Trust publishes operating licence for World Service under licence fee funding
Today, the ±«Óătv Trust publishes the
This will come in to effect on 1 April 2014 when the World Service moves to being funded by the licence fee, and follows a public consultation from June to September 2013.
The operating licence sets out the remit and scope of the World Service, its annual budget and its main commitments. As with other ±«Óătv services, the Trust will regularly review the performance of the service against its licence.
The budget for the World Service in 2014/15 has already been confirmed as £245m, of which £210m is the combined content and distribution budget.
Following the consultation, the licence includes an additional specification that news, current affairs and information programming on the World Service should represent at least 75% of output each year.
Proposals to enable the ±«Óătv World Service to continue to receive alternative sources of income once it comes under licence fee funding, and to simplify and standardise the use of alternative finance across the World Service, World News and bbc.com/news are currently being agreed with Government and will be published in due course.
Lord Williams, International Trustee, said:
"The Trust is committed to providing enduring support for the World Service once it comes under licence fee funding, and ensuring it can remain true to its mission of delivering the highest quality news reporting around the world. This licence establishes a clear framework for it to do so and we will regularly review the service to ensure this remains the case."
Notes to editors
The change in funding for the World Service was agreed between the ±«Óătv and Government as part of the 2010 licence fee settlement. Previously funded by grant-in-aid from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, from April 2014 the World Service will be wholly funded from the licence fee.
The ±«Óătv’s Global News services reach over 256m people around the world. Within the UK, World Service English is available 24 hours a day on digital platforms (online and DAB radio) and overnight on ±«Óătv Radio 4 frequencies.
Other language services are also available to UK audiences online. The languages in which the World Service operates, and the objectives, priorities and targets of the service have been agreed between the ±«Óătv Trust and Foreign Secretary.
The specification that news, current affairs and information programming should represent 75% of output applies to all services except for ±«Óătv Persian television, which is required to deliver at least 50%.
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