This month marks the 30th anniversary of the BBC broadcasting a free-to-air TV news service across Europe. But is what started as a commercial enterprise now costing the UK licence fee payer?
- Licence fee funded part of the BBC now carries the burden for an enterprise that was originally ordered to be commercially self-funding.
At 19:00 GMT on the 26th January 1995, the BBC launched BBC World as a free-to-air news channel via the Eutelsat II F-1 satellite across Europe.
For the first time in history, the BBC had made a channel widely available in Europe on a free-to-air basis. Viewers could access news on the hour, every hour, over 2 1/2 years before UK viewers had their own equivalent service. Distribution deals allowed BBC World’s satellite signal to be retransmitted widely by cable operators across the continent, rapidly boosting its reach.
The launch followed a major overhaul of the BBC fledgling international TV business, which had started in 1987 by launching a subscription channel delivering a mix of BBC One and BBC Two programmes to Europe. The BBC expanded to Asia in March 1991, when international TV was brought under BBC World Service branding. The Asia feed of BBC World Service TV was a news focused service, which was later also relayed in parts of Africa. Meanwhile, the Europe feed continued with a mix of BBC One and BBC Two programmes, plus World Service News.
On 16th January 1995, BBC World Service TV’s Asia feed morphed into BBC World. Ten days later, a free-to-air feed of BBC World launched in Europe. The existing encrypted BBC World Service TV Europe feed turned into BBC Prime.
Government refused to use public money to pay for BBC international TV
Unlike BBC World Service Radio, which at the time received funding from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Government wouldn’t provide public funding for the BBC’s international TV services. Instead, the BBC was told to fund the service commercially, which it then did through advertising and subscriptions. Coinciding with the January 1995 change, the BBC’s commercial arm BBC Enterprises became BBC Worldwide, responsible for monetising the BBC brand and its programmes abroad. Ford and British Airways became the first advertisers on the European feed of BBC World.
Initially reliant on programmes originally made for the BBC’s domestic channels, BBC World started to commission its own programmes, including HARDtalk (March 1997), Talking Movies (February 1999) and Click Online (April 2000). BBC News 24 later picked up these programmes, initially often as off-peak filler programmes.
The channel rebranded as BBC World News in 2008, increasing its global news coverage.
Commercial funding dries up
Despite broadcasting free-to-air on satellite across Europe, some TV platforms put the channel behind a paywall. In 2017, former BBC Director General Tony Hall lobbied unsuccessfully for funding for the channel to become more widely free-to-air across Europe and North Africa. At the time, there were reports of falling commercial revenue for the channel. BBC World News faced increasing competition from a range of more recently launched news services. Rivals included the Kremlin-funded RT, China’s state media owned CGTN and TRT World, the English-language channel from Turkish broadcaster TRT.
During the pandemic, editorial control and day-to-day operation of the channel was handed over to the licence fee funded public service division of BBC News, removing the funding divide between its UK and international TV news channels. This in turn paved the way for the BBC to combine its UK and world news channels in 2023. BBC-branded entertainment channels globally continue to operate under the BBC Studios, the modern-day commercial arm of the broadcaster.
It means the UK licence fee payer is now responsible for covering more of the cost of the BBC’s international services.
Licence fee money spent on international services
A decision made by the coalition Government in 2010 that made licence fee payers responsible for BBC World Service radio has resulted in BBC management having to decide between BBC local services and international radio each time funding is reviewed.
That funding dilemma now stretches to TV, with UK focused news replaced by news programmes designed for international audiences. The BBC recruited new staff for its US operations at the same time as cutting staff serving BBC local and regional services in the UK.
BBC Studios continues to promote advertising and distribution opportunities for BBC News internationally to offset the cost of operating the channel around the globe. However, the revenue is understood to be insufficient to offset the cuts to licence fee funding BBC News has been subject to in the past two years.
Future funding for news?
News organisations are scrambling to find alternative income streams as viewers shift from traditional broadcasting. That’s resulting in the threat of job cuts and changes to services. The BBC’s answer is to shift the financial risk on the licence fee payer. As licence fee income has shrunk, it’s recruited new staff to cover the USA at the same time as staff posts at local and regional news services are cut. Whether that is sustainable and whether UK audiences will continue to want to foot the bill for international broadcasts remains to be seen.
By: Marc Thornham | Image: Collage/BBC