BBC World Service

I

Introduction

BBC World Service, international radio and multimedia arm of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The BBC World Service produces radio programmes for broadcast around the world in 43 languages, including English, all of which are also available on the Internet. With a regular weekly audience of more than 150 million (excluding countries where research is not possible), it reaches more people than any other international broadcaster. In addition to short wave, radio output is increasingly available on FM. The World Service is responsible for a major monitoring service that scans information and comment from the media in 150 countries and in more than 100 languages. Unlike the domestic services of the BBC, which are funded by licence fees, the World Service receives a direct grant from Parliament for its international broadcasting operations, totalling £180.9 million in 2001-2002. It is, however, an integral part of the BBC, sharing the same standards and with the same editorial independence. The World Service aims to provide authoritative, impartial news and information. It provides a forum for the exchange of ideas across cultural, linguistic, and national boundaries, promotes interest in the English language, and offers a showcase for British talent across the world. Education and training initiatives are run through the BBC World Service Trust, a charitable foundation.

II

History

The origins of the BBC World Service date from 1932 when the Empire Service was launched on the initiative of John Reith, the BBC’s first director-general. In the early days it was broadcast on short wave from Daventry in the Midlands, and only in the English language. The approach of World War II brought many changes. To counter the propaganda being broadcast by Germany and Italy, the British government asked the BBC to begin services in Arabic, and in Spanish for Latin America, and agreed to pay the additional costs.

From the beginning the approach to news in the overseas services was to give the facts, even if they might at first seem harmful to British interests or unpalatable to receiving nations. As foreign-language broadcasting built up (French, German, and Italian started in September 1938; others followed soon after), this policy was central in establishing the BBC’s reputation as the most credible overseas broadcaster. Early in 1941 the European Services began to move into Bush House in the Strand in London, still the headquarters of the World Service. Vernacular broadcasts to other parts of the world were added, and by the end of the war the BBC was by far the biggest international broadcaster. The government then reviewed the future role and purpose of the World Service (or the BBC External Services, as they were then called) and in a policy paper in 1946 the government stated that it had concluded that “in the national interest and in order to maintain British influence and prestige abroad, it is essential that the Services continue”. However, this support was not backed by sufficient funds and the late 1940s and the 1950s were marked by extensive cuts. Although with the deepening of the Cold War there were increases in broadcasts to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and Eastern Europe, reductions elsewhere meant that by 1960 the BBC had lost its position as the largest international broadcaster, having been overtaken by the USSR, China, the United States, and, perhaps more surprisingly, Egypt.

This period saw the beginning of the transistor revolution and the spread of small radio receivers able to pick up short-wave broadcasts. It was also the start of decolonization and the emergence of new nations, ending many of the old arrangements for the rebroadcasting of BBC programmes but also producing the conditions for new opportunities. The World Service responded to the changes with new programme initiatives, such as the creation of a round-the-clock English service with a strong emphasis on news, and with a greater focus on the needs of people in developing nations, particularly Africa and Asia. The government provided the means to replace old transmitters and build new relay stations overseas. While the 1970s and early 1980s proved to be uneven, sometimes very difficult, years financially, the process of capital investment subsequently picked up again and some additional money was also provided for programme enhancement.

The ending of the Cold War produced a whole series of tributes to the BBC and the other international broadcasters for their role during that period. Among those expressing their thanks were the new leaders, such as Lech Wałęsa of Poland and Václav Havel of Czechoslovakia, and thousands of ordinary listeners who had sought out the western broadcasters even when the authorities were jamming them.

III

The Changing Face of the World Service

The collapse of Soviet power also brought reassessments by every international broadcaster and the governments that fund them. For the World Service this was less fundamental than for some others. It had never seen itself as propaganda or a “surrogate” station and had always addressed friends as well as potential adversaries. It aimed to provide accurate information and background, reflect different viewpoints, and let listeners make up their own minds. As UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan later commented: “It has for many years provided the staple diet of news and information on which all of us rely. It serves Britain and the world by being independent and therefore credible.”

So the self-scrutiny at the beginning of the 1990s did not lead to any major changes in the programme or editorial policy of the World Service. Since then, however, there have been a number of reorganizations, most recently as part of a general restructuring of the BBC. A new broadcasting agreement with the Foreign Office replaced some of the arrangements that had been in place since 1946, and gave greater freedom to determine the level of language broadcasts. Some language services, including German and broadcasts in French and Portuguese, have been closed, while new services have been introduced, improving services for Central Asia, the Balkans, and Rwanda. The World Service Trust was established in 1999 to co-ordinate externally funded education initiatives, in areas such as health and civic society. Support for independent media is provided through training courses for other broadcasters, and BBC schools of journalism have been set up in Russia, Romania, and Bosnia.

The major factors currently transforming the climate for all international broadcasters are media deregulation and the unprecedented growth of the Internet. BBC World Service has responded by transforming itself into a multimedia broadcaster, expanding FM output, and making all its language services available to online users. The strategy has been backed by the Government, which has allocated an extra £64 m of funding for online, FM, and short-wave development between 2001 and 2004. By the end of 1999, FM transmissions had been extended to 110 capital cities, well on the way to meeting a target of 135 by 2003. At a time when international radio audiences generally have been shrinking, the World Service’s has been growing, and the current total of more than 150 million regular listeners is higher than ever. Short wave still accounts for more than 70 per cent of the total, however, and transmission quality in important regions is being upgraded by the construction of a new transmitter station in Oman and modernized facilities in Cyprus and Singapore.

Through the Internet, the World Service is reaching new audiences who were previously unable to hear its language services outside the target areas for short wave transmissions. Text and audio in all 43 languages are accessible through the main BBC Online Web site. Investment will fund further development of continuously updated multimedia Web sites in key languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Urdu, Russian, and Spanish. In English, Internet users can already listen to a choice of continuous live news or broadcast output, and the latest editions of regular news and feature programmes. The interactive programme “Talking Point” provides an international discussion forum. By November 2000, total page views for the World Service in all languages were exceeding 29 million a month.

In 2001 the BBC announced the merger of its World Service radio and online news operations with its international TV news channel BBC World, which is funded by advertising and viewer subscriptions. Some of the BBC’s competitors argued that the move would lead to the unfair subsidizing of the commercial channel with public money, but BBC managers maintained there would be no cross-funding between the two operations. The World Service celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2002 with a number of special events including a birthday lecture by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and a 14-hour programme live from Table Mountain, South Africa, the site of one of the Service’s first ever broadcasts.

BBC World Service is due to leave Bush House in 2006-2007, when it will join the BBC’s UK radio services and other news operations in a new digital broadcasting complex to be built at Broadcasting House.