The BBC World Service, currently part of the BBC News division, is facing another funding crisis. The BBC says that it only has funding for another month. What on Earth is going on?
The BBC international services include radio broadcasts in English and many other languages, television channels in Arabic and Persian, and digital platforms including websites, podcasts, and social media.
These services reach an estimated weekly audience of over 300 million people around the world, although the number has declined with the closure of some radio output.
It may surprise some to know that the primary source of funding for all this is the television licence paid for by households in Britain. That raises £3.84 billion a year in revenue for the BBC. The licence fee revenue will continue until at least the end of 2027.
The BBC World Service has an annual budget of £358 million. That includes £221 million from the BBC licence fee. The government Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office contributed £104 million grant funding, with a further £32.6 million to support digital initiatives.
This funding is to protect the 42 language services, counter disinformation, support emergency information services in crisis zones, and support a transition to online platforms.
That government funding runs out at the end of March and remarkably any renegotiation has yet to be agreed.
Although that is unlikely to lead to the immediate loss of services, the BBC is under increasing financial pressure and will be obliged to cut costs.
Established as the BBC Empire Service in 1932 to reach English speakers around the world, it became the BBC Overseas Service in November 1939 as the focus shifted to wartime communication and was renamed the BBC World Service in 1965.
The BBC World Service was paid for by a grant from the British government, which benefited from the projection of soft power around the world.
Despite being funded by the government, the World Service managed to maintain a global reputation for editorial integrity.
Following the global financial crisis in 2008, government debt soared and under the Conservative-Liberal coalition government the chancellor George Osborne introduced a programme of financial austerity.
In October 2010, through a settlement secretly agreed between the government and the chair of the BBC Trust, it was announced that the BBC would take on full responsibility for the World Service, while the licence fee was frozen.
This was apparently accepted as an alternative to taking on the cost of ‘free’ television licences for those living with someone aged over 75.
However, the BBC later agreed to accept that cost too, as part of a settlement in 2015, in return for maintaining the television licence fee.
The BBC has repeatedly succumbed to sequential disadvantageous funding agreements while continuing to expand its services. As a result, the BBC has been left with a substantial reduction in funding in real terms, rising costs, and a declining domestic audience.
The corporation faces a review of its current Royal Charter that expires at the end of 2027. That could be an opportunity to set out its remit and funding once and for all, but it seems to be in a weak bargaining position.
That is not helped by the resignation of the director general Time Davie, who serves as its chief executive. He resigned in November, together with Deborah Turness, the chief executive of BBC News. That followed controversy over the editing of a Panorama programme that led to a $10 billion lawsuit filed by Donald Trump, the President of the United States, which the BBC is seeking to have thrown out of court.
An interim director general will take over in April, until a successor is appointed. That is technically a matter for the board, led by its chair.
Meanwhile, the BBC has no certainty about future government grant funding for the World Service, or any conditions that may be imposed on it.
In a recent speech, the outgoing director general said: “We’re waiting to hear the outcome of the settlement.”
With time running out, given that he has already resigned, it hardly sounds like a negotiating from a position of strength. He concluded: “I urge the government to back the World Service, to act decisively and confidently about what we can achieve in this space, and to act soon.”
All of this comes at a time of increasing global tension and uncertainty, in which the World Service is still widely respected as an impartial source of international news coverage.