1 Introduction
1. The Foreign Affairs Committee has conducted
an annual inquiry into the FCO's expenditure plans and wider administrative
matters since 1981. In 1991, government departments first began
publishing annual departmental reports setting out their work
for that year and expenditure plans for the future. Since that
time the Committee, like most other departmental select committees,
has used the relevant Department's reports as a basis for its
scrutiny of the Department's administration and expenditure. We
also scrutinise the work of the non-departmental public bodies
associated with the FCO, the British Council and the BBC World
Service. In previous years, we have considered the annual reports
of both organisations as part of our over-arching inquiry into
the FCO's Departmental Annual Report.[1]
This year, we decided to publish separate reports on the work
of the British Council and BBC World Service.
2. BBC World Service falls under the BBC's Global
News division, which brings together the BBC World Service, BBC
World, BBC Monitoring[2]
and the BBC's international facing online news services. It predominately
broadcasts over radio, although it has moved partly into foreign
language television services and is pursuing a multiplatform strategy
in order to "meet the challenges of a rapidly changing media
environment".[3]
3. BBC World Service is funded through a Grant-in-Aid
from the FCO, allocated as part of the Government's Spending Review
process. The World Service received £265 million from the
FCO in 2008-09 financial year, an increase of £10 million
from 2007-08.[4] BBC World
Service has complete editorial and managerial independence; however,
it reports performance against a number of measures agreed with
the FCO annually as part of the accountability process. These
measures support BBC World Service's aim to be the world's best-known
and most respected voice in international news, thereby bringing
benefit to the UK, the BBC and to audiences around the world.
4. The BBC World Service's Annual Review 2008-09
was published in July 2009. We took oral evidence from Peter Horrocks,
Director of the World Service, Richard Thomas, Chief Operating
Officer, and Behrouz Afagh, Head of Asia Pacific Region, on 4
November 2009. We also received written evidence.
Key events and developments in
2008-09
5. In its memorandum to the Committee, the BBC
World Service outlined key events and developments for the organisation
in 2008-09. BBC Persian TV was launched in January 2009. In the
same month BBC Arabic television moved to a full 24-hour schedule;
initial audience figures for the channel indicated an average
of 8 million weekly viewers. Other developments included the roll-out
of new, wider-page designs for websites with broadband quality
video; video channels in six languages were launched on YouTube;
and a growing number of mobile networks started showcasing BBC
World Service content. The BBC World Service collected three Sony
Radio Academy Awards at the 2009 ceremony, while the reporting
year ended with the departure of Nigel Chapman and the arrival
of his successor as Director, Peter Horrocks.[5]
1 Foreign Affairs Committee, Second Report of Session
2008-09, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Report 2007-08,
HC 195, chapter 12 Back
2
BBC Monitoring is no longer within the Foreign Affairs Committee's
remit since the Cabinet Office took responsibility for its oversight
from the FCO. Back
3
Ev 11 Back
4
BBC World Service is principally funded by Grant-in-Aid. It should
not be confused with BBC World, which is the BBC's commercially-funded
international English-language television service. Back
5
Ev 11 Back
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