Unfocussed

The BBC World Service's remaining flagship programme aimed at Africa, Focus On Africa, becomes a recorded podcast from Monday, after close to 63 years of live transmissions. Apparently, this saves money - the BBC response to the Government's freezing of the licence fee is to reduce what it spends on World Service programming by £30m a year. 

Focus On Africa The Podcast will get transmission slots on the remaining World Service relays, FM and AM partners and tv satellite services aimed at the continent. It's the last man standing of Network Africa and Good Morning Africa/Newsday. (I'm marginally surprised they didn't rebrand it Africast.) 

The move is a symptom of the contradictions in the Government and BBC positions on international broadcasting. The BBC used to be in the business of convincing the Government to spend on areas of the world where there was evidence of clear democratic deficit. George Osborne shamelessly made Mark Thompson take that spend out of licence fee money. In more recent years, the Foreign Office has come back with some money for 'special need' operations, but generally speaking, the BBC and Foreign Office don't find soft power in Africa, as generated by the BBC in English, a top priority anymore. 

This is so short-sighted. There have been so many tangential benefits - for example, it's clear that the interest in British football developed across Africa in the glory days of the transistor radio, and survives in sales of Premier League club shirts.  Focus on Africa has been a magazine and a tv show; why on earth reduce investment ?

Meanwhile the BBC internationally is entirely focused on conquering the USA. I wish this was because they've identified a democratic deficit. The project is being led by Americans, with new content about America being made by Americans in America. The budget, being deployed by BBC Studios, is a secret - as are the measures of success. Another reason to worry about the BBC's future....