Foreign language television services
139. The BBC World Service believes there is now
a strong case for a television presence in languages other than
English in markets where radio is being superseded as the main
means of receiving information, and where new media still have
limited impact.[208]
For this reason, the introduction of an Arabic television channel
has been a key goal for the World Service for several years. The
FCO has acknowledged that the World Service will need to react
to changing audiences' demands and, in its response to Lord Carter's
review, indicated that the BBC should explore options for developing
a television arm of the World Service.[209]
On the funding needed for these new services, the Government told
us that the FCO and the Treasury would maintain a regular dialogue
over "the opportunities and costs associated with various
projects".[210]
140. The World Service says the Arabic television
service is a crucial and necessary step for the BBC in order for
it to remain successful in a market where television is becoming
the preferred medium for news and information.[211]
Initially, the plan is for the new channel to broadcast for 12
hours daily throughout the Middle East, although the World Service
sees its "ambition" as extending this to 24 hours.[212]
The channel is scheduled to go live in the autumn 2007. We were
told, it is "on track and on time".[213]
But, as Nigel Chapman remarked, the question will be whether in
a year's time this remains to be the case. Over the course of
the next year we will follow the progress being made in setting
up the new Arabic network with interest.
141. The World Service believes the quality of the
BBC Arabic television service will be better than that of its
rivals in terms of the independence and impartiality of its news
coverage and the international perspective it will bring to world
news.[214] The problem
is, of course, if the Arabic news service runs for only 12 hours
a day, what happens if a news story breaks outside its broadcasting
hours. On this point, Mr Chapman told us:
It would depend upon the scale of the story.
On the morning of a major story, if it was flagged up in advance,
I think we would have to rush things together and start early
on that particular morning. The trouble with news is that it is
not predictable, it is unexpected, and you do not have that kind
of nice easy run-in period, and therefore I would very much like
to see this gap closed, yes, I think it would add strength to
the offer. All I can say to you is that I keep on arguing the
case.[215]
142. In 2007, a 12-hour television service is expected
to cost £19 million per annum to produce and the World Service
has calculated that it would cost an extra £6 million to
move from a 12 to a 24 hour service.[216]
Following a reprioritisation, the Service has found only the money
to broadcast for 12 hours a day with the funding coming from a
combination of efficiency savings and the monies released from
the closure of several of its radio language services.[217]
On finding the extra monies to fund a 24-hour service from
the Service's existing budget, Nigel Chapman told us:
I think we have gone far enough in terms of reprioritisation
inside the World Service's limited resources. £6 million
on one level does not sound very much but it is the budget for
eight or nine language services in the World Service. There is
neither a case nor an appetite for further closures of language
services to fund that gap.[218]
The cost of increasing to 24-hours would largely
be made up of staffing costs and would equal around one-third
of the current running costs of £19 million (in the region
of £6 million); around 30 per cent extra funding would give
twice the broadcast time.[219]
143. In our Report on Public Diplomacy, we
recommended that the BBC World Service explore the potential for
subsidising the costs of the new Arabic television service through
generating income via advertising and syndication.[220]
The Government said that the BBC World Service had explored the
potential for subsidising costs of the 12-hour service but that
it had judged that commercial funding options were not feasible
at that time. However, the Government said that it had no objection
in principle to the World Service as a whole exploring options
for generating such additional revenue.[221]
When we explored this funding option further with the World Service,
Nigel Chapman explained:
We did consider the whole issue of commercial
funding when we put forward the bid in the first place and the
truth is that the range and source of commercial advertising revenue
that is in theory available to the BBC for an Arabic TV service
is limited, and even taking money to do a hybrid to get some of
it funded by commercial and some of it funded by public money,
raises all sorts of issues and given the source of a lot of the
advertising revenue and the societies which it would come from,
I think it would cause us editorial difficulties.[222]
When we asked the World Service whether it had sought
a supplementary grant from either the FCO or the Treasury to cover
a full 24-hour service Nigel Chapman told us, "We have over
the last two years made a number of requests in this area and
they [the Government] are very aware of our request."[223]
144. In April, we recommended that the BBC World
Service together with the FCO review the new Arabic channel's
funding and performance in the period leading up to its first
anniversary to ensure that it was adequately resourced and to
determine whether extra funding should be provided by government
to enable the channel to become a 24-hour service.[224]
The Government said it would keep the funding position under close
review.[225] However,
we are concerned that not funding a full round-the-clock service
from the beginning risks jeopardising the service's long-term
success. Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya both broadcast
24 hours a day, seven days a week.
145. In addition to starting an Arabic television
channel, the World Service has also been holding separate discussions
with the FCO about a BBC Farsi television service. We were told
that both parties agreed that, prima facie, there was a
strong broadcasting case for its introduction.[226]
However, Nigel Chapman said it was now up to the FCO to "persuade
the Treasury" that it was a "good idea" and for
the Treasury to grant the additional funding required as he could
not reprioritise any further.[227]
146. In July, in our Report on Foreign Policy
Aspects of the War Against Terrorism, we recommended that
the Government "seriously consider funding a Farsi BBC television
service".[228]
We therefore wholly welcome the announcement by the Chancellor
on 12 October that the Government has agreed to grant the World
Service an extra £15 million a year to cover the costs of
a new Farsi television service from 2008. The channel will be
a free satellite service and it will broadcast initially for eight
hours each evening.[229]
147. We believe that the Government was right to
recognise the special case of the Farsi service in granting it
funding outside of the comprehensive spending review but we believe
a similar exceptional case exists for allowing the Arabic service
to extend to 24 hours a day from its outset. In an environment
where there are already well established news broadcasters, we
believe it will be essential that the BBC World Service competes
from day one with them on an even-footing. What is by the standard
of public expenditure a small amount of money, could have a potentially
huge benefit. We recommend that in view of the central importance
of BBC World Service's new television service in Arabic to a range
of key government policies, the Government make an exceptional
grant, outside of the regular Spending Review process, of the
£6 million required to enable the Arabic service to broadcast,
not for only 12 hours a day as planned initially, but for 24 hours
a day from its inception.
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