The BBC is in the middle of a slow campaign to sort out funding of the World Service. Our current Foreign Secretary takes a rather Bullingdon/PR view of 'fairness' in this matter, speaking on 12th March.
"The BBC World Service is funded in two ways: there is money from the Foreign Office and money from the licence fee, and that is settled and fixed until the end of this coming financial year. It is basically one-third from the Foreign Office and two-thirds from the licence fee, which is a pretty fair way of doing things."
It's not fair - it's a mess, and Mr Cameron is directly responsible. In 2010 he and George Osborne moved the goalposts, bullying BBC DG Mark Thompson into paying for the whole of World Service output out of licence fee revenue from 2014, with commitments about maintaining the level of funding. Previously, World Service finance was a matter for the Foreign Office; from 2014, unsuspecting licence-fee payers had £254m a year 'lifted' from what previously had been a 'hypothecated tax' aimed at providing information, education and entertainment for those in the UK.
Of course, and not just since the Office of Budget Responsibility decided the obvious - that the licence fee was essentially a Government-determined tax - we all pay for everything.
But only a year after the transfer of funding to the BBC, the Foreign Office realised the value of a healthy and innovating World Service in soft power, and, from 2016, started adding back direct cash at around £90m a year - which, more or less continues until today.
A new settlement should see a return to the old ways; the Foreign Office taking a political strategic view of where in the world it should focus effort, and determining the appropriate amount of taxpayers' money to be spent over the next five years; the BBC offering a service-level agreement that responds to the strategic view, and delivering content with full editorial independence.
BBC World Service Presents to feature documentary premieres, panel discussions and live programme recordings across three days from 29 April showcasing BBC journalism from around the world
— BBC News Press Team (@BBCNewsPR) April 9, 2024
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