Committees

The future of the BBC World Service

Inquiry

The Culture, Media and Sport Committee is to hold a short inquiry into the BBC World Service.

The World Service broadcasts in 42 languages, including English, reaching an estimated 320 million people globally each week. Most of the World Service’s global audience access the World Service in its local language. BBC World Service is funded primarily from the UK licence fee alongside additional funding from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The recent Budget announcement included extra funds for the World Service, from the FCDO budget, but only for the financial year 2025-26. BBC Director General Tim Davie has argued that funding for the World Service should be the responsibility of central Government, as it used to be before 2014.

The Committee’s inquiry will look at the services the World Service provides, how it is paid for, the challenges it faces operating around the world, and the pressures funding the World Service from the licence fee places on other BBC services.

The inquiry will run parallel to another inquiry on the World Service from the Foreign Affairs Committee.

This inquiry is no longer accepting evidence

The deadline for submissions was Tuesday 17 December 2024.

Upcoming events

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No upcoming events scheduled

Past events

Tuesday 17 December 2024
1:30pm Private
2:00pm Public
Oral evidence session 17 December 2024
The future of the BBC World Service; The future of the BBC World Service - Oral evidence
2:00pm
  • Tim Davie CBE (Director General at BBC)
  • Jonathan Munro (Global Director and Deputy CEO, BBC News at BBC)
3:00pm
  • The Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Latin America and Caribbean) at Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
  • Patricia Seex (Deputy Director, Partnerships and Corporate Management at Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
  • Stephanie Peacock MP (Minister for Sport, Media, Civil Society and Youth at Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
  • Helen Martin (Deputy Director, BBC Policy at Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Room 8, Palace of Westminster
Tuesday 19 November 2024
9:30am Private
10:00am Public
The future of the BBC World Service - Oral evidence 19 November 2024
10:00am
  • Fiona Crack (Controller Content Language Services and Deputy Global Director, BBC News at BBC World Service)
  • Jon Zilkha (Controller World Service English at BBC World Service)
10:45am
  • Richard Sharp
  • Professor Richard Sambrook
Room 16, Palace of Westminster

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