Submission from the International Broadcasting Trust to the DCMS BBC Funding Model Review

The International Broadcasting Trust (IBT) welcomes the review into the BBC’s funding model being conducted by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. We consider it timely and of great importance to our membership, which comprises over 50 leading NGOs from the humanitarian, international development, and environmental sectors.

IBT is a strong supporter of the BBC. We have long campaigned for an independent and sustainably-funded BBC, including an appropriately and properly financed World Service. We are a leading member of the Public Service Media Forum, alongside organisations such as the Voice of the Listener & Viewer (VLV) and the British Broadcasting Challenge.

The BBC provides critically-important opportunities for UK audiences to see and hear about issues well beyond our shores. By bringing international stories to domestic audiences, the BBC’s diverse output across television, radio, and online, helps to build audience engagement with foreign affairs, foster understanding of our interdependencies, and nurture empathy for important causes around the world.

An outward-looking BBC is essential for building engagement and solidarity with the critically important work undertaken by our members. As the BBC’s founders believed, broadcasting can make the world a better place by enriching people with ‘knowledge, culture and information about their world, to build more cohesive communities, to engage the people of the UK and the whole globe in a new conversation about who we are and where we are going’1.

We want to see the BBC thrive long into the future. For this reason, we share our thoughts on the BBC funding model and our preferred option for the next Charter period, and beyond.