Ready or not, US television audiences are about to come face to face with journalist Jeremy Paxman.

Buoyed by an expected trebling of profits for the latest financial year to more than £20m, BBC Worldwide’s Global Channels division will this autumn launch an aggressive push for international audiences and advertising revenues in the US and across 160 other countries, the Financial Times has learned. According to senior executives, the BBC aims to create channels that can be “number one or number two” in their markets.