with an overhaul of its overseas television lineup aimed at creating channels which can be “number one or number two” in their markets, according to senior executives.

Darren Childs, managing director of Global Channels for BBC Worldwide, the state-funded broadcaster’s commercial arm, admitted that channels such as BBC America and BBC Prime had suffered from “a lack of focus and a scatter-gun strategy”.