Getting in first

Mark Thompson's speech at Chatham House yesterday (The Guardian's headline: BBC new vital to UK's overseas image) was the first public sighting of this year's campaign for World Service funding. Gordon Brown, probably rightly, decided the overdue public service spending review was too rich meat for survival ahead of an election, but The World Service, like many other organisations, now urgently needs to get an understanding on Foreign Office funding for the next three years.

The research for the BBC - which I can't yet find in full online - asked "opinion formers" in Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey and Kenya, a range of questions about the impact of various UK organisations. Rather cheekily, the BBC included The British Council - a clear competitor for funds. The BBC's selection of countries to research is not entirely random. Strategists would like to follow the current version of an Arabic TV service with similar services in Urdu, and for Africa. But new tv services require either additional funding - or a further switch away from some existing language services on radio. And the focus is on news, not entertainment and drama. It's now up to Peter Horrocks to win the heart of William Hague, and persuade him the BBC needs a continuing slice of Treasury money.