Company news

Tracking whose money pays for what in BBC News was always difficult, making sure that 'internal trading' between Foreign Office-funded World Service output and licence-fee funded domestic news was at least moderately transparent and explainable. It's been less of an issue since the licence-fee took over responsibility for the major part of World Service output. 

The complexity has increased with the drive to conquer The USA, via bbc.com, FAST channels, apps, and subscription offers - and this year, in India, a 'third-party' company had to be created by the BBC to keep broadcasting in line with new government rules. 

So now a big new brain is required to keep all this stuff 'compliant'. He or she will be call 'Divisional Company Secretary'. BBC News is clearly not a company within a company, though many in other divisions think it acts like one, and will cite this as yet more evidence.  

• There is still a BBC News Ltd, which was set up in 2000, to exploit the supply of news services to mobile phones. In its first published accounts, two years later, it reported a loss of £12 on a turnover of £107,500. It 'ceased trading' in 2003, though accountants have been keeping the dormant shell ticking over - currently it has a single director, Peter Ranyard, Assistant General Counsel and Head of Commercial Legal.