News, advertising, and the licence fee

Here's an enigmatic note from the BBC Trust meeting at the end of October - "Discussion on the Executive's proposals around the BBC's international news services". Apart from the rather poor use of "around" rather than "for", this is still an important next step for the BBC.

Inside the organisation, some time ago, the great hope for funding linear international services was advertising income from the BBC.com sites. The Trust was less sure about "hypothecating" that income and blending it with Foreign Office funding to keep World Service in better shape. This supposed golden goose was also lined up to reduce the BBC Worldwide unspoken subsidy of BBC World's losses.

Now the challenge is different - to set a funding model for the BBC's international services that the licence fee payer can understand and support.

The rapid change is that, while BBC World Service has had to cut down on broadcasts in English "tailored" for various regions, to save money, BBC World is racing ahead with opt-outs that give that regional focus to satellite tv audiences. The sadness is the gap between the two means talented people have had to leave - when useful work is just round the corner.