Combined response from the BBC Trust and
BBC Executive
The BBC World Service: Future
funding and output
1. We strongly welcome the decision to increase the
funding available to the BBC World Service in 2014-15. (Paragraph
76)
2. We urge the BBC to announce funding levels for
the BBC World Service for the remainder of the current BBC Charter
period and at least to maintain in real terms the 2014-15 funding
levels. (Paragraph 78)
RESPONSE FROM THE BBC TRUST:
The Trust has approved the licence fee funding for
the World Service for 2014/15 as £245m, of which £210m
is the content and distribution budget; this is secured in the
Operating Licence, which has now been finalised and published
by the Trust. As stated in the Licence, any change in the content
and distribution budget of more than 10% requires approval by
the Trust and may entail variation of the Licence.
Future funding levels for the World Service will
be determined as part of the BBC's annual budget process, where
the Executive Board will make a recommendation to the Trust. It
will be for the Trust, taking advice from the Executive Board,
to determine that there is appropriate funding available for the
World Service, while recognising that there should be opportunities
to realise efficiencies from integrating World Service and the
BBC's domestic news operations. The Trust has agreed an ambitious
strategy for the World Service: delivering to current and new
audiences; innovating on digital platforms; and integrating with
the wider BBC News operation. As we stated in our position paper
(June 2013) we are committed to providing sufficient investment
in the World Service to support this strategy.
RESPONSE FROM THE BBC EXECUTIVE:
We share the Trust's commitment to sustaining the
World Service's global reputation and impact. We are determined
to demonstrate that we are even better stewards of its future
than the Government.
While it would be wrong to guarantee the budget of
any single part of the BBC without looking at the requirements
of the Corporation in the round, we recognise the need for continued
innovation and improvements in the World Service to grow audiences.
We will seek to ensure that funding is available to support this
while also seeking efficiencies from integration and rigorously
exploring opportunities for savings, as we believe licence fee
payers would expect us to do.
Future parliamentary oversight
of the World Service
3. We intend to continue to monitor the BBC World
Service's output and the extent to which it reflects the FCO's
strategic priorities. We strongly oppose the proposals currently
under consideration by the BBC Trust for a wider commercialisation
of the World Service as indicated in the letter sent by the Director,
Global News at the BBC, Mr Peter Horrocks, to Lord Alton of Liverpool
on 1 November 2013. We expect to take evidence on these matters
in future, both from FCO Ministers and from the BBC; and we encourage
our successors to do the same. (Paragraph 80)
RESPONSE FROM THE BBC TRUST:
The BBC welcomes the interest of the FAC and understands
that a degree of scrutiny of the World Service will continue,
in line with the Committee's responsibility for examining the
policy of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
The World Service has had commercial income targets
stipulated by the FCO for many years and its experience is that
generating this income, which has always been limited, has been
generally accepted by audiences outside the UK.
The 'alternative funding' principles agreed by the
BBC Trust allow for a limited amount of additional income to be
sourced by the World Service within strict guidelines that are
being developed and will be published as part of the BBC's Editorial
Guidelines. Any such income will supplement the primary form of
funding, which from 1 April will be the licence fee. As required
under the Agreement that the BBC has with the UK Government, the
Trust is currently seeking approval from the Secretary of State
for a policy in this area.
RESPONSE FROM BBC EXECUTIVE:
Reports of the 'wider commercialisation' of World
Service are misleading. Commercial income has always been a small
part of the World Service's overall funding, and this is unlikely
to change. Following the 2010 Spending Review settlement, in which
BBC World Service was tasked by the Government to seek an additional
£3m per annum in commercial income, advertising was introduced
on three online language sites and was trialled on the World Service
English FM radio frequency in Berlin. In 2012/13, the World Service
achieved a total of £7.8m external income (compared to £244.2m
HMG grant-in-aid funding in that year).
Looking ahead, we believe it is appropriate and in
the interests of both World Service audiences and UK licence fee
payers for us to continue this activity and make limited increases.
The Trust has approved proposals for the appropriate and proportionate
use of advertising and sponsorship on the World Service, where
viable. In addition, we have proposed exploring appropriate opportunities
to seek external sources of funding for some kinds of non-news
programmes. Both are subject to Government approval.
As the Committee has rightly highlighted, we need
to continue to innovate to serve audiences in a rapidly developing
global media environment. Were this innovation to be funded from
the licence fee, we would either need to cut UK services more
deeply or cut back other areas of World Service activity. This
'top-up' funding can enable World Service to invest more in its
services without increasing the cost to the licence fee payer,
whilst remaining consistent with audience expectations and the
BBC's values.
Nonetheless, the BBC's reputation for providing impartial
and independent news will always take precedence over commercial
goals. Commercial activity will only ever constitute a small proportion
of World Service's funding, and there will not be advertising
on the World Service in the UK.
Language Services
4. We recommend that the FCO use its influence to
encourage the Burmese authorities to look favourably on provision
of a BBC Burmese television service. (Paragraph 83)
RESPONSE FROM BBC EXECUTIVE:
Investment in new TV programming and digital output
is a key part of World Service's strategy. The BBC already plays
a major role in Burma/Myanmar through the provision of its news
service in Burmese and English on short wave, FM, online, mobiles
and via BBC World News TV. It has established itself as
the most trusted and reliable source of information in Burma,
a reputation built up over the years when the media was tightly
controlled by the state.
The last year has seen rapid and welcome change in
the country, and in January this year the BBC opened its first
news bureau in Burma, a significant milestone. Following
a one-off special BBC Burmese TV broadcast on the side lines of
the World Economic Forum held in the capital Naypyitaw in June
last year, BBC Burmese TV pilots have been produced.
The FCO readily provides support to the BBC in engaging
with foreign governments with regards to World Service distribution
issues when it is requested.
Governance of the BBC World Service
5. We are not convinced that the protection of the
BBC World Service's interests within the BBC's governance structure
is as strong as is being claimed, and the picture appears to us
to be one of steady erosion of World Service influence within
the BBC. The World Service will be heavily reliant in future upon
advocacy by a single Executive Board member, who has many other
competing responsibilities. The result may be that the World Service
is more regularly denied the resources it needs to maintain or
develop services. We recommend once again that the World Service
should be represented on the BBC Executive Board, and we believe
that the Director of BBC Global News should be a member of the
Management Board. (Paragraph 89)
RESPONSE FROM BBC EXECUTIVE:
The World Service is championed at the highest levels
of the BBC and is represented on the Executive Board by the Director
of News and Current Affairs. Both the Director-General and the
Director of News and Current Affairs have been absolutely clear
about the vital importance of the World Service to the BBC, Britain
and the world, announcing ambitious targets to double the BBC's
global reach by 2022. This collective commitment to the World
Service should be measured by what we promise to deliver - growth
in World Service audiences, a better, richer news service for
both global and UK audiences, and a sustained reputation for the
BBC as the most trusted news provider in the world - rather than
by representation on the Board or management committees.
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