LONDON: The Office, I'm Alan Partridge, Delia's Vegetarian Collection, Life of Mammals, Fimbles,Tweenies were among BBC Worldwide's top-sellers last Christmas.
Sales of BBC2's sitcom The Office on DVD and VHS were phenomenal with a total of one million units being snapped up across the two formats since its release on 14 October - 630,000 on DVD and 370,000 on VHS, states a release.
The release also claims that several records were created. In addition to being the fastest selling non-film DVD, it is also now the first non-film DVD to pass the half million unit sales mark. The combined VHS and DVD sales make it is the best-selling TV title in the UK ever (CIN).
The release also adds that these statistics prove that it has beaten competition from its main rival and Channel 4 show Peter Kay – Phoenix Nights. Delia's Vegetarian Collection was BBC Worldwide's top selling book in October to December - 200,000 copies sold. This is considered excellent for a standalone cookery book not tied into a television series. Another cookery title, Rick Stein's Food Heroes was in the top five with 87,000 copies.
Over 5.3 million videos, books and audio products were purchased in the October to December shopping period linked to major brands and authors including David Attenborough, History of Britain, Harry Potter.
Revenue from sales of the adult books, videos and audio products in just three months in the run up to Christmas were up by a year on year rise of 10 per cent.
Audio tapes and CDs also fared well. Eight out of the ten top-selling titles in the UK were from BBC Worldwide (Booktrack) in December. I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue Anniversary Special was in the number one slot followed by Michael Palin's Sahara . Also in the top ten were the complete and unabridged readings by Stephen Fry of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban as well as the radio comedy classic Round the Horne No.14.
More than half a million Tweenies and Fimbles titles were bought. The latest releases - Get the Fimbling Feeling and Let's Find the Fimbles totalled 291,000 sales; while 205,000 Tweenies Live! The Christmas Present and Tweenies: Everybody Panto were bought for youngsters. Fimbles and Tweenies were thus BBC Worldwide's most successful pre-school properties.
BBC Worldwide's live events business had continuing success. The Tweenies Live! The Christmas Present show returned to entertain over 100,000 fans in Cardiff, Wembley and Manchester. And the twelve date Fame Academy' National UK Arena Tour sold more than 50,000 tickets during the Christmas period, with additional shows due to be added shortly
