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BBC World Service Foreign Office

MPs oppose BBC plans to commercialise World Service

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By John Glenday, Reporter

January 10, 2014 | 2 min read

A group of MPs sitting on the Commons foreign affairs select committee have voiced their opposition to plans by the BBC to commercialise the World Service, after citing concerns over budget cuts and the ‘steady erosion’ of influence.

The opposition was outlined in the committee’s annual review of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which will be free of its obligation to fund the service from April when the burden is passed to BBC license-fee payers.

With that switchover date fast-approaching the BBC has begun integrating the service with its domestic operations and is considering proposals to limit foreign language services to those which are commercially self-sustaining.

In the report MPs noted: “We continue to be concerned that the protection of the BBC World Service's interests within the BBC's governance structure is not as strong as is being claimed.

"And the picture appears to us to be one of steady erosion of World Service influence within the BBC. The result may be that the World Service is more regularly denied the resources it needs to maintain or develop services.”

A spokesperson for the World Service said: “We have introduced advertising on our Russian, Arabic and Spanish-language online sites and trialled some advertising on our FM radio frequency in Berlin. The BBC's reputation for providing impartial and independent news will always take precedence over wider commercial goals."

The BBC remain adamant however that advertising will not feature on World Service broadcasting in the UK.

BBC World Service Foreign Office

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