The BBC World Service is the Corporation’s most essential service – we must preserve it at all costs

Reports suggest that the 91-year-old broadcaster has reached a crisis point in its funding – Tim Davie must urgently look at the maths

One day, when I retire, I will do all the things that I’ve wanted to do (well, those that aren’t prohibited by cost). This includes: watching the entirety of The West Wing, reading every novel by Emile Zola, and listening to the BBC World Service all day long. I am glad this international broadcaster exists, but I seldom have time to explore it.
But now I wonder whether, by the time I reach my late 60s, the World Service will even exist. Reports earlier this week suggested that the 91-year-old service has reached a crisis point in its funding, with the Corporation calling on the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office – whose subsidies part-finance the service, as do the licence fee and limited revenue from BBC Studios – to secure more cash ahead of the Prime Minister’s “painful” October budget.
The World Service has been facing severe challenges for years. In 2022, 380 positions were made redundant; in 2023, BBC Arabic Radio closed after 85 years of broadcasting. For me, any threat to a long-cherished institution – such as that to the BBC Singers last year – gives me an existential wobble. Even if I haven’t hitherto appreciated their worth, it makes me think of what could be lost.
My occasional dips into the World Service have all been rewarding. There’s The Arts Hour, presented by the consistently excellent Nikki Beda, which manages to talk to stars of such wattage as Janet Jackson and Billie Eilish, eliciting interesting conversation from them with a subtle and intelligent approach. I’ve gained invaluable snippets about the underground dance scene in Tbilisi and financial corruption in the Vatican. Despite the onslaught of globalisation, we in Britain are becoming increasingly parochial in our tastes: the World Service is the last bastion of a certain intelligent cosmopolitanism.
The World Service also has a crucial role to play in world affairs. Cuts to services means that we lose our foothold on the information wars, as deputy chief executive Jonathan Munro told The Times: “Every time we take a radio station down or reduce it to save money, the consequences are really significant… State actors from elsewhere in the world go in and put what we would describe as ‘propaganda’ into those markets.”
So what is to be done? While I feel the matter is serious enough for the Government to step in and increase the World Service’s funding, I can’t help thinking that the BBC need to urgently reallocate their radio budgets. Would the younger generation really be heartbroken if Radio 1 ended tomorrow? Do the salaries of certain Radio 2 presenters – Zoe Ball, for instance, at £950,000 a year – really need to be that high? Surely a few high-profile presenters could be sacrificed if it meant, even in a small way, helping the democratic process in countries where people are afraid to speak out. The World Service isn’t sexy, but it’s a crucial lifeline for many. Tim Davie must urgently look at the maths, and do all he can to save it.