Letter to the Chairman of the Committee
from Peter Horrocks, Director, BBC World Service
I am writing now to let you know about changes
to two of our language services BBC Afrique (the BBC's French
for Africa service) and the Turkish Service. These are changes
arising from service reviews carried out earlier in 2009 in order
to meet the savings targets set for the BBC World Service by the
Government in the last public spending review.
BBC AFRIQUE
We have decided to relocate a significant part
of BBC Afrique's production effort from London to Dakar in Senegal,
where we will establish a new office equipped with modern studios
and transmission facilities. The aim of the proposal is to increase
our presence in the heart of this fast-emerging media market and
greatly improve our service to our audiences in the region, which
will also create new opportunities for staff.
This will enable the service to expand its output
by 25%—from less than four hours daily to five hours, allowing
us to hit peak audience times throughout francophone Africa and
to modernise and restructure our programme schedule. We expect
these schedule changes will come into effect from early December
2009.
This development follows similar changes in
BBC Hausa and BBC Swahili, which have delivered significant increases
in audience impact for both services.
Production effort in London will be reduced,
which will involve the closure of around 15 posts in London and
the creation of 18 posts in Dakar. The team in London will continue
to produce live output and ensure a crucial editorial link to
the rest of the BBC. We intend to take all reasonable steps to
ensure that this process is achieved in a voluntary manner.
The move will enable the service to achieve
efficiency savings which are required across World Service, within
the context of the difficult financial backdrop which affects
many companies worldwide, including the BBC.
BBC TURKISH SERVICE
As you may be aware, the Turkish Service has
been developing into a multi-media operation over the last few
years, and as a result, we have announced some staffing and operational
changes.
The introduction of a TV programme, Dunya Gundemi,
broadcast in Turkey by partner NTV was an important initiative,
which has made a major contribution to the recent increase (almost
4%) in the overall Turkish audience. At the same time, BBC Turkish
has developed its online service and usage has almost tripled
in the past three years. The online service has gained a distinct
audience not reached via broadcast media.
The changes, designed to support and develop
the multi-media operation further, include the creation of two
posts. We will also strengthen our newsgathering presence in Turkey
and coverage of Turkish affairs. To achieve these new investments
and the savings required, the Turkish Service will be closing
four posts, resulting in a net loss of two posts. The BBC will,
as always, look at ways of implementing any redundancies on a
voluntary basis, and will do its best to redeploy people within
the organisation where possible.
We will also discontinue BBC Turkish broadcasts
on short wave. Recent audience research produced no measurable
figure for SW listening—our online offer has effectively
replaced SW as the most effective direct way to reach audiences.
I believe the above changes will strengthen
our services to audiences in Africa and Turkey, raise the quality
of our output and increase the overall impact of both of these
important language services.
If you would like more details, or have any
questions on our plans for BBC Afrique and the BBC's Turkish Service,
please do get in touch.
21 May 2009
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