Counting the days

Seven weeks to go before I start paying for the BBC World Service via the licence fee. The BBC Trust has published this short minute from its December meeting.

Subject to securing any necessary clearances from Government, the Trust endorsed the development of a consistent approach to funding and editorial rules and agreed that, from 1 April 2014, a limited amount of advertising and sponsored content that is not news and current affairs could be broadcast on BBC World Service. 

A little more flesh on this bare bone came from Director of BBC Global News, Peter Horrocks, in front of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee yesterday. World Service funding for next year is set at £245m; funding for the final two years of the current Charter has not been fixed, but Mr Horrocks believes it won't fall below £245m - it's the level of increased funding that has to be set. In terms of current commercial income, in the last financial year World Service received £4m from syndication, £2.5m in co-production money - and around £200k from ads on four foreign language websites. There are plans for ads on up to four more sites. 

Listeners in the UK to the World Service in English won't hear ads, but will probably pick up sponsored programmes.

Two things still hanging; the DCMS needs to sign off the alternative finance proposals; and the Editorial Standards Committee of the Trust need to approve draft Editorial Guidelines for BBC Global News Services on external relationships and funding - will the licence-fee payer see those before 1st April ?