Clearer tonight ?

The job at the BBC today is to get on and report the Spending Review.  It won't be until this evening that DG Mark Thompson begins taking senior staff through the BBC's own funding deal.  And he as no option but to call the hours of to-ing and fro-ing at Cockspur Street a draw, achieved in difficult circumstances.

Such spin as is already out there describes it as a 16% cut in real terms over six years.  By the evening bulletins, that could seem like a very good deal compared with the bulk of the public sector.  The risk remains that the true cut is deeper because of rising wage inflation, increased costs of indie production as the commercial sector recovers, and, probably, increased delivery costs in a world moving to IP.  The commercial sector will argue, as they already are up at the Radio Festival, that none of their operations can say what their income will be over six years. 

I'm probably sounding like a cracked record on this - but the mechanics of preserving the World Service values need sorting.  The BBC, however clever it may be, cannot set itself up as an expert on world diplomacy, magisterially deciding like a mini-UN when, where and in what languages it broadcasts. I have previously argued that it should retreat to the 12 top global languages and stay there; but that would really mean curtains for services to countries where there is an acknowledged democratic deficit.

If Thommo plays fair, and spreads the cuts of 16% evenly across the piece, World Service may actually do a little better than insiders had forecast; the long-term risk is a gradual erosion of authority and experience in world broadcasting if the domestic side of the operation plays dirty.   Imagine a world where the BBC Executive had to decide whether on not to spend £10m on, say, a Persian tv service, or £10m on classic drama for Christmas ?