MPs on Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee are to hear from a number of current and former BBC bosses as part of their inquiry into the World Service.
The service, which reaches a global audience of 318 million people and is available in 42 languages, is majority funded by the Licence Fee but also receives some additional funding from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
The Committee is examining the services the World Service provides, how it is paid for, the challenges it faces operating around the world, and the pressures funding it from the licence fee places on other services provided by the corporation.
BBC Director General Tim Davie has previously suggested it was no longer appropriate to ask Licence Fee payers to invest in the World Service “when we face cuts to UK services.”
At a hearing next Tuesday, MPs will first hear from two current senior World Service executives, followed by former BBC Chair Richard Sharp and Richard Sambrook, Emeritus Professor at Cardiff University and previously Director of BBC News and the World Service.
The inquiry is running alongside another on the World Service from the Foreign Affairs Committee, which will hold an evidence session in the afternoon focussing on the World Service’s soft power and the long-term viability of its funding model.
Schedule:
From 10am:
- Fiona Crack, Joint Controller World Service Languages and Deputy Global Director BBC News
- Jon Zilkha, Controller World Service English, BBC News
From 10.45am:
- Richard Sharp, Partner of SW7 and former Chair of the BBC
- Richard Sambrook, Emeritus Professor at Cardiff University, and former Director of BBC News and the World Service