Funding boost for BBC World Service under licence fee support

The BBC World Service will receive a £5 million (€5.9 million) boost in income to £245 million when it moves to being funded by the licence fee next year.

Following a written ministerial statement from the foreign secretary on his department’s spending for the current financial year, BBC Trust chairman Chris Patten said: “When it comes under licence fee funding from April next year, the BBC Trust will be able to give the World Service a far greater degree of financial security, from which it can continue to provide its much-needed and valued services for audiences around the world. From 1 April 2014 the total budget for the World Service from the licence fee will be £245m, an increase of over £5m a year on the new level of grant now being provided from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.”

The move to licence fee funding was agreed as part of the licence fee settlement reached between the government and the BBC in 2010.