The World Service

From April 1st, the World Service moves from Foreign Office to licence fee funding. The BBC has guaranteed that there will be no overall cut to the World Service budget between now and the end of the present licence fee settlement, in December 2016. There will also be a small additional innovation fund to enable the service to expand its digital activities. Yesterday, the Foreign Affairs Select Committee published a report on the future of the World Service, in which it expressed concern about long term funding and the fact that the World Service will be competing for funds with BBC1 and other domestic tv channels.