BBC Worldwide is understood to be planning changes to its senior management team, in a reorganisation expected to result in the departure of former BBC director of vision Jana Bennett.
John Smith, the BBC Worldwide chief executive, is said to be working on plans for the restructure of the 13-strong executive committee that runs the corporation's commercial arm. Bennett, BBC Worldwide's president of global networks and the global iPlayer, is a member of the executive committee.
Smith is in discussions about the proposals with the BBC Trust, the corporation's governance and regulatory body, with an announcement expected in the coming weeks, according to sources familiar with the management reorganisation plan.
BBC Worldwide declined to comment on the reorganisation or Bennett's position. Bennett had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.
A BBC Worldwide spokeswoman said: "We've been looking at a number of options to increase our penetration of high growth markets around the world, and sustain our record of successful growth. This work remains underway and we are not going to comment on speculation about it."
A BBC Trust spokeswoman said: "As you would expect, the trust has regular and ongoing discussions with the BBC executive about Worldwide's future strategy and business planning."
Bennett joined BBC Worldwide in her current job in February 2011, with responsibility for the global rollout of the iPlayer.
She also oversees BBC Worldwide's wholly-owned channels outside the US, including BBC Entertainment, BBC Knowledge, CBeebies and BBC HD and the corporation's 50% stake in the UKTV joint venture with Virgin Media, which operates 10 networks including Dave, Gold and Watch.
Bennett moved to BBC Worldwide after eight years as BBC Vision director and director of television, responsible for the corporation's portfolio of TV channels.
A BBC veteran who has spent all her career at the corporation aside from a two-and-a-half-year stint running Discovery's TLC cable channel in the US, Bennett joined the BBC as a news trainee in 1979. She went on to work for Newsnight, The Money Programme and Nationwide before producing Panorama, editing Horizon, and running the BBC science department in the late 1990s when it made Walking with Dinosaurs and The Human Body.
BBC Worldwide reported annual revenues of £1.16bn and underlying profits of £160m in the year to the end of March 2011 – up 10% on the previous year.
Whether Smith will reach his target of a £200m annual profit for 2011/12 will be revealed in July when Worldwide publishes its accounts for the last financial year on the same day as the BBC annual report.
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