BBC World Service Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General Presented to the BBC Trust Value for Money Committee, 14 June 2016
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BBC World Service Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General presented to the BBC Trust Value for Money Committee, 14 June 2016 BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION BBC World Service Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General presented to the BBC Trust Value for Money Committee, 14 June 2016 Presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport by Command of Her Majesty June 2016 © BBC 2016 The text of this document may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium providing that it is reproduced accurately and not in a misleading context. The material must be acknowledged as BBC copyright and the document title specified. Where third party material has been identified, permission from the respective copyright holder must be sought. BBC Trust response to the National Audit Office value for money review: BBC World Service In the four years to 2014-15 the government BBC Trust response cut core funding to the World Service by As the governing body of the BBC, the around 8% and, in response, the World Trust is responsible for ensuring that the Service reduced its annual expenditure by licence fee is spent efficiently and effectively. £46.8 million. Two thirds of these savings Value-for-money reviews like this one (almost £31 million) have been achieved are an integral part of the governance through greater efficiency and without framework through which the Trust fulfils an impact on audiences. For example, this responsibility. better integration with the BBC newsroom at Broadcasting House has created a The BBC Trust welcomes richer experience for both domestic and the National Audit Office’s international audiences while also saving conclusion that, through its money. The Service has used some of the transformation programme, savings to transform itself from a primarily radio-based operation to a multi-media the BBC World Service has broadcaster investing in online and mobile delivered value for money services and television news partnerships. This has enabled it to meet the challenges of Kofi Annan described the World Service as changing technology and consumer behaviour “perhaps Britain’s greatest gift to the world” and increased competition around the world. in the twentieth century. Since 1932 the Service has been broadcasting around the Some savings have also been achieved world, projecting the BBC’s core values in the through closing a small number of language form of accurate, independent, and impartial services delivered through short-wave radio news and current affairs. The audience has programmes, and reducing the scale of others. evolved as the provision of impartial news Decisions to close language services are has changed in local markets and the World complex, and involve trading off a number of Service now has an estimated audience of judgements such as the lack of impartial news 246 million people, which is growing year on in specific areas, the World Service’s ability year across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. to fill such gaps, and the likely cost of doing so. The Trust agrees with the NAO that the BBC could be clearer about how each of these different judgements contribute to the overall decision when recommending which language services to provide. On average, the service Continued independence reached an estimated of the World Service from 246 million people each government and politicians week in 2015-16 is vital Measuring the global audience of a service Around the globe, the World Service is that is provided in 29 languages, across consistently rated as the most trusted multiple platforms – and sometimes in hostile international news provider. political environments – is a challenge. The Trust is pleased that the NAO has As in the UK, global audiences trust the BBC recognised these difficulties, and found that to report the news accurately, impartially, the World Service makes a proportionate and without fear or favour. The BBC can attempt to estimate the number of users only do this if it is independent, and seen it attracts. The Trust agrees however that to be independent, of both government more could be done to ensure that users of and politicians. this figure are familiar with the inevitable limitations in the methodology used. To this The BBC Trust is in discussions with the end, it is helpful to note that in April 2016 Foreign and Commonwealth Office over the BBC published the standard error margin how the performance of new language associated with the surveys supporting the services funded by the government should global audience measure for the first time. be measured. As these discussions proceed, it will be vital to ensure that this reporting The Trust and the Foreign and mechanism supports rather than diminishes Commonwealth Office agree targets for the the BBC’s ability to report the news World Service and in 2013 the Trust set the accurately and without bias. World Service a headline global audience target of 200 million people. This target was consistent with forecasts for global audiences at the time, and it is a testament to the quality of the World Service’s programming that the target has been achieved two years ahead of schedule. As set out in the NAO’s report, the World Service has a range of objectives, priorities and targets. In setting these targets it is necessary to balance reach targets with other key objectives such as accuracy, impartiality and distinctiveness. We agree with the NAO that it is also important to ensure that appropriate arrangements are in place to ensure that performance targets continue to be set at the right level to maintain performance incentives. BBC’s Executive response to the National Audit Office’s value for money review of BBC World Service The BBC will consider how best to implement BBC Executive response the NAO recommendations. The BBC welcomes this report which recognises the tremendous achievements OO Review of targets: It is right that targets of the BBC World Service since 2010 in a are set as a means to incentivise and context of significant budget cuts, greater measure performance and ensure value global competition, increased needs for free for money. There can, however, be and independent news and fast-moving fluctuations in performance year on year changes in technology and the way audiences because of specific issues relating to consume media. individual countries in which we operate. Having multi-year targets to assess The NAO notes that, despite these many overall performance is therefore most challenges, the BBC World Service has appropriate, though we agree there generated significant savings through should be a clear process for periodic increased efficiency, invested in new services review to ensure they remain relevant, and significantly increased its audience reach. particularly given the degree of change in the media world. Indeed, as stated by the NAO, BBC World Service has delivered value for money OO Performance reporting: We welcome through this transformation. the recognition of the quality of our performance reporting despite the many This puts the BBC World Service in a very challenges we face. Audience reach and strong position to make the most efficient appreciation are the standard measures use of the additional funding granted by used by international broadcasters the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for as they are considered as the most the next four years and allow it to provide significant and robust. Indeed, this accurate, impartial and independent news to enables the BBC World Service to assess more audiences around the world. how well it performs compared with other providers. These two metrics will therefore remain core to the way we assess and report our performance. However, we will consider what further performance information can be reported in a cost effective way. OO Publication of our methodology: OO Assessment of cost-effectiveness: The methodology we use to calculate as recognised by the NAO, the World our audience figures is robust. Indeed, Service has delivered value for money. we rely on the combination of various However, our purpose is to provide free measurement approaches: ratings data and impartial information to audiences (ie equivalents of BARB/RAJAR in other around the world, and in some countries markets), social and digital analytics of particular audience need the cost data, and our own surveys in markets, of reaching audiences can be very often undertaken jointly with other high. Whilst we must take cost per international broadcasters. Each of these user metrics into account, it cannot approaches uses the most rigorous and be the main criterion to decide where robust techniques available in the world. we prioritise our resources. We take The objective is to provide as accurate efficiency incredibly seriously and always a picture as possible of the BBC World seek to deliver our services as cost Service’s audiences in every country effectively as possible in each market. around the world, whilst recognising that However, we accept that we could record there are countries where the measures better how we use this measure in our cannot be as good as in more developed strategic planning. markets. In any event, we take a conservative approach in aggregating the various data sources to calculate actual audience numbers. We have already published extensive information on this methodology, but remain committed to transparency and will consider what further detail we could disclose. British Broadcasting Corporation BBC World Service Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General This report has been prepared under Clause 79 of the Broadcasting Agreement, as amended, between the Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport and the BBC dated July 2006 Sir Amyas Morse KCB Comptroller and Auditor General National Audit Office 7 June 2016 This report examines whether the BBC World Service is meeting its plans to change significantly its services, operations and costs while managing the impact on current and future performance.