Annual Review 2009/10

contents

Our aims
To be the world’s best-known
and most respected voicein international news, thereby
bringing beneﬁt to the UK,
the BBC and to audiences
around the world.
To provide the most trusted,
relevant and high-quality
international news in theworld – an indispensable
service of independent analysis
and explanation, with aninternational perspective that
promotes greater understandingof complex issues.
To connect and engage
audiences by facilitating an
informed and intelligent dialogue– a global conversation –which transcends international
borders and cultural divides,
giving audiences opportunities
to create, publish and share
their views and stories.
To enable people, by sodoing, to make sense of theirincreasingly complex world
and, thus empowered, leadmore fulfilling lives.

Cover User generated content from the streetsof Tehran became central to BBC World Service
coverage of Iran’s presidential elections – pictured,a woman wearing an Iranian flag uses a mobile phoneon the streets of the capital in June 2009
BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

02

06

12

14

16

20

Our aims
01	A year in numbers
02 Director’s overview
06	A year in review
06 Haiti earthquake
10	Iran’s election crisis
12	Afghanistan’s story
14	Multimedia Africa
16	Global health18	Audience impact
20 Greater collaboration
24	BBC World Service Board

25	Awards recognition
26	Measuring our
performance
30	Financial review 2009/10
31 Auditor’s Report
32	Financial statements
35	Statement ofaccounting policies
38	Notes to thefinancial statements
52 GovernanceFurther information

A year in numbers

The BBC World Service Global Audience Estimate is derived from independent research.
This year’s average weekly audience figure incorporates new data from 25 countries – 57% of this year’s audience.

22

million180
BBC Arabic’s total audience – now our largest language service

39%
Increase in visitors to BBC World Service online

8.4

BBC Burma total audience – an increase of 1.3 million

million10
1.4
3.1million

BBC Persian’s estimated viewing in IranmillionAudience increase in Tanzania

600,000
US audience gain, primarily through partner radio stations

70%
Traffic increase to BBC Global News
mobile pages on bbc.com

millionOverall BBC World
Service audience onradio, TV and online

20million

Decrease in short wave radio listening – impact
felt particularly in Bangladesh, India and Nigeria

million

Listeners in Afghanistan

72%
Increase in the estimated audience of non-English television

The figures show the success of our multimedia strategy
and investments for global audiences. But the continued
dramatic decline in short wave listening shows that thoseaudiences are rapidly changing the way they access international
news. Unless BBC World Service can accelerate its responseto those changes, it will face a rapid deterioration in its impact”
Peter Horrocks, Director of BBC World Service & BBC Global News

BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

01

director’s overview

RISING TO THE
GLOBAL CHALLENGE

BBC World Service delivered outstanding journalism
on radio, television, online and mobile platforms, bringing
a wider perspective to audiences in closer collaboration
with other parts of BBC Global News

T

Peter Horrocks
DIRECTOR, BBC world service
Peter Horrocks became Directorof BBC World Service in April 2009.
He assumed the overall responsibility
as Director of BBC Global Newsin February 2010.

BBC Global News
BBC World Service is partof an integrated international
news and information division.
BBC Global News wasformally established on
1 December 2002 andcomprises BBC World Service,
BBC World News, the BBC’sinternational news online
services, BBC Monitoringand BBC World Service Trust.

his is my first overview of theyear as Director of BBC World
Service. It is a privilege toassume responsibility for the world’s mostrespected international news organisation
and BBC Global News at such a crucial
point in its long and remarkable history.
	The enduring respect and affection
people have for BBC World Service
was brought home to me when I visited
India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt,
Nigeria, Kenya and Angola during the year.
The challenge lies in making the changes
necessary to retain our reputation for
the future at a time of profound economic,
social and technological change. Global
audience measurement reveals that theinevitable decline in short wave listeninghas gathered pace, as predicted. The impact
proved particularly significant in India and
Bangladesh. The net result was a fall in
BBC World Service’s global weekly audiencefrom the 2009 peak of 188 million to
180 million, although the BBC World Service
English audience is broadly level at justunder 40 million. And, overall, the total
radio, television and online audience for
BBC Global News is up from 238 million
to 241 million.
At the leading edge
The headline figures only tell part ofthe story, however. The strategic moveinto Arabic and Persian television channels
has been vindicated, although accurate
measurement is difficult in countries suchas Iran, where contact with the BBC is aprohibited activity. BBC Arabic’s 24-hour
television channel has achieved highprofessional standards and is now placing
more emphasis on creative ways of

02	BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

engaging audiences and standing out
in a crowded market. Mobile phone
and internet development is also making
an increasingly important contribution.
There has been encouraging take up of
new mobile phone applications in Hausa
and Swahili, where the BBC is at theleading edge of developments.
	To gauge BBC World Service’s wider
effectiveness, it is essential to take into
account its role in raising editorial standards.
We are only beginning to appreciate
the full impact of our journalism on local
media and even on the course of events.
When I was in Kenya, for example, I saw
how newspapers trusted BBC Swahili
to verify reports of witness intimidation.
In Nigeria, President Umaru Yar’Adua’s
exclusive interview for BBC Hausa shortly
before his death played a central role inthe country’s constitutional debate. Aftermonths of speculation about his health,he spoke to the BBC because it symbolised
credibility. It’s this kind of exclusive interview
which reinforces our impact – we get theinterviews that others can only hope forand they make headlines across the globe.
Inspiring new generations
We are also working to raise standards
through both BBC World Service and BBC
World Service Trust training programmes,
developing and inspiring new generationsof journalists and instilling values of
independent journalism in other media
organisations around the world. Initiatives
include journalism training for online
bloggers in Syria, phone-in training forrural stations in Uganda and radio training
in Sudan ahead of the country’s firstelection in 24 years.

01

01 The high profile of BBC Persian,as the main source of independent news
and analysis, caused some pro-government
protestors to publicly demonstrate against it.
02 Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua’s
exclusive interview for BBC Hausa playeda central role in the country’s constitutional
debate. 03 BBC International Development
Correspondent Mark Doyle interviewing
Haiti President Rene Preval shortly after
the country’s devastating earthquake.
02

03

	BBC World Service stands out fromother international broadcasters throughits ability to present a truly global point ofview. In covering Afghanistan, for example,
we can do more than embed journalists
with the armed forces. Our teams can talkto Afghan villagers, telling international and
UK audiences what they think about theissues that affect them. The investigation
into fraud and corruption in Afghanistan’s
general election was one of the year’s
outstanding pieces of journalism.
	We are determined to harness thecontribution of every language service
to the full, sharing content and expertise
more effectively with all the BBC’s global
media platforms and also with UK
audiences. During the year we madeimportant progress in ensuring contributors

have the right skills and news contacts
to access the English output, and a newvideo hub enables all language services
to exchange video content. As a result,
BBC World Service journalism achieved
greater exposure across the BBC, combining
efficient use of resources with greater
depth and insight to our news programmes.
Collaboration across
BBC Global NewsThe reorganisation of BBC Global News
announced in March 2010 is an important
step in preparation for the move to theBBC’s multimedia news centre in London
W1 in 2012. It integrates senior editorial
roles where possible whilst retaining
audience brands and accountability
mechanisms as necessary. Collaboration

across BBC Global News ensures wecan share language service content andexpertise more effectively with all theBBC’s global and UK media platforms.
	The outcome will be more content likethe SuperPower season, which exploredthe power of the world wide web, oneof the programme highlights of the year.
BBC World Service English joined forces
with the BBC World News television
channel, bbc.com and our language
services to bring a range of stories andperspectives, including fascinating insightsfrom Afghanistan, Iraq and Nigeria.
	Sharing content made an outstanding
difference throughout the bitterly
contested re-election of Iranian president
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and its aftermath.
Within months of its launch, BBC Persian >We are determined to harness the contribution of every language service to the full,sharing content and expertise more effectively with all the BBC’s global media platforms
and also with UK audiences”

BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

03

director’s overview continued

04> television was regularly contributing

to BBC news channels for the UK andaround the world. For audiences in Iran,
BBC Persian’s multimedia service provided
impartial news, an alternative perspective
and a forum for debate. A significant
aspect of its appeal included non-news
content – music, cultural and interactive
programming – giving people an insight
into Iran’s relationship with the wider
world and how its future might be.
	The advantages of increased
collaboration were also apparent in ouroutstanding coverage of the earthquake in
Haiti. The international teams united against
the odds, not only to cover the news andbring lifeline programming, but to extend
FM transmission and even launch a Creole
language service on air through thosecrucial early days. A true testament to what
we can achieve when we work as one.

05

06

Citizen journalism
The volume of videos, text messages
and emails that BBC Persian received
demonstrated another of the year’s
key themes. Video sharing and social
media have grown dramatically inimportance, both as a journalistic source
and a way of distributing content. BBC
programme-makers have had to adapt.
They must ensure that information fromsocial media networks is authenticatedand validated, and interactive programmes
reflect a range of views. On the distributionside, many English programmes andlanguage services have set up Facebook
sites and Twitter feeds which are providing
links to news stories.
	BBC World Service will be a standard
setter in the new platforms and the
new spaces, just as it has over the years
in radio. The BBC global news podcast

is the BBC’s most successful, with around
two million downloads a month. Ourinteractive content on radio, television,
online and mobile applies the same highstandards, ensuring that people with
opposing views can disagree with eachother, but we hold the ring in a rationaland courteous way. Our aspiration is tohave more television programming andmore video that is available on a varietyof platforms, including online.
	In an extremely tough financial climate,with continued uncertainty over future
public spending plans, BBC World Service
maintained its strong track record ofachieving efficiency and cost-saving targets.
	The BBC World Service Choices
programme involved staff in establishing
future priorities and savings opportunities.
We are ready to move fast and flexibly
when the funding outcome is known.

We are only beginning to appreciate the full impact of our journalism
on local media and even on the course of events”

04	BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

07

08

10

09

11

	The breadth and depth of expertisethat I have found at BBC World
Service is remarkable. Never before
have I worked with such an extraordinary,
diverse and passionate group of people,
bringing together so many different
cultures, nationalities and perspectives.
I am grateful to them all and would also
particularly like to thank Nigel Chapman,
former Director of BBC World Service,
and Richard Sambrook, former Directorof BBC Global News, for the legacy
they left to build upon.
	BBC World Service is an enduring
gift to the world. Over the decades,
the UK has given sustained support to theprinciple of news with guaranteed editorial
independence. I am confident that we shallrise to the challenge of upholding thoseprecious values in the very different media
environment of the future. n

04 Director of BBC World Service Peter
Horrocks is pictured with Head of BBC Somali
Yusuf Garaad Omar (far right) at SuperPower
Nation Day at Shoreditch Town Hall, London,in March. The event was a six-hour experimentusing an automatic machine translation service
to see how the internet can break down
language barriers. Speakers of Arabic, Chinese,
English, Indonesian, Persian, Portuguese andSpanish communicated with each other fromaround the world. 05 BBC’s Aftershock season
explored how the global recession, epitomisedby the collapse of global investment bank
Lehman Brothers, had affected people’s lives.
06 BBC presenter Ros Atkins hosts World
Have Your Say in Miami, US, following the deathof singer Michael Jackson. 07 BBC reporter
Hugh Sykes interviewing two Pashtun farmers
in Afghanistan. 08 Nigeria is now the largest
African market for traffic to BBC mobile sites.
09 BBC Somali continues to play a pivotal
role in sharing the ongoing Somali pirates story
across the world. Pictured are pirates captured
by a Portuguese Navy frigate in the Somali Basinoff the Seychelles. 10 Vote-rigging allegations
during the Afghanistan presidential election
were investigated by BBC World Service teams
working closely with colleagues in BBC News.
11 BBC World Service Trust Project Director
Hannington Muyenje leads a session on in-studiobehaviour for community leaders in Uganda.

BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

05

What the BBC stands forWith huge global interest in the Haiti
earthquake, several language services
sent their own teams to cover the story.
Among them was BBC Arabic television,
whose reporter and cameraman wereamong the first to find fake charity
workers involved in kidnapping children,which developed into a lead story.
“Co-operation on the ground between
all the BBC news teams was paramountto our success,” says BBC Arabic reporter
Abderrahim El-Farsi. “After I came backfrom disaster-stricken Haiti, a seniorcolleague from Al Jazeera told me it wasa reminder of what the BBC really stands
for. I felt proud of the work we did there.”

01

06	BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

A year in review HAITI Earthquake

GIVING UNIQUE
LIFELINE SUPPORTWith Haiti’s infrastructure and traditional media devastated,
BBC World Service quickly stepped in to fulfil twovital roles. It provided life-saving information to people
directly affected, including the launch of the BBC’s
first-ever Creole programme, and kept audiences aroundthe world up to date with breaking developmentsW

hen a massive 7.0-magnitude
earthquake struck Haiti
on 12 January, BBC World
Service responded swiftly. With thecountry’s infrastructure devastatedand hundreds of thousands of people
killed or injured, coverage of thedisaster presented major editorial andlogistical challenges. Close collaboration
proved critically important as news
teams from English and other language
services shared information and efforts
to deploy correspondents.
The BBC fulfilled two vital roles:
bringing the latest news to audiences
around the world and providing informationand support for people directly affectedby the earthquake. It was one of the firstnews organisations to arrive at the scene,delivering high-quality multimedia
reporting in English and other languages.
The BBC Caribbean service provided
analysis and information about Haiti andits local politics to many BBC news outlets,
as well as expanding its own online andradio operations, with regular updates
on Caribbean Report. Newsgathering’s
correspondent Matthew Price and BBC
World Service producer James Fletcher
were among the first journalists into
Haiti following the earthquake, andtheir reports from the hospital grounds
in Port-au-Prince were used extensively
across the output. The World Have Your
Say team happened to be in Florida
at the time and, by making contact with
the Haitian community, were able toreflect the diaspora’s anguish and distressin a series of powerful programmes.

01 A crowd of people wait for goods to be
thrown from the roof of a partially collapsed
warehouse in downtown Port-au-Prince.

Connexion Haiti
Special lifeline services were launchedin response to the humanitarian crisis,
initially in French, Spanish and English,
then in the Haitian national language,
Creole. A full multimedia and multilingual
team was assembled to broadcast fromthe BBC Mundo newsroom in Miami.
Koneksyon Ayiti (Connexion Haiti) was
available on satellite, online and via social
media, as well as being transmitted
on FM through Radio France Internationaletransmitters in six cities.
The BBC’s first-ever Creole programme
was a key source of information to Haitians,
including rescue and aid teams on the
ground. It relayed vital updates, suchas the location of a temporary hospital,water supplies and food drops. >+Collaborative
working
It was clear from the startthat it would be extremely
difficult to communicate
with news teams in Haiti
and for them to operate
in the field, given the extent
and magnitude of destructionin the country. Collaborative
working was the key to thesuccess of the whole operation.
“We worked very closely
together, collaborating andsharing many pieces of
information and efforts
to deploy correspondents
around the island,” says
Executive Editor of Americas,
Americo Martins Dos Santos.
“The end result was high-quality
reporting in all outlets, fromthe multimedia English output
in Global News to the several
language services that deployed
their own teams to cover
the tragedy.”

BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

07

A year in review HAITI Earthquake continued*

Patience andresilience
The BBC’s International
Development Correspondent
Mark Doyle reported live from
Haiti in the early days following
the earthquake, mainly forNewshour on BBC World Service,
but also for domestic BBC radio
programmes. He broadcast from
wherever he could and recalls
the moment when this picture
was taken by BBC reporter
James Fletcher.
“The man standing by
the door is the radio team’s
security adviser. He’s wearing
a handkerchief over his mouthbecause there is a dead body
nearby. A few moments earliera crowd of hungry people had
surged past us, helping
themselves to sacks of rice
off the back of a moving lorry.
I was very pleased he took
up the position to protect
the broadcast equipment
and myself.
“Most Haitians had shown
enormous patience andresilience, and despite being
made homeless and seeing
their loved ones die violently,
most people queued patiently
for food aid. As it turned
out, they didn’t get much aid
and that became the story.”> Launching the programme in just fourdays was a major challenge. With theBBC’s only freelance journalist in Haiti
homeless after the earthquake, producers
from the BBC World Service newsroom
and a Creole speaker from BBC Caribbean
were joined by Creole-speaking presenters
recruited from the Haitian community
in Miami. The BBC World Service Trustadvised on best practice for lifeline radio,
helping to ensure that local voices andexperiences were fully reflected.
“Inside Haiti there are millions who
are trying to get on with their lives and finda way out and back from the devastation
caused by the earthquake – not only inPort-au-Prince but in many other cities,
like Leogane and Jacmel,” reported Emilio
San Pedro, Americas Editor for BBC
World Service news and one of the
Koneksyon Ayiti team. “Our programme’s

aim was to help the survivors cope, to learn
to move on and to rebuild.”
Sixteen-year-old Pennaise Macary wasreunited with his Haitian-American motherafter sending a text to the BBC’s lifeline
number. “One of the strengths of the
programme was the interaction with theaudience on a daily basis via emails and text
messages,” says Marie-Claire Williams, oneof the editors. “A highlight was the successin reuniting a boy in Port-au-Prince withhis mother in Boston – this was a reminderof what the programme was really about.”“The programme offered much-needed
basic information about the rescue andreconstruction efforts,” says Executive
Editor of Americas, Americo Martins
Dos Santos. “It had a great impact andprovided the survivors of the tragedy
with a unique service that helped themat the time they most needed us.”

Co-operation on the ground between
all the BBC news teams was paramount to our success”
Abderrahim El-Farsi, reporter, BBC Arabic television

08	BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

Filling the media gap
In the immediate aftermath of theearthquake, with traditional formsof communication out of action,
new and emerging media filled a
crucial gap, breaking news direct fromdevastated areas. Much of the information
available came via Skype and Twitter,and BBC World Service used the same
tools to inform people about its lifeline
programming. The website
bbccaribbean.com ran a Twitter site
dedicated to Haiti and covered reaction
from the Caribbean and Haitian diasporas.
BBC Monitoring added video sharing
and social media from Haiti to its sources
for all news outlets.
Caribbean focal point
BBC Caribbean was the focal point formuch of the coverage of the earthquake
and its aftermath. It gave backgroundinformation to many BBC news outlets
for UK as well as international audiences.
“When the story and the needs ofthe Haitian people could both be served
by a large and often complicated news
organisation such as the BBC, there isa sense of gratitude that public service

02

03

05

04

06

07

02 Mobile texts to the BBC’s lifeline programmes helped reunite families. Keeping their phones charged ensured Haitians could connect with the outside
world. 03 BBC International Development Correspondent Mark Doyle broadcasting from a makeshift studio in Haiti. 04/05 The BBC’s Creole-language
broadcasts gave Haitians the information they needed to cope with the trauma of the earthquake and start rebuilding their lives. 06 UN peacekeeping
troops allow BBC Arabic reporter Abderrahim El-Farsi and his cameraman to film from the top of their armoured car in front of the presidential palacein Port-au-Prince. 07 BBC World Affairs Correspondent Matt Price preparing to go live from Haiti.

broadcasting can be more than thedaily news agenda,” says Debbie Ransome,
Head of BBC Caribbean.
As the work of reconstruction goeson, the service is committed to keeping
the story alive with people on the ground.
Spanish and French
services team up
The lifeline service for Haiti was initiallylaunched as a combined operation between
the BBC Afrique (French for Africa) and
BBC Mundo (Spanish) services, together
with the flagship English-language news
programme Newshour. French is widely

understood in Haiti. In two special
short wave transmissions on the weekend
after the earthquake, BBC Afrique
got through to UNICEF on the groundto find out about aid efforts and givepractical advice to survivors on how
they could track down family members.
“It demonstrated the BBC’s capacity
to provide news and information to those
who need it most,” says Razvan Scortea,
Head of BBC Afrique. “It was also agreat example of collaboration between
different parts of BBC World Service
and it opened the way for the special
Creole transmissions that followed.” n+Online impact
Sharp increases in usage
were recorded by online
services in the aftermathof the earthquake.
On 13 January, BBC Mundo
attracted 459,000 uniqueusers, 108% higher thanan average day in 2009.
Video requests reachedmore than 300,000 per day.
The BBC Caribbean site
recorded a 144% increasein page impressions during
the first morning.

Connexion Haiti had a great impact and provided the survivors of thetragedy with a unique service that helped them at the time they most needed us”
Americo Martins Dos Santos, Executive Editor of Americas

BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

09

A year in review IRAN’s Election crisis

CITIZEN JOURNALISM
COMES OF AGE
Iran’s presidential election represented a watershed moment for BBC Persian.
As the government jammed its television broadcasts to the country and websites
were shut off, it became a platform unrivalled in its ability to give Iranian citizens
a voice and a means to share news across their country and around the worldIn the aftermath of Iran’s 2009presidential election, BBC Persian wasreceiving up to eight user generated
communications per minute. As videos,
text messages and emails flooded in,
the integrated news and information
service became the focus for citizen
journalism during the most serious crisisin the country since the 1979 revolution.
BBC Persian gave Iranians a voice anda way of sharing information, as well as
providing a source of fair and balanced
news. The online television streaming
service was requested eight million times
in just one month.
Nobat-e Shoma (Your Turn) is BBC
Persian’s leading interactive programme.
“The volume of user generated content
we were receiving overwhelmed us. We
were receiving thousands of emails, photos
and videos, sent to us to spread the news
and share images of what was happening
in Tehran and other cities,” says presenter
Pooneh Ghoddoosi, who hosts the show.
“As the Iranian government closed downlines of communication, and limited thedomestic and foreign media, our job
became even more demanding. The
Interactive team, with its small six-member
group, became essential to covering thenews. Eventually these submissions
become the cornerstone of our coverageof events and video was used in UK andinternational news output across the BBC,on TV, radio and online.”“

Voices from Iran“One of the reasons why thesepeople are so annoyed about
Britain is only because BBC
Persian has been able to open
the eyes and ears of the Iranianpeople in a place where they
have kept people’s eyes and ears
closed, and could feed whatever
they wanted to us. Now they feel

One of the biggest challenges wasverifying the user generated content(UGC) and deciding what was appropriate
for transmission. BBC Persian worked
closely with the BBC’s domestic UGC Hub
to establish systems to handle the content
and confirm accuracy. “It was a formidabletask,” adds Pooneh. “Some of these werebroadcast after they were carefully verified– others were impossible to verify or too
graphic to broadcast.”
Dedicated service
As the protests continued and turned
violent, the Iranian authorities imposedsevere restrictions on the media.
BBC Persian staff were already unable tooperate in the country and, at one point,
other reporters were banned fromcovering any demonstrations.
Foreign journalists were either not having
their visas extended or were being asked
to leave, including the BBC’s permanent
Tehran correspondent Jon Leyne, who had
been the only resident staff correspondent
for a Western broadcaster in Iran. He wasgiven just 24 hours to leave after reportingsome of the biggest demonstrations since
the foundation of the Islamic Republic
three decades earlier.
“What marked out our coverage
was the long-term commitment of the
BBC to the story,” he says. “I was in Iranfor two years before the election, giving
me a depth of knowledge and confidence

pain from deep inside, because whatever theysay, the next day you tell the truth about it.”
Massoud (male)“We have got addicted to you in thisshort time and approve of you from thebottom of our hearts. Everybody talks about
you and unfortunately we have been unable
to watch your programmes for a while.”
Shirin (female)

10	BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10*

Newsweekmagazine names
BBC Persian
as one of its“20 most powerfulpeople in Iran”“The ban on satellite dishes
is widely ignored: Iranians
want news they can trust,
not state TV. The Persian
Voice of America is too
pro-Washington for some.
Since early this year, many
have turned instead to the
BBC and popular anchors
like Farnaz Ghazizadeh.”in making judgements about what wasgoing on that I simply could not haveprovided on a brief visit.”
Despite the setbacks, the BBC had its
largest team in Iran for many years during
the election, including veteran Iran
specialists Lyse Doucet and John Simpson,as well as Hugh Sykes and, for a week
following the election, Jeremy Bowen.
The BBC maintained its commitment
to presenting a full range of views, despite
determined opposition by the Iranianauthorities, which included an ongoing blockon the BBC Persian website, bbcpersian.com,
and deliberate interference with satellite
television signals. Despite being largely blocked,
bbcpersian.com continues to receive thehighest amount of traffic of all BBC World“I always thought BBC is a liar and biased news
agency, but in this election I learnt a lot about
things to the point that I no longer watch
Iranian channels and just watch BBC Persian
over the internet.” Mehdi (male)“We can no longer get your channel.
Security forces are collecting satellite dishes
from houses. We are being isolated. Help us.”
Anonymous

01

02

03
11

04

Service language websites. In June 2009,
when the election took place, it recordedclose to 50 million page impressions,up from 16 million the previous month.
Jamming intensified in December
2009 when the BBC covered the deathof a leading reformist, Grand Ayatollah
Hossein-Ali Montazeri. That same month,
BBC World Service Director Peter
Horrocks said: “The fact that someone
would go to these lengths to jam BBC
Persian television’s signal is indicative of the
impact we make in Iran. The Iranian people
want to know the truth about what ishappening in their country and they know
they will get impartial and independent
news from the BBC. We’ll do everything
we can to give them that news.”

This move by Iran has been condemnedby the BBC and other international
broadcasters. The BBC continues touse online, email and radio to encourage
viewers to switch to alternative satellites.

✔

Looking ahead
The events of the past year clearly
demonstrate that BBC Persian has successfully
created a new, interactive relationshipwith its audience. Those at the epicentre ofmajor news stories are actively sharing theirpersonal experiences and eyewitness reports
with the channel. The challenge is how toembrace that new-found dialogue and bothauthenticate and analyse UGC content,
while continuing to uphold the BBC’s valuesof accuracy, fairness and objectivity. n

Meeting the objective
Focusing on news provision on BBC Persian TV,
38% of all those in Tehran consider its presence to beeither fairly or extremely important. This rises to 53%
when we focus on PTV’s monthly viewers, while 33%
consider news on the channel to be extremely important.
The higher rating for the news content on the channel
reflects the strong need for objective news sources in Iran.
Source: BBC audience research

01 Former UK Secretary of State for
Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs David
Miliband being interviewed by Enayat Fanifor BBC Persian. 02 BBC’s Tehran
correspondent Jon Leyne (left) was given
just 24 hours to leave Iran by the nation’s
authorities after reporting on the country’s
demonstrations. 03 User generated footage
showed the events of 15 June 2009 when
Tehran University students were draggedfrom their dormitory beds and beatenby plain-clothed militia and police. Nearlyeight months later it was sent to BBC Persian,which verified its authenticity before runningedited clips on television and the fullnine-minute footage on bbcpersian.com.
The publicity resulted in a parliamentary
inquiry. 04 A female supporter of IranianPresident Mahmoud Ahmadinejad displays
her hand painted with the Iranian flag,also used as a sign for his party.

Our young channel has already earned
a reputation as a source of uniquely credible,
unbiased reporting. We have also become
experts on the phenomenon of user generated
content in news, as we continue to forge
a closer, more direct relationship with ouraudience” Sadeq Saba, Head of BBC Persian
BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

11

A year in review Afghanistan’s story

TELLING THE WHOLE
COUNTRY’S STORY
BBC World Service was once again at the forefront of the year’s biggest breaking
stories and, in a challenging environment, pioneered innovative approaches toquestioning those in power as well as getting the perspective from people livingin the remotest areasO

perating in difficult conditions,
BBC World Service’s local
language teams ensured uniqueaccess to Afghanistan. They made it
possible to talk not just to military andpolitical figures, but to people in villages
and communities beyond the reach ofother international broadcasters. It wasa year that saw President Hamid Karzai
controversially re-elected and monthsof continuing violence, marked by suicide
attacks in Kabul and further military
fatalities within the NATO-ISAF coalition.
The teams contributed to coverage of
key issues, including the exposure of voter
fraud, by working in close collaboration
with other parts of BBC Global Newsand across the whole of the BBC.
On election day, Pashto-language
and Dari-language radio coverage was
extended. As well as an interview with
President Karzai, highlights included
reports from remote areas, and muchof the material was used by other BBC
outlets. A good example is the special
Pashto programme for southern
Afghanistan which examined the impactof violence on both sides of the borderwith Pakistan. BBC World Service’s
interactive programme World HaveYour Say linked up with BBC Pashto
for the second round of the election.
The accusation of vote rigging emerged
from Newshour’s interview with therival candidate Abdullah Abdullah,
who pulled out of the run-off.
Andrew Whitehead, BBC World
Service Editor of Core News, says thechallenges of reporting Afghanistan’s
election were almost of the same
magnitude as the task of holding thepolls: “We had to strive to reflect thefull range of Afghan views, including viewsof those not taking part in the elections.
We needed to examine the conductof the voting and to report the increasing
unease – in Afghanistan and beyond –about alleged irregularities. The great
advantage the BBC has is the rangeof its expertise, journalists acrossAfghanistan working in Pashto and Dari,correspondents in the BBC’s Kabul bureau,
BBC World Service and BBC World News
correspondent and presenter Lyse Doucet,
and the insight of BBC Monitoring.”
Growing presence
The BBC is a trusted presence inAfghanistan, says Dr Lutfullah Latif, Headof the BBC’s Afghan service: “The BBC
makes a difference in Afghanistan. It is sotrusted, that many audiences usually wait
to confirm their news with the BBC after
listening to other media. We are also
making a big impact on the local media by
setting the news agenda. We not only givethe news, but also the real meaning of it.”Despite the difficulties, FM coverage
was improved during the year with
the installation of a new relay in Farah.
The BBC is now available on 20 FM
stations, as well as short and medium
wave. The website increased its users by
25% from March 2009 to February 2010.
It has recently relaunched with multimedia
functionality and was the first site in

The BBC makes a difference in Afghanistan.
It is so trusted, that many audiences usually wait to confirm
their news with the BBC after listening to other media”
Dr Lutfullah Latif, Head of BBC Afghan service

12	BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

Pashto for mobile phone users. “The Afghan
government hopes that, by 2012, half of
the Afghan provinces will have access tothe internet,” adds Lutfullah. “We hope
the new website will improve existingusers’ experience and attract new ones.”
Making history
On the eve of the Afghanistan conferencein London in January, BBC World Service
staged a historic Downing Street debatewith the then Prime Minister Gordon
Brown and President Hamid Karzai.
An invited audience of students put
their questions in the programme, which
was chaired by our hugely well-connected
presenter and Afghanistan expert Lyse
Doucet and covered widely by otherBBC news outlets.
Lyse recalls: “‘Why would they do it?’was one of my editor’s rational responses
to the suggestion that we ask Gordon
Brown and Hamid Karzai, two leaders
under great pressure, to sit together andtake questions from Afghan and British
students on the sidelines of the London
Conference on Afghanistan in late January.
“‘We should do it,’ was the reply ofPeter Horrocks. This was a story where
we have made a difference for decadeswith our broadcasts in English, Pashto,
Dari and Persian. Never mind that Hamid
Karzai and Gordon Brown had to confront
challenging questions from their own
young citizens.
“The President told me he reallyenjoyed it. The Prime Minister said, withsome obvious delight: ‘We’ve never done
this at Downing Street before.’”The BBC Afghan service alsointerviewed three British cabinet ministers
for a series of multimedia broadcasts,
while BBC Pashto contributed to a special
edition of The World Today, which included
interviews with the mothers of a British
soldier who had died in Helmand, anAfghan soldier and a Taliban fighter. nBuilding the audience
The BBC has a very strong brand in
Afghanistan – 85% of adults are awareof BBC radio, 73% have listened to it
and 59% listen weekly. Listeners tend
to tune in regularly – two-thirds of ourweekly audience listen almost every
day, suggesting that we are a primarynews source for many of our listeners.
Source: BBC audience research

01

02

03

01 The BBC launched the first site in
Pashto for mobile phone users. Pictured
are supporters taking photographs of Afghanpresidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah
with their mobile phones at the end of
a rally in Bamiyan province. 02 At a special
debate hosted by the BBC’s Lyse Doucet,
Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Afghan
President Hamid Karzai take questions froman audience of Afghan and British students
at 10 Downing Street, London. 03 BBC World
Service teams worked closely with colleagues
in BBC News to report allegations of voterigging during the presidential election.
BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

13

A year in review Multimedia Africa

multimedia journalismwith impact
With mobile phone usage soaring across Africa, BBC World Service has responded
by introducing a range of flexible, new multimedia services to cater for audience
demand, while the number of stories generated by the various language services
for the English newsroom has nearly tripled

B

BC World Service introduced new
multimedia services for Africa ina year when its journalism achieved
growing impact. More than 76 million
people a week accessed BBC services for
Africa on radio, online and mobile, despite
intense competition in key markets suchas Nigeria and Kenya, where audiences fell.
Mobile subscriptions across Africa areforecast to reach nearly 790 million by
the end of 2014. It’s an exciting opportunityand one BBC World Service has responded
to with the launch of an online offer
for mobile phones in five key languages.
Mobile phone users can now connect
to a wealth of BBC material, from regional
and international news to programme
information and sports headlines via mobile
phone websites in Hausa, Swahili, Somali,Portuguese and Kirundi/Kinyarwanda
for the Great Lakes region.
Your news in your palms
Nigeria is the largest market in Africa for
traffic to BBC mobiles sites. More than
60% of all Nigerian traffic comes frommobile phones. Jamilah Tangaza, Head of
BBC Hausa, says there are marked
increases when the BBC covers a big story.
“One such occasion was our exclusive
interview with the ailing Nigerian President
Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, following a silenceof 90 days since his departure to Saudi
Arabia for treatment. The numberof users to the BBC Hausa mobile site
increased significantly and the story was
picked up by news outlets across theworld. The interview became the focus
of constitutional debate and government

officials explained that the president
spoke to the BBC because of BBC Hausa’s
impeccable journalistic reputation.”
Jamilah’s team has also pioneereda new approach to connecting with hard
to reach audiences. Labarinku A Tafinku(Your News in Your Palms) has given
mobile phones to six villages in northern
Nigeria so they can send in reports
and pictures about their communities.
Audience involvement has also grownas BBC programmes offer increasing
interactivity through text messaging andsocial media sites such as Facebook andTwitter. When US President Barack Obama
visited Africa, reaction on the English for
Africa interactive programme Africa HaveYour Say featured prominently on bbc.com.
The pace of technological change
was explored in the English for Africa
season Connected Africa. A new fibre
optic cable is bringing high-speed internet
to East Africa, encouraging countries
such as Rwanda to develop ambitions
for a digital-based economy.
New technologies and increasingcollaboration with other parts of the
BBC also played a key role in the BBC’s
coverage of other major African news
stories, from Somali piracy and themassacre of protesters in Guinea, to theleadership of South Africa’s new President
Jacob Zuma. They are also playing an
increasing role in the BBC’s coverageof football to the continent.
On the ball
BBC World Service broke the news of
the ambush on the Togo football team

BBC World Service is playing an essential role inensuring that African audiences can take part in a global
conversation” David Stead, Editor of African English Production

14	BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10✔

Marking milestones
Collaborative multimedia
reporting was also a feature in
the run-up to the G20 summit,
exploring the impact on Africaof changes in the global economy.
The debate over Africa’s placein the world became a major
topic, as South Africa prepared
to stage the football World Cup
and 17 African countries looked
forward to celebrating 50 years
of independence. Elsewhere,
International Development
Correspondent Mark Doylespanned the continent forhis series Why is Africa Poor?,while Africa Editor Martin Plaut
explored what relief aid meantfor victims of Ethiopia’s faminein Assignment.

in Angola. Sports presenter Farayi Mungazi
was live on air, announcing the winnerof the BBC’s African Footballer of theYear competition, when he got the tip-off.
Sports journalist Matthew Kenyon’s
exclusive on the spot interview with Togo’s
best-known player, Emmanuel Adebayor,
made headlines worldwide, while sports
presenter Richard Connelly used Twitterto keep audiences up to date with the story.
BBC Hausa received more than
100 messages a day during the Africa
Cup of Nations, mostly via Facebook.
One Nigerian listener in Belgium
commented: “BBC, we are really enjoying
your Nations Cup coverage. You havedemonstrated that you are ready tomaintain your leading role both on air
and online.”	Meanwhile, BBC Swahili – which alreadyattracts millions of listeners to FM partners
in Kenya and Tanzania with its weekly
coverage of the English Premier League –reported a nearly five-fold increase inpage impressions when its online Africa
Cup of Nations content was made available
for mobile users. n

Africa’s football station
Sport – especially football – is a major
attraction for the BBC’s English-speaking
African audiences. Programmes like theflagship weekly sports programme fast:track
keep listeners up to date with African
players at home and abroad. The website
bbcworldservice.com/africanfootball isa one-stop shop for the latest stories,
features, match reports and analysis.
The BBC’s reporting of the 2010
Africa Cup of Nations final between
Egypt and Ghana offered live commentaryand post-match analysis. “Through our
minute-by-minute online coverage andvia Twitter and Facebook, fans aroundthe world were able to follow the action,”says David Stead, Editor of African English
Production. “BBC World Serviceis playing an essential role in ensuringthat African audiences can take partin a global conversation.”

01

02

“

03

Sports journalist Matthew Kenyon recalls
the attack on the Togo football team“As far as I could tell I was the only reporter in Cabinda. The attack on the
Togo bus had happened just hours before and, waiting outside the team hotel,
I saw the squad walking down the road from the nearby hospital.
“There was no security, no one in authority to stop me – so I approached
the team and asked to speak to someone. I was introduced to the assistantcoach, who told me to talk to Togo’s best-known player, Emmanuel Adebayor.
He was only too happy to describe, in horrifying detail, exactly what had
happened in the brutal assault which left two of their party dead and a third
with serious injuries.
“His words, broadcast on the BBC, made headlines across the world.
There followed four days of the most intense reporting of my career as Togo
decided their future, and then I went back to covering a football tournament.”

01 BBC broadcasters Farayi Mungazi (left),
Matthew Kenyon (centre) and Richard
Connelly (right) commentating at the Africa
Cup of Nations. 02 Peter Horrocks pictured
with football fans in the Nairobi shanty town
Kibera. BBC World Service is committed
to bringing sports coverage to and fromAfrica and Peter took the opportunity
to meet the fans and show them the BBC’s
African Footballer of the Year trophy whileon a visit to one of the BBC's broadcast
partners in Kenya. 03 BBC Hausa Head,
Jamilah Tangaza, preparing to go on
air live from the village of Tudun Budein northern Nigeria.

BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

15

A year in review Global health

Global health check
Shedding light on previously unheralded issues, BBC World Service and the
BBC World Service Trust helped people across the globe with health programmes,
while investigations raised the profile of important themes, with maternal mortality
and mental health in particular brought to the foreHealth was one of the year’s key
issues as the BBC’s international
teams developed more
opportunities to keep people better
informed. Alongside hard-hitting special
seasons on maternal mortality and mental
health, there was an exploration of
President Obama’s healthcare reforms
and an exclusive interview on The World
Today with Bill Gates on his malaria vaccine
for Africa. Regular programmes suchas Health Check collaborated with otherparts of the BBC to raise issues, while
the BBC’s international development
charity, BBC World Service Trust, helped
improve people’s health by working withdonor and partner organisations.
One of the United Nations Millennium
Development Goals is to improvematernal health. Hundreds of thousandsof women die every year during pregnancy
and childbirth and the ambition in 2000
was to reduce this by 75% by 2015.
Yet, as The World Today’s Pascale Harter*

Mother courage
Jill McGivering was oneof the BBC correspondents
who investigated the issueof maternal mortality aroundthe world. In a rural areaof Sindh Province in Pakistan
she met an elderly woman
cradling her great-grandson.
Her daughter andgranddaughter had both diedin childbirth. Local people
expressed amazement that
Jill and her producer were
there to cover a story
overlooked by local media.
“Childbirth is a major
killer, stoked by poverty,lack of education, little useof contraception and a poor
health system, and a society
in which most womenmake very few choices about
their lives,” she reported.

reported when covering the world
health ministers’ meeting in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia, last October, they are fallingshort of the target. She interviewed
hospital patients and doctors, as well as
UN representatives and health ministers,
for a series of reports that were broadcast
across radio, television and online.
The BBC’s Asia Analyst Jill McGivering
followed the work of a doctor in Pakistan
for Assignment. The UN estimates that
30,000 women die from pregnancy-relatedcauses every year in Pakistan. In Jill’sreport listeners were thrust into the lifeand death realities of childbirth in Karachi.
They also heard how surprised somepeople were that she was reporting
the issues – death in childbirth is often
not considered important in Pakistan.
Correspondent Lyse Doucet visited
the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan
to discover why it has one of the highest
death rates for women in childbirth in
the world, Health Check investigated why
childbirth is no less deadly than it was
20 years ago and Outlook met expectant
mothers in China, India, Kenya, the UK
and the US. Africa Have Your Say wasamong the BBC programmes encouraging
audiences to discuss the issue. One young
woman in Nairobi, Kenya, posted: “I had
my child without any ante-natal care at all,but I was very young and frightened, andI was only too lucky to have been in goodcare. We need mothers to be educatedon the importance of taking care ofthemselves during pregnancy to makedelivery less troublesome and seek proper
medical care.”

Unique selling point
BBC Russian also tackled a health issue
rarely discussed in Russia with its season
on mental health. The programmes, linked
to World Mental Health Day, exploredin depth a range of issues from psychiatry
and politics, to autism and depression.
Sarah Gibson, Head of BBC Russian,
explains: “For us it’s a unique selling point
to look at these kinds of stories, because
they are not standard fare for local media.
But we took the opportunity to go further
by looking at mental health, not only in
Russia, but in specific situations elsewherearound the world.”
In addition to documentaries on
psychiatry and politics, on madness in fiction,and mental illness in the UK’s prisons, there
was an investigation of psychiatry in modern
Russia. The interactive programme Vam Slovo(Over to You) invited listeners to exchange
personal experiences and views on what
could be done to avoid the mentally ill feelingisolated from society, while bbcrussian.com
invited people to take part in online debate
and catch up with audio and video content.
There was also an online feature from the
Spanish-language service BBC Mundo about
singer Manu Chao, who wrote music incollaboration with patients of a psychiatrichospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Other broadcasts on mental health issues
included exploring the human rights of thoseaffected in China and Russia, the difficulties
of admitting to depression in Kenya, andthe remarkable story of people affected by
the drug wars in Brazil who are being helped
through the stress by a medical organisationthat normally works in war zones. n

We took the opportunity to go further by looking at
mental health, not only in Russia, but in specific situations
elsewhere around the world” Sarah Gibson, Head of BBC Russian

16	BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

Heroic effort
Ten years after BBC World Service
Trust launched its pioneering HIVawareness and safe sex initiatives inIndia, its latest campaign with the Indian
government was aired in February 2010.
Broadcast on 41 national and regional
TV channels and 65 radio stations
across 50 towns and cities, the message
is “risking all to rescue a condom”,
as the hero flies to catch a falling packdown five flights of stairs, battling dogs
and delivery men. The aim is to counterthe low-risk perception of HIV among
men aged between 20 and 35.
The BBC World Service Trust’saward-winning campaigns to make condoms
more socially acceptable have reached
150 million men across India, achieving
measurable improvements in attitudes.

01

01 BBC World Service Trust’s recent campaign with the Indian government to promote HIV awareness and safe sex initiatives featured a hero
flying to catch a falling pack of condoms down five flights of stairs. 02 A midwife holds up a baby as the mother looks on at a hospital in Farah
City in Farah Province, Afghanistan. Correspondent Lyse Doucet’s investigations into the high levels of maternal mortality in the country resulted
in award-winning programme-making.

+

MATERNAL MORTALITY
IN AFGHANISTAN’SREMOTEST AREAS
Lyse Doucet first reported fromAfghanistan more than 20 years ago.
In 2009/10 she contributed to BBC
World Service election coverage on
all media platforms and investigatedthe counter-insurgency strategy fromboth the US and Afghan perspectives.
She also made an award-winning
programme on maternal mortality
from Badakhshan province, which has
one of the world’s highest recorded
rates of women dying in childbirth.
Lyse reflects on the motivation
behind making the programme:“Badakhshan? ‘No problem’
was the security advice. Even the
Taliban didn’t conquer this remoteregion in the north-east when
they ruled Afghanistan.

“The BBC decided to do a
special series on maternal mortality.
We wanted to go to the place withthe highest-ever recorded rate of
women dying in childbirth – and whata journey it was.
“We had four flat tyres in a
mountainous region with virtuallyno paved roads and our car
eventually broke down. The house
where we stayed burnt down, a minor
earthquake struck, cancelled flights
left us stranded for days. But wefound a place of breathtaking beauty
and touching hospitality.
“We told a story of stoic mothers,
determined young women training to
be modern midwives and village men
who were starting to question thewisdom of encouraging their wives
to give birth too early and too often.
The story of childbirth was, in so many
ways, the story of Afghanistan.”

02

BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

17

A year in review Audience impact

Remember the time
Audience interaction is central to the way that BBC World Service operates,
but the enormous global response to news of the death of Michael Jacksonin June 2009 went beyond all expectations, and flagged up new approaches
to the story for the BBC’s news agendaAudiences play an increasingly
proactive role in broadcasting.
They inspire interactive
multimedia debates on the issues whichmatter to them, across all languages of
BBC World Service. But it is not oftenthat they help identify a new approachto a story or encourage music on to the
airwaves. The death of Michael Jackson
proved to be an exception.
Within hours of the announcementin June, the BBC had received more than
10,000 messages from fans. What had
started as news reporting of a celebrity
death quickly turned into an on-air, online
memorial, as thousands of listeners acrossthe world posted comments, left messages
and requested their favourite songs.
Online surge
But there was a twist. The audience
was flagging up the cultural, inspirationaland racial significance of Michael Jackson.
His talent transcended boundaries andthis aspect of his life was worthy of greater
exploration in our news coverage.
BBC Brasil – primarily an online service,
available at bbcbrasil.com – was among
the services to spot the impact of Michael“

Tributesand memories
BBC World Service
received thousandsof comments in numerous
languages, but this sample
below from the World
Have Your Say blog gives
an indication of the way
audiences were feeling.
“He was a great entertainer andwhile he didn’t solve the world’s
problems, he was a man who
brought joy to millions all over theworld. It is easy to underestimate
the value of that.” UK

Jackson’s death early on. Senior News
Editor Juliana Iootty explains: “It was easy
to promptly identify the huge demand
for the story. As the news broke we had
more than one million page impressions
for one item alone.
“Our video of La Toya Jackson paying
tribute to her brother was viewed nearly
171,000 times in the space of three days.
In our experience, the majority of theinternet audience in Brazil is young, aged
between 10 and 34 years old, and therefore
eager to consume entertainment news.
But even with this knowledge, the reaction
exceeded our expectations.
“We guided our coverage by providing
the public not only with the hard news
aspects of the story, but also identifying
side stories and features that could draw
the Brazilian public’s attention. And because
it was such a visually-led story, we createdpicture galleries and video content whichwere also very popular with audiences.”
Unprecedented reaction
Ros Atkins, Presenter of World HaveYour Say, is used to audiences setting
the agenda, but was initially surprised by
the approach that listeners were taking.

“For most American women born between
1958 and 1964 Michael Jackson was our
first boyfriend. He looked like us, sang to us,
was the same height and cute. Our generation
did not have someone in our age group to fallin love with. I mean there was Donny Osmondand a heap load of white teen sensations,but they ‘could not use our comb’. One girl
told me ‘I was going to marry MichaelJackson’ and I realized that it was not justa little black girl’s dream in America, it was
an international dream.” US“It’s sad to hear of the loss of Michael Jackson.
He is one of the greatest icons in the musicindustry. He will be cherished in the heartof millions of fans, including me. We all misshim dearly.” Nepal

18	BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10“I was working the day that MichaelJackson was acquitted on charges ofchild molestation. Our audience wasoutraged and defensive in equal measure,and when I saw that TMZ was reportingthat he had died, I expected thoseallegations to again dominate how ourlisteners would react. They didn’t. Instead,the emails, tweets, blog comments,
Facebook posts and SMS messages coming
in all that Friday were an ever-expanding
demonstration of the extraordinary reachof this man’s music.”
World Have Your Say on Friday 26 June
began with messages from the likes ofBrando in Sudan, Dino in Mauritius andDudley in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
It also spoke to reporters from BBC
Chinese and BBC Persian about theiraudiences’ reactions.
“We even took a call from Antarctica,”
recalls Ros. “He’d been playing the song
Bad all day.”
The programme did speak topeople who had reservations about theway Michael Jackson had lived his life,
but Ros says they were in the minority,“because they were in the minority
around the world”. n“The world has lost the greatest entertainer
ever and he can never be replaced or emulated.”
Jamaica“Growing up in Nairobi, Kenya, in the lateeighties and early nineties with only one
radio station to listen to, Michael Jackson wasa phenomenon. His fame and achievements
warrant attention – he not only rose to bea mega star, but he also broke through the
racial and colour barrier in the USA and hismusic became a unifying factor in a muchsegregated country. Let’s give credit where it
is due and what better way to do so than topause a bit, set aside the Irans, Afghanistans
and Iraqs which have become part ofeveryday discussions and salute talent which
was hard earned.” Kenya

02

01/02 The BBC received thousands of messages
from Michael Jackson fans across the world
following his death. There were messages
from his home country, where fans, including
impersonators, celebrated his birthday in Prospect
Park, New York, and from people across theglobe – fans like the women holding banners ofJackson in Krindjabo, an Ivory Coast village visitedby the singer in 1992. 03 World Have Your Say
presenter Ros Atkins preparing for a MichaelJackson-themed programme in Miami, US.

01“For people who weren’t white but lived
in the West, sportsmen and entertainers
were the role models of the 70s.”
Location unknown“I think it is okay that so many people
all around the world morn [mourn] for him.
He didn’t live for himself, he lived for allof us… I feel like I due to morn for him.
His music is a great gift for me – I spentso many wonderful hours listening to it.”Kazakhstan“I still remember when I was just 10 years
old in 1988, I had a picture of MJ. I wondered
about his talent. I was dreaming of havingthat kind of a talent and image in my country(Sri Lanka) too.” Qatar

03“When I first heard Michael Jackson in theeighties, through his famous songs like Billie
Jean, I couldn’t utter an English word, but likemany fans I was thrilled by the rhythm of hismusic and voice. He filled the lives of many
young people. Even those who couldn’t speaka word in English were charmed by his styleand art.” Morocco“When listening to Thriller, Billie Jean,
Bad etc I remember the good times we had,the moonwalk attempts (hilarious); basicallyI remember myself 30 years ago.” Malta“Salaam. His song, You Are Not Alone,
managed to enlighten some of the darkest
moments of my life and for that I’ll sheda tear for him today.” Iraq

It wasn’t Neverland,
the failed prosecution,
the heavy spending or even
Bubbles that people weretalking about. All over theworld people were listening
to Michael Jackson tracks
and talking about how thatmusic fitted into their lives.
So we did the same”
Ros Atkins, World Have Your Say
Presenter

BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

19

20	BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

A year in review Greater collaboration

CHANGING SEASONS
By using its resources more effectively, BBC World Service continued to buildon opportunities for greater collaboration with the wider BBC, to offer greater
insight to radio, TV, online and mobile audiences all over the world

B

BC World Service is part of awider BBC Global News Divisionand made the most of this uniqueadvantage to bring fresh, high-impact,
high-value programming to a wider rangeof audiences.
Multiplatform, multilingual seasons wereplanned and executed as the international
news teams focused on topical issues,
such as the impact of the global recession,
the evolution of the internet and theIndian elections. But the new approach
was not confined to special programmeseasons. One of the landmarks of 2009/10
was the way collaborative working enhanced
daily news output of major events suchas the Haiti earthquake and the Moscow
Metro attacks.
SuperPower: Making
the planet smaller“I am Hera and I am the internet.”
Launched by a specially created portrayalof a futuristic being, the SuperPowerseason focused on the power of the
web to change the world. The season
was regarded as a template for future
development across BBC World Service
and the whole of BBC Global News, butalso signalled an increased commitment
to coverage of technology and its socialand political impacts.
Steve Titherington, Executive Editorof Global News, oversaw the project:“We were challenging the perception thatthe internet is just another communication
tool. It’s the catalyst for fundamental
change in society… What kind of businessdo we want to conduct when there arevirtually no limits to whom we can trade
with? What will inspire artists when
we can share creativity? How will politics
be affected now the public can share
their views in a fraction of a second?”
Made for radio, TV and online audiencesin English and more than 30 other languages,
SuperPower demonstrated the valueof collaborative working, as teams sharedcreative ideas, perspectives and content
about the way the internet is evolving.
Language service content featured
prominently and highlights included BBC
Persian’s film about Afghan bloggers,
BBC Hausa’s help discovering what happened
when a Nigerian village community gained
access to the web and BBC Russian’s
investigation into hackers for hire.
On SuperPower Nation Day, led by
the World Have Your Say team, language
barriers tumbled in a remarkable multilingual,multi-platform experiment. Speakers of
Arabic, Chinese, English, Indonesian, Persian,Portuguese and Spanish communicateddirectly through a unique website thatconverted messages instantaneously into
the other languages. Hundreds of people
from a wide range of language groups
joined in the conversation at an exuberant
event in London, featuring drama, music
and dancing. Presenters from the BBC
World News, BBC Persian and BBC Arabic
television channels and Africa Have Your
Say and World Have Your Say appeared
simultaneously on each other’s shows.
Elsewhere, BBC Arabic and BBC Persian
teams travelled through Iraq to see how
the internet helps break down religious
and ethnic barriers. They produced content
for radio, television and online in bothlanguages, as well as English.
And BBC Hausa’s initiative to giveinternet access to villagers in central Nigeria,
while taking it away from people livingin the world’s most connected city – Seoulin South Korea – was shared with a global
English audience by presenter Komla Dumor.

“The experience of working on
the SuperPower season was unlike any
previous pan-BBC special coverage,”says Mohamed Yehia, BBC Arabic online
editor. “To our audience, the season was
about exploring the extraordinary powerof the internet, but for us it was about
exploring our potential to merge diverse
teams, tell amazing stories, experiment,
tread uncharted territories and push theboundaries of collaboration.”
The BBC World Service Trust
reported how the use of mobile
technology was transforming the way
people were learning English in Bangladesh.
Within three months of its November
launch, its BBC Janala (Window) projectgenerated more than a million requests
for three-minute audio lessons and SMS
quizzes. Low-cost mobile phone accessis a major attraction of the multi-platformproject, which also includes online andtelevision content. There are more than
50 million mobiles in use in Bangladesh,
where learning English is considered key
to economic development.
Aftershock:Gauging the impact
In the Aftershock season, BBC World
Service joined BBC World News televisionand bbc.com to investigate how the global
recession had affected people’s lives in theyear following the collapse of investmentbank Lehman Brothers. The season featured
a range of fresh ideas and programme
formats to bring the story to life, making
it relevant to audiences everywhere. >To our audience, the SuperPower season was about
exploring the extraordinary power of the internet, but for us
it was about exploring our potential to merge diverse teams,
tell amazing stories, experiment, tread uncharted territories…”
Mohamed Yehia, Online Editor of BBC Arabic

BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

21

A year in review Greater collaboration continued

02

01> It opened with the premiere of thehighly acclaimed, award-winning BBC
World Service drama-documentary
The Day That Lehman Died, which wasrecorded on location in New York.
On the Aftershock website, an interactive
mood map gave insights into global
sentiment as people shared personal
experiences and videos.
An Aftershock poll, commissioned
by BBC World Service, surveyed 22,000
people in 20 countries and found there
was strong support for governments
to stimulate and regulate their national
economies. Taking the Pulse on BBC
World Service and BBC World News
investigated how people were changing
their behaviour as a result of the global
recession. It traced the impact of key
factors such as food prices and energy
costs, and spoke to those hardest hit,03

from Japanese fishermen to migrantbuilding workers.
Aftershock continued with a seriesof documentaries, debates, high-profile
interviews and online activity in English
and other language services. News
programmes were co-presented fromthe London Stock Exchange on theanniversary of the Lehman collapse,
with interviewees including former
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
In an exclusive interview, Brazilian
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva laid
the blame for the crisis at the feet of theworld’s richest nations. There was also
another drama-documentary, How to Make
Your First Billion, which was a fictionalised
account from the hub of global
communications, Silicon Valley in the US.
Global insights on the financial crisis
included Konstantin Rozhnov’s report from

It’s a model of reporting that we are building on –combining sharp local knowledge with the onlooker’s view”
Steve Titherington, Executive Editor of BBC Global News

22	BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

Moscow on how Russia’s oligarchs had
been affected, Business Daily visited China’s
Hunan province to find out what had
happened to 150 million migrant workers,
and the reforming governor of the Nigerian
Central Bank, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, took
part in Africa Have Your Say. Regular English
programmes, including Global Business,
Analysis, Assignment, Newshour, Outlook
and One Planet, explored aspects of thecrisis, ranging from the role of businessschools to former gang members in Los
Angeles now looking for jobs.
Indian election:
On a new track
To cover the world’s largest election,
BBC World Service and other parts of
BBC Global News chartered a special train
to cross India in May 2009 for the BBC’s
biggest-ever multimedia outside broadcast.
Among those on board were BBC World
Service English news teams, including
George Arney, Karishma Vaswani and
Tinku Ray, and teams for BBC Arabic
and BBC Persian television. There werealso broadcast and production staff from
13 services including Bangla, Central Asian,Chinese, Hindi, Somali, Swahili, Tamil,*

The World Speaks
BBC World Service and BBC World News havealso combined resources to launch a major new
annual poll exploring the concerns of global
citizens. The World Speaks is part of a seriesof projects aimed at understanding the way global
events initiate a worldwide conversation amongaudience members via their social networks.
Working with the polling company GlobeScan,
they interviewed more than 25,000 people in
23 countries, covering 15 of the world’s mostpopulated nations. The aim is to stimulate debate
and track changing opinions over time. Issues
for concern segmented into four broad areas –security, impoverishment, globalisation andthe environment. The main issue in the 2009/10
survey was extreme poverty.

05

Urdu and Vietnamese. They visited eight
key cities in the 6,500km, 18-day trip from
Delhi, stopping off for debates, discussions
and interviews that reflected opinion fromacross the country. Collaboration between
teams of journalists who live and workin India and colleagues from other partsof the world provided a unique perspective
to the BBC’s coverage. Output featured
prominently on BBC World News
television and bbc.com/news.
“It’s a model of reporting that weare building on – combining sharp local
knowledge with the onlooker’s view,”
says Steve Titherington, Executive Editorof BBC Global News.
Moscow bombings:
Vivid insight
A coordinated response by all partsof BBC Global News gave an edge tocoverage of the attacks on the Moscow
Metro in March, that killed at least
40 people. BBC Russian made a major
contribution to news programmes
across the BBC, as well as bringing its
audience the latest developments, analysis
and context from its journalists on the
spot. The team reported in Russian and

04

06

English on BBC World News television
and BBC local radio, as well as BBC
World Service. The service provided
the BBC’s user generated content
hub with comments from their forum
every 20 minutes.
Online traffic to BBC Russian surged
five-fold on the day of the attacks,
with 393,000 unique users accessing
bbcrussian.com and content on partner
websites. The live text module, which
automatically refreshes pages, proved highly
effective and was taken up by partners.
“These figures show that online
users come to us as a trusted source
in a time of crisis,” says Sarah Gibson,
Head of BBC Russian.
User generated content and social
media gave vivid insight into the aftermathof the bombings. BBC Monitoring reported
how Russian bloggers and users of Twitter
had been quick to criticise coverage by
the country’s state-dominated TV channels,
most of which had continued with theirusual programmes when the news broke.
BBC Monitoring were first with actuality
and translation of the video message
claiming responsibility for the attacks by
Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov. n

01/02 BBC Persian presenter Pooneh
Ghoddoosi and BBC Arabic presenter Sam
Farah reporting from SuperPower Nation
Day in London. 03 Reporter Karishma
Vaswani records a piece in front of the BBC
India Election Train for BBC World News.
04 BBC World Service reported the outcomeof the new annual poll, The World Speaks,
across its output. The survey found thatpoverty, as seen here in the business districtof Puerto Madero in Buenos Aires, Argentina,
was the greatest area of concern. 05 A map
showing the journey taken by the BBC India
Election Train – an 18-day, eight-city, 6,500km
tour. 06 BBC Russian ensured that all BBC
outlets had access to its coverage of the
Moscow Metro bombings, allowing the event
to be reported as effectively as possible.

BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

23

BBC WORLD SERVICEBOARDPETER HORROCKS
Director, BBC World Service
Responsible for the overall editorial
leadership and management of BBC World
Service. He is the BBC World Service
Accounting Officer.

GWYNETH WILLIAMS
Director, BBC World
Service English
Responsible for news and all programmingon the English networks.

BEHROUZ AFAGHHEAD OF ASIA PACIFIC REGION
Responsible for broadcasts and future media
in Azeri, Bengali, Burmese, Chinese, Hindi,Indonesian, Kyrgyz, Nepali, Pashto, Persian,Sinhala, Tamil, Urdu, Uzbek and Vietnamese.

LINDSEY NORTH
Controller, Legal & Rights
Responsible for legal and rights advice.

NIKKI CLARKEHEAD OF AMERICAS & EUROPE REGION
Responsible for broadcasts and future media
in Albanian, English for North America
and the Caribbean, Macedonian, Portuguese
for Brazil, Russian, Serbian, Spanish for Latin
America, Turkish and Ukrainian.
JIM EGAN
Controller, Strategy& Business Development
Responsible for setting corporate strategy
and for overseeing teams of businessdevelopment professionals working toextend the reach of the BBC’s international
news services on radio, television, online
and mobile devices around the world.

John Renner, Director Property & Development retired on
31 December 2009. His replacement, Mariita Eager, joined as
Head of Development and W1 Editorial Lead, BBC Global Newson 1 January 2010. Richard Burdon, Head of Human Resources
left BBC World Service on 31 December 2009. His replacement,
Richard Thurston, joined on 23 March 2010. Jerry Timmins’ previous
role as Head of Africa and the Middle East Region was restructured
on 1 January 2010 and he is now Head of Africa Region and Headof International Relations, BBC World Service. Liliane Landor joined
the Board as Head of Middle East Region on 1 January 2010.
The photographs above are of the permanently appointed membersof the BBC World Service Board as of 31 March 2010.
24	BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

SANJAY NAZERALICONTROLLER, MARKETING,
COMMUNICATIONS & AUDIENCES
Responsible for marketing, publicity,
audiences and market research.

MIKE CRONKCONTROLLER, FUTURE MEDIA,TECHNOLOGY & DISTRIBUTION
Responsible for operations anddevelopment across future media,
technology and BBC World Service
distribution arrangements.

LILIANE LANDOR
Head of Middle East Region
Responsible for the BBC’s multimedia
services to the Middle East and North
Africa in Arabic.

JERRY TIMMINSHead of Africa Region andHead of International Relations
Responsible for the BBC’s multimedia
services to Africa in English, French, Hausa,
Kinyarwanda/Kirundi, Somali, Swahili,
Portuguese and for BBC World Service’s
key internal and external partnerships.

HUGH SAXBYHEAD OF GOVERNANCE& PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Responsible for governance, public affairs,
accountability and internal communications.

MARIITA EAGER
Head of Development
and W1 Editorial Lead
Responsible for the change programme at
BBC World Service and all aspects of themove from Bush House into W1. She also
commissions training for BBC World Service.

RICHARD THOMAS
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
AND DIRECTOR OF FINANCE
Responsible for the financial and budgetary
management of BBC World Service.

RICHARD THURSTONHead of Human Resources
Responsible for HR strategy and deliveryof HR services.

Awards recognition
BBC World Service and its specialist teams continue to excel in awards across the world
Sony Radio Academy Awards
A highlight for all UK-based broadcasters, this year BBC
World Service secured six awards. Peter Horrocks commented:“It is a tremendous achievement to get such comprehensive
recognition for BBC World Service English, a network thatis aimed outside the UK.”

Gold: News Journalist of the Year – Lyse Doucet*
Producers: Piers Scholfield, Catherine Miller and Huong Ly.
Editor: Lucy Walker.
Gold: Best Current Affairs Programme – Newshour (compilation)
Presenters: Owen Bennett Jones, Claire Bolderson,
James Coomarasamy, Lyse Doucet, Robin Lustig, Julian Marshall,James Menendez and Mary Ann Sieghart. Assistant Editors:
Nikki Brown and David Mazower. Editor: Lucy Walker.
Silver: Best Promotional/Advertising Campaign –MI6: A Century in the Shadows Script/Production and Sound
Design: Terry Wilson. Editor: Paul Blythe.
Silver: Best Drama – The Day That Lehman Died
Writer: Matthew Solon. Producer/Director: John Dryden.
Executive Producers: Marion Nancarrow and Jeremy Skeet.
Goldhawk Essential Production/BBC World Service.

Sony Award winners Lyse Doucet (right) and Newshour Editor Lucy
Walker (centre), with award presenter, journalist Nina Hossain.

Bronze: Best Speech Programme – Witness (compilation)
Producers: Claire Bowes, Neil Gallagher, Louise Hidalgo,
Alan Johnston and Lucy Williamson. Editor: Kirsty Reid.
Executive Editor: Jeremy Skeet.
Bronze: Best Sports Programme – World Football (compilation)
Presenter: Alan Green. Producer: Richard Padula.
Assistant Producer: Ian Morris.

Other awards gained over the last 12 months include:
Africa Business Reporting Awards
Best Radio Feature – African Economy Week, BBC African for English
Reporters: Julian Bedford, Ian Brimacombe, Paul Coletti,
James Cowling, Komla Dumor, Jonathan Hallam, Julian Keane,
Helena Merriman, Krupa Thakrar, Andrew Walker, Nick Woodand Rob Young. Editor: James Whittington.
Commonwealth Broadcasting Association’s
2010 Awards
Amnesty International Award for Human Rights Programme –Assignment: Africa’s Guantanamo
Reporter: Rob Walker. Producers: David Edmonds and Helena Selby.
Editor: Jeremy Skeet.
Foreign Press Association Awards
Sports Story of the Year – The Rise of Mathare United
Reporter: David Goldblatt. Producer: Rob Walker.
Editor: Bridget Harney.
Hotbird TV Awards
News Channel of the Year – BBC PersianInternational Women’s Media Foundation
Courage in Journalism Award – Vicky Ntetema, for her investigative
report on the brutal killings of albinos and their families in Tanzania
so that potions could be made out of their limbs. She received
death threats for the reports, which were broadcast on BBC World
Service English and BBC Swahili, and now works for the NGO
providing help for people with albinism.

Nepal’s centenary Poet Laureate Award
BBC Nepali, for four decades of contribution to the developmentof the Nepali language. Head: Rabindra Mishra.
Peabody Awards
Lyse Doucet, for her pan-BBC programme Where Giving Lifeis a Death Sentence, exploring maternal mortality in Afghanistan.
The Day That Lehman Died (credits as above).
The Radio Academy Promotions
and Marketing Awards
Best Cross-Media Promotion/Campaign – Save Our Sounds,
BBC World Service On Air Editor: Steve Martin.
Parliamentary Press Gallery Speaker
Abbot Award for Bravery
Mohammed Olad Hassan, the BBC World Service African
English reporter based in Mogadishu, Somalia, in recognition
for his great courage in reporting events from the country.
The Wincott Foundation
Broadcasting Awards
Best Radio Programme (joint winners)
The Day That Lehman Died (credits as above).
The Economy on the Edge Presenter: Martin Wolf.
Producer: Innes Brown. Editor: Sandra Kanthal.
Workworld Media Awards
Broadcast Programme of the Year – Business Daily
Presenters: Lesley Curwen and Steve Evans. Editor: Robert Mackenzie.

*	Lyse Doucet was also recognised in the US with the David Bloom Award from the Radio and Television
Correspondents Association for her reporting on BBC’s Newsnight.
BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

25

Measurable targets 2009/10

Measuring our performance
BBC World Service is funded through Grant-in-Aid from the Foreign andCommonwealth Office (FCO), allocated as part of the Government’s Spending
Review process.
BBC World Service has complete editorial and managerial independence,
however it reports performance against a number of measures agreed with
the FCO annually as part of its accountability process. These measures support
BBC World Service’s aim to be the world’s best-known and most-respectedvoice in international news, thereby bringing benefit to the UK, the BBC and
to audiences around the world.
Key objectives in the current spending review period are:•	To maintain radio audience levels in an increasingly competitive market
and to increase the audience overall through the newly launched television
service in Arabic•	To increase impact for the BBC in the Middle East by extending the
Arabic television service to a full 24-hour offer•	To launch a BBC Persian television service, to reach audiences in Iran,Afghanistan and Tajikistan
In support of these aims a number of targets were agreed with the FCO.

26	BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

>Target: BBC World Service to reach an estimated weekly global audienceon radio, television and online of at least 192 million adults

192 million

Target:The overall reach was below target –this was mainly due to the larger
than anticipated decline in direct
AM (short wave and medium wave)
audiences, which decreased byaround 20 million this year, although
FM audiences were up.
Radio losses were particularly
dramatic in Bangladesh, India andNigeria at minus 7 million, 8.2 million
and 2.9 million respectively.

180million

Actual:However, there were significant
gains in Tanzania, up 1.4 million, and theUS, up 600,000, mainly through BBC
programmes being broadcast on local
FM and medium wave partner stations.
Radio and television estimates
were added or updated in 25 countries,
including Bangladesh, Egypt, India,
Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria,
Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The online
estimate was updated in more than170 countries using average weekly
unique users for February 2010.
There were difficulties in someareas – it was not possible to survey
Pakistan because of the politicalsituation, data from Iraq was delayed
due to problems with fieldwork
and the results from a survey in
Sudan could not be used because
the sample did not adequately
represent the population.

Mobile opportunities
The international media landscape is changing rapidly and becoming increasingly complex. Although only about 10% of
our total audience is currently from online or mobile platforms, digital growth represents a valuable long-term opportunity.
On mobile, BBC World Service launched 18 new mobile sites in 2009/10 and they performed well in a relatively shortspace of time – attracting 76,000 weekly unique users and 4 million page impressions.

>Target: BBC World Service to reach 23 million viewers
to its non-English television services

Target:23million

There have been some obstacles
to achieving targets for non-English
television services but also
some successes.
In Arabic we continue to facedifficulties in challenging thewell-funded, established and popularchannels in the key media markets
of Egypt, Gulf States, Jordan, Syria
and the UAE, where content is very
regionally focused and includes astrong entertainment offer. However,
we have had considerable success17million

Actual:in other places, including Morocco
and Nigeria. We are now
repositioning BBC Arabic to makeit more relevant and focused, witha new brand strategy and changes
to the schedule.
In Iran, the extraordinary eventsat the time of the presidential election
affected our ability to carry out
audience research. The television
service and bbcpersian.com wereboth jammed, and following theelection the BBC was listed asa proscribed organisation by theadministration. However, there wasstrong support from audiences andwe believe that the formally reported
numbers do not reflect the service’strue performance.
BBC Turkish has launched atelevision offer with partners NTV.
This has proved very successful
with 1.7 million weekly viewers.
Other language services with a limited
television offer include BBC Kyrgyz
and BBC Bangla.

BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

27

Measurable targets 2009/10 continued>

Target: BBC World Service to rate higher than its closest international competitor
for awareness, reach, objectivity, relevance, value and loyalty. Comparison to be madefor general population and for key target groups
General population

Awareness

Reach

Objectivity

Relevance

Value

LoyaltyCompetitor

India (four states)

✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✘
✘
✘
✔
✔

✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✘
✘
✘
✔
✘

✔
✔
*
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
*
✘

✔
✔
*
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
*
✘

✔
✔
*
✔
✔
✔
✘
✘
✘

✔
✔
*
✔
✔
✔
✘
✘
=

Voice of America (VOA)

n/a

n/a

VOA

n/a

n/a

VOA/Radio Farda

Active Internationals

Awareness

Reach

Objectivity

Relevance

Value

LoyaltyCompetitor

India (four states)

✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
=
✘
✘
✔

✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✘
✘
✘
✔

*
✔
*
✔
✔
✔
*
✔
✔
*

*
✔
*
✔
✔
✔
*
✔
=
*

*
✔
*
✔
✔
✔
*
✘
=

*
✔
*
✔
✔
✔
*
✘
=

VOA

n/a

n/a

BangladeshIndonesia (Jakarta)
Kenya
Tanzania
NigeriaEgypt (Cairo) note 1
MoroccoSaudi Arabia
TurkeyIran note 2

BangladeshIndonesia (Jakarta)
Kenya
Tanzania
NigeriaEgypt (Cairo) note 1
MoroccoSaudi Arabia
TurkeyBase: all respondents

VOA
VOA
VOA
Deutsche Welle (DW)VOA
VOA/Sawa/Al Hurra
VOA/Sawa/Al Hurra
VOA/Sawa/Al Hurra

VOA
VOA
VOA
DW
VOA
VOA/Sawa/Al Hurra
VOA/Sawa/Al Hurra
VOA/Sawa/Al Hurra
VOA

Base: people who have ever used that station/channel✔ BBC higher than main competitor ✘ competitor higher than BBC = results about equal n/a question not asked * base too small for reliable analysis
Notes: 1) Egypt (Cairo): Reputation questions asked for Radio Sawa but not Al Hurra.
2) Iran: Because of the sensitive nature of the questions asked in the telephone interview and the risk that respondents would
terminate the interview prematurely, the reputation questions on value and loyalty were not asked for any stations other than the BBC.
It is not possible to identify Active Internationals from the questions in this study.

>

Target: BBC Arabic television to reach at least 17 million weekly viewers,
as part of an overall BBC multimedia reach in Arabic of more than 25 million weekly users

Target:17million

Overall reach, 25 million

12 million

Actual:Overall reach, 22 million

As noted earlier, BBC Arabic continues to face difficulties in challenging the well-funded, established and popularchannels in the key media markets of Egypt, Gulf States, Jordan, Syria and the UAE.
BBC Arabic tri-media reach is 22m
The estimated Arabic television audience is up 3.5 million. Morocco, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are the top three measured
markets with 2.5 million, 2.1 million and 1.9 million respectively. It is now available in 15,000 hotel rooms in 17 countries.
It also secured BBC World Service’s largest ever commercial deal, with the US satellite platform Echostar. Additionally
it is reaching 710,000 viewers in the mainly Muslim northern Nigeria, where satellite TV is prevalent.

28	BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

>Target: BBC Persian television to reach at least 4 million weekly viewers
in Iran, as part of an overall BBC multimedia reach in Persian of more than
5 million weekly in Iran

Target:

4 million

Actual:Overall reach, 5 million

3.1million
Overall reach, 3.4 million

BBC Persian TV has 3.1m weekly viewers in IranMarket research is difficult to undertake in Iran, so the figure may be higher. The BBC has also been repeatedly criticisedby the authorities, who regularly jam BBC Persian transmissions and have stopped the service having a presence on the ground.
Despite this, BBC Persian is clearly well known among Iranians – during the election, the channel was receiving up to eightuser generated items a minute and traffic to bbcpersian.com increased by 155%. Newsweek magazine ranked BBC Persian
as one of its “20 most powerful people in Iran”.

>

Target: BBC World Service to increase the impact of the BBC’s online offer
through high-quality on-demand multimedia services in key languages: 6 million weekly
users for Grant-in-Aid funded areas of the BBC website, 20 million monthly video views
for Grant-in-Aid funded areas of the BBC website, 2 million monthly page impressions
on BBC World Service WAP sites

6 million

Target:	Weekly users (February 2010)

Target:20 million

Actual:Actual:Monthly video views

7.3million
27million(February 2010)

2 million

Target:	BBC WAP site page impressions

Actual:4 million(February 2010)

BBC World Service sites up 39% to 7.3m
The top performing sites in February 2010: BBC Brasil Average weekly users 2.1m, weekly page impressions 6.6m
BBC Mundo Average weekly users 1.6m, weekly page impressions 4.6m BBC Arabic Average weekly users 0.5m,
weekly page impressions 3.3m BBC Persian Average weekly users 0.5m, weekly page impressions 7.2m
BBC Russian Average weekly users 0.4m, weekly page impressions 3.3m

BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

29

BBC WORLD SERVICEFINANCIAL REVIEW 2009/10

OPERATING PERFORMANCE
In 2009/10 BBC World Service focused on consolidating coreservices. The new Arabic and Persian television channels madegood progress in establishing themselves in their respective
markets, our radio and online services continued to cover global
events in 32 languages and the increasing use of social networking
sites such as Facebook and Twitter helped us to engage with
our audiences.
Financially we continued our work to deliver cost savings in order
to meet our targets and cover our rising costs. These savings
also helped us cope with the impact of the economic downturn.
Strategic planning for the future of BBC World Service led tosignificant focus being placed on the management structure of thebusiness and this led to additional restructuring costs in 2009/10
linked to newly identified savings.
Under the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review settlementwith HM Government, Grant-in-Aid (GIA) income for 2009/10
was £272m. This was subsequently reduced by £4m to £268m
in an exceptional agreement with the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office (FCO). We were able to manage this reduction in income
by cancelling some projects and deferring others without a material
adverse impact on existing operations.
The year ended with a deficit on operating activities of £0.1m.
At close to break-even, this represents a satisfactory outcome
for the year. Of the £8.5m total deficit, £8.4m relates to thedeficit on capital expenditure. This reflects the difference between
capital GIA received during the year (which is recorded as income)and capital related charges in the income and expenditure account,namely depreciation and write-offs. This timing difference
is reflected in the capital reserve transfer.
On operating expenditure, the weaker pound increased our costs
both for our international offices and on several international support
contracts. This cost increase was partly mitigated by lower inflationin the UK which enabled savings to be made on staff costs and on
contracts linked to RPI in the UK. Savings initiatives continued to makeprogress and we delivered over £6m of operating savings in the year.
However, savings programmes frequently give rise to implementation
costs and consequently £6m of restructuring charges were incurredin the year, part of which related to the restructuring of the senior
management team which will deliver benefits commencing in 2010/11.
CAPITAL
Capital expenditure in the year of £26.2m was spread acrossa range of projects. The largest of these is the project to move
BBC World Service to the W1 development in central London
as part of the BBC’s new journalism hub. The move is plannedfor 2012 and the substantial capital commitment involved
will continue to dominate capital expenditure up to that date.
The project to re-engineer the transmitter station and power

30

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

facilities on Ascension Island is making good progress and will secure
our transmissions to West Africa over the years ahead. In addition,
we continued to invest in our international production facilities,
running major projects in Dakar, Senegal for our French for Africa
service, in Nairobi for our African English and Swahili services andin Islamabad for our Urdu service. These developments are crucial
in helping us maintain our strong presence in core markets.
INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL REPORTING STANDARDS
Along with the BBC Group, BBC World Service is presenting
its accounts under International Financial Reporting Standards
as adopted by the EU (EU IFRS) for the first time in 2009/10.
The move to IFRS has required a number of changes to thefinancial statements, for example by increasing the disclosuresaround financial risk management and through the creationof a provision for untaken holiday entitlement. Because 2009/10
is our first year of reporting under EU IFRS, the financial statements
also include transitional disclosure requirements such as theinclusion of balance sheets covering three years. The underlying
nature of our transactions is not affected meaning there
is no effect on our use of GIA.
BALANCE SHEETFixed assets, with a net book value of £141.4m reflect our ongoinginvestment in transmission facilities, technology and local production
centres. Other balance sheet assets and liabilities are in line withplan. Cash holdings of £6.7m are higher than in prior years which
partly reflects the working capital requirements of our international
offices, several of which have seen significant expansion over recent
years. The weaker pound has also increased the sterling valueof these currency accounts. Our provision for restructuring costs
remains at around £5m reflecting costs incurred on our various
restructuring plans but which have yet to be settled.
LOOKING AHEAD
The CSR 2007 funding which was fixed at £271m for 2010/11(a reduction of £1m on 2009/10) has been reduced to £264m
as part of the agreement with the FCO to assist in meeting HM
Government savings targets. We expect to manage this reduction
through the acceleration of savings plans and the deferral of spend
on capital and discretionary projects. Uncertainty over exchange
rates, pension costs and the spending plans of the new government,
which are likely to have an impact on 2010/11 as well as later years,
continue to make for a challenging environment. However, we
will continue to manage our operations in a way that delivers value
to our audiences and value for money to UK taxpayers.

RICHARD THOMAS
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER AND DIRECTOR OF FINANCE,
BBC WORLD SERVICEBBC WORLD SERVICE

AUDITOR’S REPORTINDEPENDENT AUDITOR’S REPORTTO THE EXECUTIVE BOARD OF THE BBC
We have audited the group financial statements (the ‘financial
statements’) of the BBC World Service for the year ended 31 March
2010, which comprise the Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive
Income, the Consolidated Balance Sheet, the Consolidated Cash
Flow Statement, the Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity
and the related notes. These financial statements have been
prepared under the accounting policies set out therein.
This report is made solely to the BBC Executive Board as a bodyin accordance with the terms of our engagement. Our audit work
has been undertaken so that we might state to the BBC Executive
Board those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’sreport and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted
by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone otherthan the BBC and the BBC Executive Board as a body, for our
audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
RESPECTIVE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE BBC EXECUTIVE
BOARD, BBC WORLD SERVICE BOARD AND AUDITORSThe BBC Executive Board and the BBC World Service Board’s
responsibilities for preparing the Annual Review and the financial
statements in accordance with applicable law and IFRS as adopted
by the EU are set out in the Statement of Board Responsibilities.
Our responsibility, in accordance with the terms of our appointment,
is to audit the financial statements in accordance with relevant
legal and regulatory requirements and International Standards
on Auditing (UK and Ireland).
We report to you our opinion as to whether the financial statements
give a true and fair view. We also report to you if, in our opinion, theBBC World Service has not kept proper accounting records, if wehave not received all the information and explanations we require forour audit, or if information specified by law regarding the BBC World
Service Board remuneration and other transactions is not disclosed.
In addition to our audit of the financial statements, we haveengaged to review the Corporate Governance Statement as if the
BBC World Service were required to comply with the Listing Rulesof the Financial Services Authority in relation to these matters.
We review whether the Corporate Governance Statement on
pages 52 to 60 reflects the BBC’s compliance with the nine provisionsof the 2006 Combined Code specified for our review by the Listing
Rules of the Financial Services Authority, and we report if it doesnot. We are not required to consider whether the statements
on internal control cover all risks and controls, or form an opinion
on the effectiveness of the BBC World Service’s corporate
governance procedures or its risk and control procedures.

We read specified parts of the Annual Review and consider
whether they are consistent with the audited financial statements.
This includes the Director’s overview on pages 2 to 5, the year
in review on pages 6 to 23, the financial review on page 30,
and the governance reports on pages 52 to 60. We consider the
implications for our report if we become aware of any apparent
misstatements or material inconsistencies with the financial statements.
Our responsibilities do not extend to any other information.
BASIS OF AUDIT OPINION
We conducted our audit in accordance with International
Standards on Auditing (UK and Ireland) issued by the Auditing
Practices Board. An audit includes examination, on a test basis,of evidence relevant to the amounts and disclosures in the financial
statements. It also includes an assessment of the significant
estimates and judgements made by the BBC Executive Board andthe BBC World Service Board in the preparation of the financial
statements, and of whether the accounting policies are appropriate
to the BBC World Service’s circumstances, consistently appliedand adequately disclosed.
We planned and performed our audit so as to obtain all theinformation and explanations which we considered necessary
in order to provide us with sufficient evidence to give reasonableassurance that the financial statements are free from material
misstatement, whether caused by fraud or other irregularity or
error. In forming our opinion we also evaluated the overall adequacyof the presentation of information in the financial statements.
OPINION
In our opinion:• the financial statements give a true and fair view in accordancewith IFRSs as adopted by the EU of the state of the Group’s
affairs at 31 March 2010 and of its deficit for the year thenended; and,• the information given in the Director’s overview on pages 2 to 5,
the year in review on pages 6 to 23, the financial review on page30, and the governance reports on pages 52 to 60, is consistent
with the Group financial statements.

K WIGHTMAN (SENIOR STATUTORY AUDITOR)FOR AND ON BEHALF OF KPMG LLP,STATUTORY AUDITORCHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS
8 SALISBURY SQUARE,LONDON EC4Y 8BB
14 JUNE 2010

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

31

BBC WORLD SERVICEFINANCIAL STATEMENTS

STATEMENT OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2010
2010
£m

2009
£m

268.0
4.1

265.0
3.7

272.1
(280.6)268.7(270.9)

(8.5)
–

(2.2)
0.3

(8.5)
–

(1.9)
(0.1)

Deficit for the financial year
Transfer from capital reserve

(8.5)
8.4

(2.0)
1.9

Transfer from operating reserve

(0.1)

(0.1)

Note
Grant-in-Aid
Other income
Total income
Total operating costs

1c2Operating deficit before interest and taxation
Net financing income
Deficit before taxation
Taxation

There were no recognised gains or losses other than the deficit stated above.

32

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

4

BBC WORLD SERVICE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CONTINUEDBALANCE SHEETAT 31 MARCH 2010
Note

2010
£m

2009
£m

2008
£m

5
5

5.9
135.5

5.4
144.2

7.0
144.4

141.4

149.6

151.4

0.1
11.0
6.7

0.1
9.7
6.1

0.1
10.2
5.4

17.8

15.9

15.7

(13.6)(0.1)(3.8)(11.5)(0.4)(3.8)(11.1)(0.4)(4.9)(17.5)(15.7)(16.4)

(0.4)
(5.9)

(0.2)
(5.7)

(0.3)
(4.5)

(6.3)

(5.9)

(4.8)

Net assets

135.4

143.9

145.9

Capital and reserves
Capital reserve
Operating reserve

137.5
(2.1)

145.9
(2.0)

147.8
(1.9)

Total capital and reserves

135.4

143.9

145.9

AssetsNon-current assets
Intangible assets
Property, plant and equipment

Current assets
Programme related assets and other inventories
Trade and other receivables
Cash and cash equivalents

Liabilities
Current liabilities
Trade and other payables
Borrowings
Provisions

Non-current liabilities
Borrowings
Provisions

6
7
13

8
9
11

9
11

The balance sheets comprises the consolidated results of BBC World Service and its subsidiaries.
The full list of subsidiaries can be found in note 15b to the financial statements.
The balance sheets have been restated to reflect the adoption of IFRS on 1 April 2008.
Note 17 provides details on the transition to IFRS at BBC World Service.
The financial statements were approved by the BBC Executive Board and the BBC World Service Board on 14 June 2010and signed on their behalf by:

MARK THOMPSONDIRECTOR-GENERAL, BBC

PETER HORROCKSDIRECTOR, BBC WORLD SERVICERICHARD THOMAS
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER AND DIRECTOR OF FINANCE, BBC WORLD SERVICE

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

33

BBC WORLD SERVICE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CONTINUED

STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2010
Capitalreserve£m

Operatingreserve
£m

Total
£m

At 1 April 2008
Total comprehensive (loss)/income for the year
Capital reserve transfer

147.8
–
(1.9)

(1.9)
(2.0)
1.9

145.9
(2.0)
–

At 1 April 2009
Total comprehensive (loss)/income for the year
Capital reserve transfer

145.9
–
(8.4)

(2.0)
(8.5)
8.4

143.9
(8.5)
–

At 31 March 2010

137.5

(2.1)

135.4

Note

2010
£m

2009
£m

12
4

20.8
–

27.1
(0.1)

20.8

27.0

–
(0.3)
(19.8)
0.3

0.3
(0.8)
(25.8)
0.5

Net cash used in investing activities(19.8)(25.8)

Financing activities
Interest paid
Payments of obligations under finance leases

–
(0.4)

–
(0.5)

Net cash used in financing activities

(0.4)

(0.5)

Net increase in cash and cash equivalents

0.6

0.7

CASH FLOW STATEMENTFOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2010

Operating activities
Cash generated from operating activities
Tax paid
Net cash from operating activities
Investing activities
Interest received
Purchases of other intangible assets
Purchases of property, plant and equipment
Finance lease additions

5
5

Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year

13

6.1

5.4

Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year

13

6.7

6.1

34

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

BBC WORLD SERVICE

STATEMENT OFACCOUNTING POLICIESSTATEMENT OF ACCOUNTING POLICIESBBC World Service, funded principally by parliamentary
Grant‑in‑Aid, is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation,a body incorporated by Royal Charter.
BASIS OF PREPARATION AND CONSOLIDATIONThe Financial Memorandum between BBC World Service and theForeign and Commonwealth Office requires BBC World Service
to produce an Annual Review which incorporates a set of financial
statements. These financial statements are required to be preparedin accordance with the provisions of the BBC’s Charter.
The consolidated financial statements for BBC World Service
have been prepared in accordance with International Financial
Reporting Standards issued by the International AccountingStandards Board (IASB) and interpretations issued by theInternational Financial Reporting Interpretations Committeeof the IASB as adopted by the EU (IFRS).
The BBC World Service’s 2009/10 annual accounts have been drawn
up on a going concern basis. The BBC World Service is funded by
the Foreign and Commonwealth Office through Grant-in-Aid, which
has in recent years been awarded in three year funding settlements.
The current three year settlement period runs until 31 March 2011.
Whilst the BBC World Service Board has no visibility of the impactof the new Government’s spending plans for the Foreign andCommonwealth Office, the Board expects the basis of future years’
funding to be agreed later in 2010 and is therefore satisfied that thegoing concern assumption remains appropriate.
The financial statements are principally prepared on the historicalcost basis. Areas where other bases are applied are identified in theaccounting policies below.
BBC World Service has produced consolidated financial statements.
The results are consolidated under acquisition accounting andintra-group transactions are eliminated on consolidation. All income
and expenditure figures in the financial statements relate totransactions external to BBC World Service only.
BBC World Service Trust has not been consolidated as, although
BBC World Service is technically the parent of BBC World Service
Trust, it is exempt from consolidation. This is because the trustees
have a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the beneficiaries
and as substantially all of the income is made up of grants, which
are classified as restricted funds because their use is specified bydonors, BBC World Service has no direct control over, or financial
interest in, the assets.

ADOPTION OF NEW AND REVISEDACCOUNTING STANDARDSFIRST-TIME ADOPTION OF IFRS
These are the BBC World Service’s first consolidated financial
statements to be prepared under IFRS and the disclosures required
by IFRS 1 First-time adoption of International Financial ReportingStandards concerning the transition from UK GAAP to IFRS aregiven in note 17.
IFRS 1 sets out the requirements for the first time adoption of IFRS.
BBC World Service is required to establish its IFRS accounting
policies for the year ended 31 March 2010 and, generally, apply
those policies consistently in the opening IFRS balance sheet
as at 1 April 2008 (the date of transition) and thereafter, subject
to a number of optional exemptions permitted by IFRS 1.
BBC World Service has adopted the following approachto the key exemptions:• Fair value or revaluation as deemed cost: BBC World Service
has continued to measure items of plant and equipment heldon 1 April 1996, and revalued to current replacement cost atthat time, on the basis of that revalued amount less depreciation
up to the date of transition, which is their deemed cost on
transition to IFRS. All other property, plant and equipment
continue to be measured on the historical cost basis.
• Leases: BBC World Service has applied IFRIC 4 Determining
whether an arrangement contains a lease from 1 April 2008
and therefore determined whether or not an arrangement
contains a lease on the basis of facts and circumstances existingat that date.
NEW STANDARDS AND INTERPRETATIONSNOT YET ADOPTED
At the date of authorisation of these financial statements, thefollowing Standards and Interpretations which have not been appliedin these financial statements were in issue but not yet effective:• IFRS 1 (amended)/IAS 27 (amended) Cost of an Investment
in a Subsidiary, Jointly Controlled Entity or Associate• IFRS 3 (revised 2008) Business Combinations• IFRS 5 (amended) Non-current Assets Held for Sale andDiscontinued Operations• IAS 17 Leases• IAS 27 (revised 2008) Consolidated and Separate Financial Statements• IAS 28 (revised 2008) Investments in Associates• IFRIC 17 Distributions of Non-cash Assets to Owners• IFRIC 18 Transfers of Assets From Customers• IFRIC 19 Extinguishing Financial Liabilities with Equity Instruments• Improvements to IFRSs (April 2009)
BBC World Service does not expect that the adoption of theseStandards and Interpretations in future periods will have a material
impact on the financial statements of BBC World Service.

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

35

BBC WORLD SERVICE STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTING POLICIES CONTINUEDINCOME
Grant-in-Aid is recognised when received from the Foreign andCommonwealth Office. It is intended to meet estimated expenditurein the year but unexpended receipts for the year, withinpredetermined limits, are not liable to surrender. Grant-in-Aid
is recognised as income in the financial year to which it relates.
Other income, or revenue, arises primarily from activities suchas the provision of services. Revenue is recognised at the point
the service has been delivered and the receipt of the income isprobable. Where the delivery is over a period of time, the revenue
is recognised on a straight line basis.
SEGMENTAL ANALYSISIn accordance with IFRS 8 Operating Segments, the operating
segments of BBC World Service are reported in a mannerconsistent with the internal reports provided to the chief operating
decision maker. The chief operating decision maker has been
identified as the BBC World Service Board.
FOREIGN CURRENCY TRANSLATION
Transactions in foreign currencies are translated into sterling at therates of exchange ruling at the date of the transactions.
Monetary assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies
at the balance sheet date are translated into sterling at the rateof exchange ruling at that date. Foreign currency gains or losses
arising from the translation of assets and liabilities at these rates
of exchange, together with exchange differences arising fromtransactions settled during the year, are included in the income
statement. Non-monetary assets and liabilities measured athistorical cost are translated into sterling at the rate of exchangeon the date of initial recognition.
EMPLOYEE BENEFITSThe BBC operates both defined benefit and defined contribution
schemes for the benefit of employees.
DEFINED BENEFIT PLANS
The defined benefit plans provide benefits based on final or career
average pensionable pay. The assets of the BBC’s main pension
scheme, the BBC Pension Scheme, to which the majority of
employees belong, are held separately from those of the BBC Group.
The BBC Pension Scheme is a Group wide scheme and as such theparticipating employers all make contributions to the scheme at thesame rates and are unable to identify their shares of the net defined
benefit cost. The contribution rates are set by the BBC Pension
Scheme trustees based on valuations which take a longer term
view of the assets required to fund the scheme’s liabilities.
Valuations of the scheme are performed by Towers Watson,
consulting actuaries, with formal valuations undertaken at least
every three years. Therefore as required by IAS 19: Employee
Benefits, BBC World Service accounts for the contributions
payable to the scheme for the year.
DEFINED CONTRIBUTION PLANS
The amounts charged as expenditure for the defined contributionplans represent the contributions payable by BBC World Service
for the accounting period in respect of these plans.

TERMINATION BENEFITS
Termination benefits are a component of restructuring provisions
and are recognised as an expense in accordance with theaccounting policy for provisions.
OTHER EMPLOYEE BENEFITS
Other short and long term employee benefits, including holiday
pay and long service leave, are recognised as an expense overthe period in which they accrue.
TAXATION
The tax charge for the period comprises tax currently payable.
Taxation is recognised in the income statement except to theextent that it relates to items recognised directly in reserves,in which case it is recognised in reserves.
BBC World Service is not liable to corporation tax on any surplus
Grant-in-Aid income received. However, it is fully liable forcorporation tax on capital gains and on all its other income.
Expenditure on capital assets is not eligible for capital allowances.
Where applicable, deferred tax is provided for using the balance
sheet liability method on any temporary differences between
the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities for financial
reporting purposes and the amounts used for taxation purposes.
Any deferred tax asset is recognised only to the extent that
it is probable that sufficient taxable surplus will be available toutilise the temporary difference. Deferred tax assets and liabilities
are disclosed net to the extent that they relate to taxes leviedby the same authority and BBC World Service has the rightof set off within the BBC Group.
OPERATING LEASES
Payments made under operating leases are recognised in theincome statement on a straight-line basis over the lease term.
FINANCE LEASES
Payments made under finance leases are apportioned between
financing costs and the reduction of the outstanding liability.
The financing costs are allocated to each period so as to produce
a constant periodic rate of interest on the remaining balanceof the liability.
BORROWING COSTS
All finance income and other borrowing costs are recognisedin the income and expenditure account in the period in which
they are incurred.
INTANGIBLE FIXED ASSETSRESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT EXPENDITURE –INTERNALLY-GENERATED INTANGIBLE ASSETS
Expenditure on research activities is written-off in the income
statement when incurred.
Expenditure on development activities is capitalised only
if all of the following conditions are met:
• An identifiable asset is created;• It is probable that the asset will generate future economic
benefits; and• The development costs of the asset can be measured reliably.
The assets are measured at cost less accumulated amortisation
and any accumulated impairment losses.

36

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

BBC WORLD SERVICE STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTING POLICIES CONTINUEDOTHER INTANGIBLE ASSETS
Other intangible assets acquired separately by BBC World Service
are stated at cost less accumulated amortisation and any
accumulated impairment losses.
AMORTISATION
Amortisation is charged to the income statement on a straight line
basis over the estimated useful lives of intangible assets, from thedate that they are available for use, unless such lives are indefinite.
The useful lives and amortisation methods for each major class ofintangible asset are as follows:• Other intangibles, including IT software – 2 to 4 years
Amortisation methods, useful lives and residual values are reviewed
at each balance sheet date and adjusted if appropriate.
PROPERTY, PLANT AND EQUIPMENT
Property, plant and equipment are stated at the estimatedcurrent replacement cost of the assets, as adjusted for remaining
service potential, as at 1 April 1996, or at cost if acquired
subsequently, less accumulated depreciation and any accumulated
impairment losses.
Cost includes expenditure that is directly attributable to theacquisition of the asset.
Assets held under finance leases are capitalised within property,
plant and equipment and depreciation is provided as appropriate.
On initial recognition the asset is measured at the lower of its
fair value and the present value of the minimum lease payments.
Depreciation is provided to write off the cost or valuation,less estimated residual value, of each item of property, plantand equipment on a straight-line basis over its expected
useful life. Depreciation commences from the date an asset
is brought into service.
The major categories of property, plant and equipment
are depreciated as follows:
Land and buildings
Freehold land
Freehold and long-leasehold buildings
Short-leasehold land and buildings– not depreciated– 50 years– unexpired lease term

Plant and machinery
Computer equipment
Other– 3 to 5 years– 3 to 25 years

Furniture and fittings– 3 to 10 years

Depreciation methods, estimated useful lives and residual values
are reviewed at each reporting date.
WORK IN PROGRESSWork in progress, including programmes commissioned
from independent producers, is stated at the lower of costand net realisable value. The full stock value is written off
on first transmission.

ACQUIRED PROGRAMMESThe costs of acquired programmes are written off
on first transmission.
OTHER STOCKS
Raw materials are stated at the lower of cost and net realisable value.
TRADE AND OTHER RECEIVABLES
These are recognised initially and subsequently at fair value. For
trade receivables this is after an allowance for estimated impairment.
The allowance is based on objective evidence that BBC World
Service will not be able to recover all amounts due, through areview of all accounts and prior experience collecting outstandingbalances. Changes in the carrying amount of the allowance arerecognised in the surplus/deficit.
TRADE AND OTHER PAYABLES
These are recognised initially and subsequently at fair value.
PROVISIONS
A provision is recognised in the balance sheet when BBC
World Service has a present legal or constructive obligation arisingfrom past events and it is probable that an outflow of economic
benefits will be required to settle the obligation. Provisions thatare payable over a number of years are discounted to net present
value at the balance sheet date using a discount rate appropriate
to the particular provision concerned.
RESERVES
Grant-in-Aid is used to fund both capital and revenue expenditure
and a transfer is made each year to or from the capital reserve equal
to the movement in the historic cost net book value of non-current
assets during the year.
The value of the capital reserve is equal to the net book valueof non-current assets at historic cost less the dilapidations provisionthat has been charged against the capital reserve. The operating
reserve is the accumulated surplus of the income and expenditureaccount to the balance sheet date.
USE OF ESTIMATES AND JUDGEMENTS
In selecting and applying the accounting policies, the BBC World
Service Board is required to make judgements, estimates andassumptions that can affect the reported amounts.
PROPERTY, PLANT AND EQUIPMENT
Depreciation is charged to the income statement over the useful
economic life of an asset, which requires an assessment to bemade of the useful economic life and residual value of each asset.
LEASESIn assessing whether a lease is an operating lease or a finance lease,judgment needs to be exercised in determining whether or not
substantially all the risks and rewards of ownership of the leased
asset are held by BBC World Service.
PROVISIONS
Judgement and estimation techniques are employed in the calculationof the best estimate of the amount required to settle obligations.

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

37

BBC WORLD SERVICENOTES TO THE
FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
1. SEGMENT REPORTING
1a. REPORTING TO THE BBC WORLD SERVICE BOARD
BBC World Service’s income primarily arises in the United Kingdom. Grant-in-Aid income from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office accounts
for around 99% of the income of BBC World Service. This funding is granted by HM Government as part of its spending review cycles.
Given the relative certainty of Grant-in-Aid income in any one year, management reporting is focused on the costs of the business units
which comprise BBC World Service. Grant-in-Aid income is accounted for centrally and is not allocated across the business. The business
units are arranged into regions and support functions. The regions are determined by the languages in which BBC World Service broadcasts
and the target audiences for those language services. The majority of programming is created within the UK although output for some services
is produced locally. As a result, the regions reflect the editorial and audience focus of BBC World Service. English language broadcasting
operates as a separate “region”. Its programmes are produced by other BBC departments using a “service level agreement” (SLA) model.
In addition to programmes in English, the department also provides some central news services to the rest of BBC World Service.
In recent years BBC World Service has undertaken a number of exercises to centralise costs in order to better identify and achieve savings.
Where possible, only direct, controllable costs remain in programme making areas. Central and support costs are not allocated to spending
departments for operational or reporting purposes and consequently have not been re-allocated below.
1b. ASSETS AND LIABILITIESNet assets and liabilities are not reported using the regional structure. Reporting of assets is performed at the entity level andso no presentation of assets by region has been provided. Where issues arise relating to specific assets or liabilities these are reported
to the BBC World Service Board by exception.
Non-current assets are not reported by operating segment. As with current assets and liabilities, issues may be reported by exception
but reviews of non-current assets generally take place at the entity level.
The geographical split of non-current assets is shown in note 1d below.
1c. REPORTABLE SEGMENTS

Income£mOperatingexpenditure£m

Operatingsurplus/(deficit)
before interestand taxation£m

Production areas
African Services
Arabic Service
Americas and Europe
Asia PacificWorld Service English

0.4
–
3.3
0.1
0.1

(14.4)(26.9)(19.8)(34.5)(50.0)(14.0)(26.9)(16.5)(34.4)(49.9)

Future media, transmission and distribution
Accommodation, support and central areas
Depreciation, write-offs and capital GIA expensed in the year

3.9
–
0.2
–

(145.6)(57.9)(42.4)(34.7)(141.7)(57.9)(42.2)(34.7)Net operating expenditure

4.1(280.6)(276.5)Grant-in-Aid funding

268.0

–

268.0

Operating surplus/(deficit) before interest and taxation

272.1(280.6)(8.5)

Segmental analysis 2010

Notes:
1. Assets and liabilities are primarily held centrally and not allocated to business units.
2. External income attributable to production areas arises outside the UK and is derived from co-production, business development
and local distribution arrangements.
3. Accommodation represents costs charged directly to BBC World Service relating to Bush House and Egton Wing, W1.
Accommodation for international offices and for providers of programmes to BBC World Service under SLAs are includedin the relevant business unit.
4. Support and central areas include marketing, HR, finance, strategy, legal, central provisions and the costs of the BBC World Service Board.

38

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

BBC WORLD SERVICE NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CONTINUED

Segmental analysis 2009

Income£mOperatingsurplus/(deficit)
Operating before interest
expenditureand taxation£m£m

Production areas
Africa Middle East
Americas and Europe
Asia PacificWorld Service English

0.3
3.1
0.1
0.1

(38.8)(21.4)(35.8)(50.4)(38.5)(18.3)(35.7)(50.3)

Future media, transmission and distribution
Accommodation, support and central areas
Depreciation, write-offs and capital GIA expensed in the year

3.6
–
0.1
–

(146.4)(57.5)(35.4)(31.6)(142.8)(57.5)(35.3)(31.6)Net operating expenditure

3.7(270.9)(267.2)Grant-in-Aid funding

265.0

–

265.0

Operating surplus/(deficit) before interest and taxation

268.7(270.9)(2.2)

UnitedKingdom£mRest of the
world
£m

Total
£m

Total non-current assets

41.8

99.6

141.4

Other net (liabilities)/assets

(7.9)

1.9

(6.0)

Net assets

33.9

101.5

135.4

Total non-current assets

54.2

95.4

149.6

Other net (liabilities)/assets

(7.3)

1.6

(5.7)

Net assets

46.9

97.0

143.9

Total fixed assets

55.8

95.6

151.4

Other net (liabilities)/assets

(6.5)

1.0

(5.5)

Net assets

49.3

96.6

145.9

1d. GEOGRAPHICAL SPLIT OF NON-CURRENT ASSETS
The geographical split of non-current assets is:

2010

2009

2008

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

39

BBC WORLD SERVICE NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CONTINUED

2. TOTAL OPERATING COSTS

Intangible fixed assets and property, plant and equipment
Depreciation– owned assets– leased assets
Other operating costs
Payments under operating leases– land and buildings
Audit fees paid to KPMG
Staff costs
Other

Total

2010
£m

2009
£m

27.9
0.4

27.9
0.5

28.3

28.4

10.8
0.1
90.9
150.5

10.4
0.1
84.8
147.2

252.2

242.5

280.6

270.9

“Other” costs include direct costs of programme production, costs of programmes produced under SLA arrangements with other divisionsof the BBC, transmission costs and all other costs with the exception of those disclosed separately above.
BBC World Service has reported its auditors’ remuneration in accordance with the Companies (Disclosure of Auditor Remuneration)
Regulations 2005.
3. EMPLOYEES AND REMUNERATION
3a. PERSONS EMPLOYEDThe average number of persons employed (full-time equivalent) in the year was:Total BBC World Service

2010
Number

2009
Number

2,017

1,952

Within the averages above, 146 (2009: 154) part-time employees have been included at their full-time equivalent of 78 (2009: 83)
and 26 (2009: 40) persons on guaranteed minimum contracts have been included at their full-time equivalent of 7 (2009: 13).
In addition to this, BBC World Service employed an average of 28 persons on a casual basis (2009: 49). Their payroll costs are included in note 3b.
3b. STAFF COSTS
2010
£m

2009
£m

Salaries and wages
Social security costs
Pension costs
Redundancy costs

67.5
6.7
10.7
6.0

64.6
6.3
9.2
4.7

Total

90.9

84.8

A salary sacrifice arrangement was introduced on 1 June 2008 for Old and New Benefit pension scheme members. The contributions
paid via the salary sacrifice arrangement have been treated as employer contributions, and a reduction in salary.
Staff costs in 2010 incorporate the effects of the standard BBC pay award, filling posts in new television services and the impact of foreignexchange movements on the cost of staff based overseas. The funding arrangements for BBC World Service incorporate efficiency savings
targets. Generating savings and the consequent levels of redundancy and restructuring costs therefore represent an ongoing businessactivity for BBC World Service.
3c. KEY MANAGEMENT
Within the overall structure of the BBC, BBC World Service forms part of the Global News division. The Director of BBC Global News
did not sit on the BBC World Service Board in the year ended 31 March 2010 apart from during the period 1 April 2009 to 14 April 2009.
However, throughout the year, the Director of BBC Global News did have a role in shaping the strategy of BBC World Service as partof the overall management of Global News. A proportion of the costs of the Director of BBC Global News were charged to BBC World
Service. The key management of BBC World Service for the purposes of IAS 24 (Related Party Disclosures) comprises the BBC World Service
Board and the Director of BBC Global News. From 1 April 2010 the posts of Director of BBC World Service and Director of BBC Global
News have been combined.

40

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

BBC WORLD SERVICE NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CONTINUED

The total remuneration of the key management of BBC World Service is shown below. This represents the remuneration of the BBC World
Service Board plus that proportion of the costs of the Director of BBC Global News which are attributable to Grant-in-Aid funded activity.
2010
£000

2009
£000

Short term employee benefits
Post employment benefits
Termination benefits

1,639
276
590

1,629
300
–

Total

2,505

1,929

As set out in note 3b above, the BBC operates a salary sacrifice scheme for members of the BBC Pension Scheme. The short term
employee benefits for the key management of BBC World Service have not been adjusted to reflect the impact of the salary sacrifice scheme.
Total salary sacrifice by the key management of BBC World Service was £92,000 (2009: £69,000).
Peter Horrocks, Director of BBC World Service, joined BBC World Service on 14 April 2009. The aggregate of his remuneration to 31 March2010 was £214,840 (2009: nil). As a member of the BBC Pension Scheme, his total accrued annual pension at 31 March 2010 was £98,135.
The highest paid member of the BBC World Service Board in the year received remuneration to 31 March 2010 of £481,073.
This included a termination payment. In the year to 31 March 2009 the highest paid Director was Nigel Chapman, Director of BBC
World Service to 27 February 2009. His total remuneration in the year to 31 March 2009 was £239,300.
Twelve of the thirteen permanent members of the BBC World Service Board had retirement benefits accruing under the BBC Pension
Scheme at 31 March 2010 (2009: 13 members).
4. TAX
4a. RECOGNISED IN THE INCOME STATEMENT
The charge for the year is based on a rate of corporation tax of 28% (2009: 28%) comprised:
2010
£m

2009
£m

Current tax
UK corporation tax–

0.1

Total current tax charge–

0.1

Total deferred tax––

Total taxation expense in the consolidated income statement–

0.1

The BBC World Service tax charge is based primarily on interest receivable. Taxation in the year to 31 March 2010 was immaterial.
Grant-in-Aid, the principal component of BBC World Service’s income, is not subject to tax.
Any deferred tax asset is recognised only to the extent that it is probable that sufficient taxable surplus will be available to utilise thetemporary difference. Given that Grant-in-Aid is not subject to tax, it is not anticipated that any deferred tax assets would be utilised
by BBC World Service and hence no deferred tax assets have been recognised.
4b. RECONCILIATION OF TAXATION EXPENSE
2010
£m

2009
£m

Deficit before tax

(8.5)

(1.9)

Deficit before tax multiplied by the standard rateof corporation tax in the UK of 28% (2009: 28%)
Adjustment relating to Grant-in-Aid funded activities
Effect of taxable external income

(2.4)
2.4
–

(0.6)
0.6
0.1

–

0.1

Total taxation expense in the consolidated income statement

4c. FACTORS THAT MAY AFFECT FUTURE TAX CHARGES
BBC World Service anticipates a similar tax charge in future years as Grant-in-Aid, the principal component of BBC World Service’s
income, is not subject to tax.

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

41

BBC WORLD SERVICE NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CONTINUED

5. PROPERTY, PLANT & EQUIPMENT AND INTANGIBLE ASSETS
5a. PROPERTY, PLANT & EQUIPMENT AND INTANGIBLE ASSETS AT 31 MARCH
Intangible
assetsProperty, plant and equipment
Land andbuildings£mPlant andmachinery£m

Furnitureand ﬁttings£m

Assets underconstruction
£m

Total
£m

Software£m

Cost or valuation
At 1 April 2008
Additions
Brought into service
Disposals

56.5
0.3
0.1
(0.2)

211.4
14.0
9.3
(1.6)

17.5
0.6
0.5
(0.3)

13.8
10.9
(10.8)
–

299.2
25.8
(0.9)
(2.1)

18.0
0.8
0.9
–

At 1 April 2009
Additions
Brought into service
Disposals

56.7
–
–
–

233.1
4.5
5.5
(2.2)

18.3
0.3
0.3
(0.1)

13.9
15.0
(8.1)
–

322.0
19.8
(2.3)
(2.3)

19.7
0.3
2.3
(0.1)

At 31 March 2010

56.7

240.9

18.8

20.8

337.2

22.2

Depreciation
At 1 April 2008
Charge for the year
Elimination in respect of disposals

39.5
2.4
(0.2)

108.7
20.4
(1.6)

6.6
2.3
(0.3)

–
–
–

154.8
25.1
(2.1)

11.0
3.3
–

At 1 April 2009
Charge for the year
Elimination in respect of disposals

41.7
2.4
–

127.5
21.4
(2.2)

8.6
2.4
(0.1)

–
_
_

177.8
26.2
(2.3)

14.3
2.1
(0.1)

At 31 March 2010

44.1

146.7

10.9

_

201.7

16.3

Net book value
At 31 March 2010

12.6

94.2

7.9

20.8

135.5

5.9

At 31 March 2009

15.0

105.6

9.7

13.9

144.2

5.4

At 31 March 2008

17.0

102.7

10.9

13.8

144.4

7.0

All fixed assets are held directly by BBC World Service as at 31 March 2010 except for £0.4m (2009: £0.2m) held by BBC do Brasil Limitada,
its subsidiary.
The members of the BBC World Service Board are satisfied that there has been no impairment in the carrying values of freeholdproperties at the balance sheet date.
Land and buildings include freehold land at a cost of £0.1 million (2009: £0.1 million) which is not depreciated.
Land and buildings at net book value comprise:

2010
£m

2009
£m

2008
£m

Freeholds
Short leaseholds

1.3
11.3

1.8
13.2

2.3
14.7

Total

12.6

15.0

17.0

5b. PROPERTY, PLANT AND EQUIPMENT HELD UNDER FINANCE LEASES
Assets held under finance leases, capitalised and included in plant and machinery within non-current assets are as follows:
Finance leases

2010
£m

2009
£m

2008
£m

Cost
Accumulated depreciation

1.3
(0.8)

1.9
(1.3)

1.9
(1.2)

Net book value

0.5

0.6

0.7

The finance leases relate to IT equipment used in the UK that was originally leased to BBC World Service under operating leases.
As at 1 April 2005, the contract was varied to allow the assets to be used by BBC World Service for substantially their entire economic
lives. As a result, these assets have been capitalised and included in non-current assets.

42

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

BBC WORLD SERVICE NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CONTINUED

5c. INTANGIBLE ASSETS
Intangible assets are software systems purchased and developed by BBC World Service, predominantly for programme editing,scheduling and transmission purposes.

6. PROGRAMME RELATED ASSETS AND OTHER INVENTORIES
2010
£m

2009
£m

2008
£m

Work in progress – programmes and other

0.1

0.1

0.1

Total programme related assets and other inventories

0.1

0.1

0.1

2010
£m

2009
£m

2008
£m

Receivable within one year
Trade receivables
Amounts owed by BBC Group
Amounts owed by other BBC subsidiaries
VAT recoverable
Other receivables
Prepayments

1.6
4.1
0.8
0.9
0.2
3.4

1.1
1.7
0.7
1.4
0.2
4.6

0.9
1.3
1.1
2.6
0.2
4.1

Total

11.0

9.7

10.2

7. TRADE AND OTHER RECEIVABLES

8. TRADE AND OTHER PAYABLES
8a. SUPPLIER PAYMENT POLICY
It is the BBC’s policy to comply with the Better Payment Practice Code in relation to the payment of suppliers, provided that the supplier iscomplying with the relevant terms and conditions of their contract. BBC World Service monitors compliance against the terms of this code.
BBC World Service’s creditor days outstanding at 31 March 2010 was 16 (2009: 16).
8b. AMOUNTS FALLING DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR

Trade payables
Programme payables
Other trade payables

Other payables
Salaries and wages
Fixed asset payables
Corporation tax
Accruals and deferred income

Total

2010
£m

2009
£m

2008
£m

–
2.9

0.1
3.3

0.2
2.8

2.9

3.4

3.0

7.0
1.1
–
2.6

5.0
1.0
0.1
2.0

5.5
0.9
0.1
1.6

10.7

8.1

8.1

13.6

11.5

11.1

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

43

BBC WORLD SERVICE NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CONTINUED

9. BORROWINGS
9a. AMOUNTS FALLING DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR
2010
£m

2009
£m

2008
£m

Obligations under finance leases

0.1

0.4

0.4

Total

0.1

0.4

0.4

2010
£m

2009
£m

2008
£m

Obligations under finance leases

0.4

0.2

0.3

Total

0.4

0.2

0.3

9b. AMOUNTS FALLING DUE AFTER MORE THAN ONE YEAR BUT NOT LATER THAN FIVE YEARS

9c. FINANCE LEASE OBLIGATIONS
Finance lease obligations relate to IT equipment leased to BBC World Service. The terms of the contract allow the assets to be used by
BBC World Service for substantially their entire economic lives. As a result, these assets have been capitalised and included in property,
plant and equipment.
Notes 9a and 9b above show the obligations under finance leases falling due under the terms of the contract. The disclosures relate to
the principal. The interest components relating to the leased assets are immaterial for the purposes of these financial statements and hence
a separate finance lease obligations table has not been included. None of the obligations due under finance leases fall due after five years.
10. FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS
The Group has adopted FRS 29 (IFRS 7) Financial Instruments: Disclosure for the first time in this financial year. Accordingly, the comparatives havebeen restated on a consistent basis, but the standard does not require any changes to the recognition or measurement of financial instruments.
10a. FINANCIAL RISK MANAGEMENT
BBC World Service manages its financial risk using a number of routes.
Liquidity risk: BBC World Service is primarily funded by means of Grant-in-Aid received from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office(FCO). BBC World Service submits monthly cash draw down requests to the FCO in order to secure sufficient funds to meets its
obligations as they fall due. This method enables BBC World Service to manage its cash risk. Under this process, BBC World Service
generally maintains a positive cash balance and, as a result, has no requirement for borrowings.
Credit risk: BBC World Service receives a small amount of income from third parties under programme making and distribution
arrangements. This external income arises outside the UK and amounts due at year end are reflected in trade receivables. Any amounts
which are considered to be impaired are provided for in line with the BBC group policy. The credit risk associated with these tradereceivables is considered to be low.
Market risk: BBC World Service is an international organisation and undertakes some transactions in currencies other than sterling.
Due to movements in exchange rates over time, the amount BBC World Service expects to receive or pay when it enters intoa transaction may differ from the amount that it actually receives or pays when it settles the transaction.
Working with the BBC’s group treasury function, BBC World Service benefits from forward currency arrangements, for expected
expenditure in US Dollars and Euros to manage this currency risk. These allow BBC World Service to settle transactions at known
exchange rates, thereby eliminating much of this uncertainty. As a result of this certainty in exchange rates BBC World Service has
no significant underlying sensitivity to currency fluctuations in the year and hence no sensitivity analysis is presented. These forward
currency requirements are managed by the BBC’s group treasury department as part of their management of the BBC’s overall
currency risk. The forward contracts are not specifically attributable to BBC World Service and hence are not reflected in the accountsof BBC World Service. BBC World Service does not undertake speculative treasury transactions.
Other risks: As referred to above, BBC World Service does not have any requirement for external borrowings so is not exposed tointerest rate risk. Due to the funding agreement with the FCO, BBC World Service does not hold excessive cash throughout the year
and so is not subject to other price risks, such as market price risk.

44

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

BBC WORLD SERVICE NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CONTINUED

10b. FAIR VALUES OF FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS
The following table shows the fair value and carrying value of BBC World Service’s financial instruments, in categories according to how
the financial instrument is measured. It also shows the maturity profile for each category of financial asset and liability.
Amounts duein less than
one year£m2010 – Carrying value and fair value
Loans and receivables
Trade receivables
Cash at bank and in hand
Financial liabilities measured at amortised cost
Trade payables
Obligations under finance leases
2009 – Carrying value and fair value
Loans and receivables
Trade receivables
Cash at bank and in hand
Financial liabilities measured at amortised cost
Trade payables
Obligations under finance leases
2008 – Carrying value and fair value
Loans and receivables
Trade receivables
Cash at bank and in hand
Financial liabilities measured at amortised cost
Trade payables
Obligations under finance leases

Amounts due
Amounts due
between one after more thanand five years
five years
£m
£m

Total
£m

1.6
6.7

–
–

–
–

1.6
6.7

(2.1)
(0.1)

–
(0.4)

–
–

(2.1)
(0.5)

1.1
6.1

–
–

–
–

1.1
6.1

(1.8)
(0.4)

–
(0.2)

–
–

(1.8)
(0.6)

0.9
5.4

–
–

–
–

0.9
5.4

(0.9)
(0.4)

–
(0.3)

–
–

(0.9)
(0.7)

10c. DERIVATIVE FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS
In accordance with IAS 39 Financial Instruments, BBC World Service has reviewed contracts for embedded derivatives that are required
to be separately accounted for if they do not meet certain requirements set out in the standard. The fair value of embedded derivatives
held by BBC World Service is not material.
At 31 March 2010 there were no differences (2009: no differences. 2008: no differences) between the carrying value and the fair valueof the financial instruments of BBC World Service.

11. PROVISIONS
Dilapidations£m

Restructuring
£m

Other
£m

Total
£m

At 1 April 2009
Utilised during the year
Released during the year
Charge for the year

3.7
–
–
0.1

5.1
(4.3)
(0.6)
5.0

0.7
(0.1)
(0.1)
0.2

9.5
(4.4)
(0.7)
5.3

At 31 March 2010

3.8

5.2

0.7

9.7

Included in current liabilities
Included in non-current liabilities

–
3.8

3.1
2.1

0.7
–

3.8
5.9

Total

3.8

5.2

0.7

9.7

At 1 April 2008
Utilised during the year
Released during the year
Charge for the year

3.6
–
–
0.1

5.6
(5.0)
(0.7)
5.2

0.2
(0.1)
–
0.6

9.4
(5.1)
(0.7)
5.9

At 31 March 2009

3.7

5.1

0.7

9.5

Included in current liabilities
Included in non-current liabilities

–
3.7

3.1
2.0

0.7
–

3.8
5.7

Total

3.7

5.1

0.7

9.5

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

45

BBC WORLD SERVICE NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CONTINUED

The dilapidations provision represents a liability to restore Bush House to its original condition on the future move of BBC World Service
to Broadcasting House in London, W1. The liability falls due on 25 December 2013. The charge increases each year index linked to RPI
subject to a collar of 2% and a cap of 4%. The dilapidations provision will be funded from capital Grant-in-Aid when it crystallises, thereforethe £0.1 million charge applied to this provision is included in the capital reserve transfer.
In the normal course of business, restructuring provisions are generally expected to crystallise within six to twelve months after
their recognition. However, this can vary from case to case and depends on a number of factors. The restructuring provisions included
in non-current liabilities relate to the re-organisation of technical support services provided to BBC World Service where the fulltransformation is expected to take place once BBC World Service relocates to the W1 site in 2012/13.
In the normal course of business, BBC World Service has a number of contingent liabilities arising from litigation. In cases where it
is considered probable that an outflow of resources will arise BBC World Service provides for its best estimate of probable damages
and costs. These are reflected in other provisions.
12. RECONCILIATION OF OPERATING DEFICIT TO CASH GENERATED FROM OPERATIONS
2010
£m

2009
£m

Operating deficit
Depreciation, amortisation and impairment(Increase)/decrease in receivables
Increase in payables
Increase in provisions

(8.5)
28.3
(1.3)
2.1
0.2

(2.2)
28.4
0.5
0.3
0.1

Cash generated from operations

20.8

27.1

13. CHANGES IN NET FUNDS
At 1 April
2008£mCash flow£m

Non-cashchanges£m

At 1 April
2009£mCash flow£m

Non-cashchanges£m

At 31 March2010£m

Net cashCash in hand and at bank
Debt
Finance leases

5.4

0.7

–

6.1

0.6

–

6.7

(0.7)

0.5

(0.4)

(0.6)

0.4

(0.3)

(0.5)

Net funds

4.7

1.2

(0.4)

5.5

1.0

(0.3)

6.2

14. LONG TERM COMMITMENTS NOT REFLECTED IN THE BALANCE SHEET
14a. CONTRACTS PLACED FOR FUTURE EXPENDITURE
2010
£m

2009
£m

Fixed asset additions
Programme acquisitions and sports rights
Other commitments

1.8
0.2
31.2

4.2
0.1
46.0

Total

33.2

50.3

Commitments relating to future expenditure show the minimum payments expected under contracts with third parties. The amounts
disclosed do not include variable payments. Commitments disclosed in other commitments include the contract between BBC World
Service and VT Communications Limited for the provision of transmission services. The contract runs until March 2012.
14b. OPERATING LEASES – MINIMUM LEASE COMMITMENTS
The total future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases are payable as follows:
Land & buildings Land & buildings
2010
2009
£m
£m
Not later than one year
Later than one year and not later than five years
Later than five years

10.7
26.4
3.8

9.9
35.4
3.6

Total

40.9

48.9

46

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

BBC WORLD SERVICE NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CONTINUED

15. RELATED PARTY DISCLOSURES
15a. ULTIMATE CONTROLLING PARTY
BBC World Service is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation, a body incorporated by Royal Charter. The largest groupin which the results of BBC World Service are consolidated is that headed by the BBC. The consolidated accounts of this group may
be obtained from the Head of the BBC Executive Unit, White City Building, 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TS.
15b. INVESTMENTS
BBC World Service holds the following interests in companies, at cost:
Holding of issued
ordinary shares%
Subsidiaries
BBC Croatia d.o.o. (incorporated in Croatia)
BBC do Brasil Limitada (incorporated in Brazil)
BBC East Asia Relay Company Limited (incorporated in Hong Kong)
BBC Kiev LLC (incorporated in Ukraine)
BBC Morocco SA (incorporated in Morocco)
BBC Pakistan Private Limited (incorporated in Pakistan)
BBC R (incorporated in Russia)

100
100
100
100
100
100
100

BBC Radiocom (Bulgaria) EOOD (incorporated in Bulgaria)
BBC Radiocom (Praha) s.r.o. (incorporated in the Czech Republic)

100
100

BBC Radiocom (Romania) SRL (incorporated in Romania)

100

BBC Radiocom Deutschland GmbH (incorporated in Germany)
BBC Ukraine LLC (incorporated in Ukraine)
BBC World Service Hong Kong Limited (incorporated in Hong Kong)
BBC World Service India Private Limited (incorporated in India)
BBC World Service Trust *

100
100
100
100

Associates
Multimedia Ventures Limited (incorporated in Great Britain)

50

Activity

Operated the Zagreb office (now closed)
Produces and distributes programmes
Holds FM transmission licence
Holds broadcasting licence
Dormant
Produces and distributes programmes
Produces and distributes programmes and holds
broadcast licence
In liquidation
Operated the now closed Prague office and holds
local broadcast licences
Operated the now closed Bucharest officeand holds local broadcast licences
In liquidation
Holds broadcasting licence
Operating subsidiary for Hong Kong bureau
Produces and distributes programmesInternational facing charity
Dormant* BBC World Service Trust is a charitable company limited by guarantee, of which the BBC is the sole member.
Although BBC World Service is technically the parent of the BBC World Service Trust, it is exempt from consolidation. This is because
the trustees have a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the beneficiaries and as substantially all of the income is made up of grants,
which are classified as restricted funds because their use is specified by donors, BBC World Service has no direct control over, or financial
interest in, the assets.
The results and balances of the other companies listed above are presented in the consolidated financial statements and the notes to thesefinancial statements.
The related party transactions of BBC World Service have been presented in accordance with IAS 24: Related Party Disclosures.
15c. TRANSACTIONS WITH RELATED PARTIES EXCLUDING KEY MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL
Transactions with related parties in the year were as follows:
Other BBCsubsidiaries

BBC group

Rendering of services
Receiving of services
Pension contributions

BBC World Service
Trust

BBC Pension
Scheme

2010
£m

2009
£m

2010
£m

2009
£m

2010
£m

2009
£m

2010
£m

2009
£m

–
164.3
–

–
163.2
–

(1.2)
0.7
–

(0.8)
0.7
–

(1.6)
0.2
–

(1.0)
0.5
–

–
–
10.7

–
–
9.1

164.3

163.2

(0.5)

(0.1)

(1.4)

(0.5)

10.7

9.1

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

47

BBC WORLD SERVICE NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CONTINUED

Amounts owed by and owed to related parties were as follows:
Amounted owed by related parties

Amounted owed to related parties

2010
£m

2009
£m

2008
£m

2010
£m

2009
£m

2008
£m

4.4
0.8

2.2
0.9

3.0
1.2

(0.3)
–

(0.5)
(0.2)

(1.7)
(0.1)

5.2

3.1

4.2

(0.3)

(0.7)

(1.8)

Parent company
Other BBC subsidiaries

Transactions with the parent company comprise payments made for the provision of programmes and services and the payroll costsof BBC World Service staff in the UK as the payroll is operated by the BBC group.
Transactions with other BBC subsidiaries are composed of transactions for the provision of programmes and services.
BBC World Service made grants of 0.2 million (2009: £0.4 million) during the year to the BBC World Service Trust, towards education
projects and general management and administration costs.
BBC World Service Trust also procures some services from BBC World Service for the delivery of its projects. These are primarily theservices of BBC World Service staff. The financial results of the BBC World Service Trust are not consolidated with those of BBC World
Service. As a result, transactions with the BBC World Service Trust are not eliminated on consolidation and are included above.
During the year there were no disclosable transactions with associates.
15d. TRANSACTIONS WITH KEY MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL
During the year there were no disclosable transactions with key management personnel other than the remuneration disclosed in note 3c.
16. BBC PENSION PLANS
16a. BBC GROUP PENSION PLANS
Many BBC World Service employees are members of the BBC Group’s pension schemes. These comprise the BBC Pension Scheme(a defined benefit scheme), a small unfunded plan (the unfunded scheme, which is closed to new members) and the Group Personal
Pension Scheme (a defined contribution scheme).
The BBC Pension Scheme provides salary related benefits on a defined benefit basis funded from assets held in separate trustee-administeredfunds; there are three sections to the BBC Pension Scheme, Old Benefits and New Benefits both provide benefits based on final salary(subject to differing inflation caps) and the Career Average Benefits section, which is the section open to new entrants. The pension scheme
trustees manage the plan in the short, medium and long term. They make funding decisions based on valuations which take a longer term
view of the assets required to fund the scheme’s liabilities
BBC World Service, following the provisions within IAS 19: Employee Benefits for accounting in respect of Group schemes, accounts forthe scheme as if it were a defined contribution scheme. This is because it is unable to identify its share of the underlying assets and liabilitiesof the scheme on a consistent and reasonable basis. The pension cost for this scheme therefore represents contributions payable by BBC
World Service to the scheme and the costs amounted to £10.7 million in the year (2009: £9.1 million). No contributions were prepaid
or accrued at 31 March 2010 (2009: £nil; 2008: £nil).
The actuarial valuation was updated for IAS 19 purposes to 31 March 2010 by Towers Watson, consulting actuaries. This valuation identified
a deficit of £1,640.9 million in the scheme at 31 March 2010 (2009: deficit £138.6 million; 2008: surplus £528.4 million). Additional disclosure
about the scheme and its financial position under IAS 19 is presented below:
16b. PENSION (LIABILITY)/ASSET INCLUDED IN THE BALANCE SHEET OF THE BBC GROUP
Pension liability

Pension asset

2010
£m

2009
£m

2008
£m

2010
£m

2009
£m

2008
£m

BBC Pension Scheme
Unfunded Scheme(1,640.9)(6.2)(138.6)
(4.7)

–
(5.1)

–
–

–
–

528.4
–

Total

(1,647.1)(143.3)

(5.1)

–

–

528.4

16c. BBC PENSION SCHEME
The BBC Pension Scheme is the main pension plan of the Group and covers the majority of employees. This plan provides salary related
benefits on a defined benefit basis funded from assets held in separate trustee-administered funds.

48

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

BBC WORLD SERVICE NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CONTINUED

16c(i) Scheme financial position
IAS 19 valuation

2010
£m

2009
£m

2008
£m

2007
£m

2006
£m

Scheme assets
Scheme liabilities

8,154.8(9,795.7)

6,454.0(6,592.6)

8,042.0(7,513.6)

8,117.9(7,788.6)

7,843.4(7,675.9)(Deficit)/surplus(1,640.9)(138.6)

528.4

329.3

167.5

16c(ii) Changes in the present value of plan liabilities
The table below illustrates the movement on the plan liabilities during the year. The key factors which affect this are the additional
year of pension benefits earned (and employee contributions made), interest charged on existing liabilities, any gains or losses relating
to participants leaving the pension scheme, changes in assumptions made and benefits paid out during the year.
2010
£m

2009
£m

2008
£m

Opening present value of plan liabilities
Current service cost
Past service (income)/cost
Gains on curtailments
Interest on pension plan liabilities
Experience (gains)/losses arising on plan liabilities
Changes in assumptions underlying plan liabilities
Contributions by plan participants
Benefits paid

6,592.6
128.2(301.5)–463.4(33.2)
3,266.1
7.2(327.1)

7,513.6
161.8
24.2(10.0)
508.4(171.3)(1,138.1)
14.2(310.2)

7,788.6
164.8
21.5
–
413.6
149.1
(786.0)53.1(291.1)

Closing present value of plan liabilities

9,795.7

6,592.6

7,513.616c(iii) Changes in the fair value of plan assets
The table below illustrates the movement on the plan assets during the year. The key factors which affect this are the additional yearof contributions made, changes in the value of the pension plan assets (including the investment return) and benefits paid during the year.
A salary sacrifice arrangement was introduced on 1 June 2008 for Old and New Benefit members. The contributions paid via the salarysacrifice arrangement have been treated as employer contributions.
2010
2009
2008
£m
£m
£m
Opening fair value of plan assets
Expected rate of return on plan assets
Actuarial gains/(losses) on plan assets
Contributions by employer
Contributions by plan participants
Benefits paid

6,454.0443.4
1,363.0
214.3
7.2(327.1)

8,042.0626.0(2,094.0)
176.0
14.2
(310.2)

8,117.9
562.7(584.6)184.0
53.1(291.1)

Closing present value of plan assets

8,154.8

6,454.0

8,042.016c(iv) Plan assets
The allocation of assets by the Trustees is governed by a need to manage risk against the desire for high returns and any liquidity needs.
A high percentage of assets are held in equities which the Trustees expect will produce higher returns in the long term. The target allocation,
based on market values, for equities is 50% (UK equities 25% and overseas equities 25%), bonds 30%, property 10% and alternatives 10%.
2010

2009

2008

Type of asset

£m

%

£m

%

£m

%

Equities
Bonds
Property
Alternatives*
Cash

4,573
1,825
787
719
251

56
22
10
9
3

3,313
1,598
796
508
239

51
25
12
8
4

4,624
1,693
1,001
455
269

58
21
12
6
3

Total assets

8,155

6,454

8,042

Actual return on pension plan assets **1,806(1,468)(22)* Alternatives include private equity, debt and currency.
** This constitutes realised gains from the receipt of investment income (e.g. dividends and rent), transactions where assets are soldand unrealised fair value changes.

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

49

BBC WORLD SERVICE NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CONTINUED

16c(v) Funding the Scheme
As a result of the 2007 actuarial valuation by Towers Watson, it was agreed between the BBC and the Pension Scheme trustees that
employer contributions would increase to 19.35% from 1 July 2008. Employee contributions rose from 6% to 6.75% from 1 April 2009
and will rise to 7.5% from 1 April 2010 and employer contributions decreased from 19.35% to 18.6% from 1 April 2009 and will decrease
to 17.85% from 1 April 2010. Employee contributions for Career Average Benefit members are set at 4%.
An interim valuation was performed as at 1 April 2009. The next formal actuarial valuation is expected to be performed as at 1 April 2010.
Projection
Contribution rates
Employer
Employee (Old and New Benefits)
Employee (Career Average Benefits)
Underlying cost of scheme to BBC
as % of pensionable salaries*

Actual

2011
%

2010
%

2009
%

2008
%

2007
%

17.85
7.5
4.0

18.6
6.75
4.0

18.8/19.35
6.0
4.0

18.8
6.0
4.0

7.5
5.5/6.0
4.0**

17.85

18.6

18.8/19.35

18.8

19.3/18.8* Excludes the cost effectively paid for by the employee and the salary sacrifice element.
** The Career Average Benefit scheme started on 1 November 2006.
On the basis assumed above, the BBC Group expects to make contributions to the scheme totalling £179.4 million in 2011.
16c(vi) Principal actuarial assumptions
The calculation of the scheme liabilities and pension charges, for IAS 19 purposes, requires a number of assumptions, both financial
and demographic, to be made. The principal assumptions used by the actuaries, at the balance sheet date were:
2010
%

2009
%

2008
%

3.7

4.4*

5.6

3.7
3.5
2.4
3.7
5.5

3.0
2.7
2.4
2.9
7.2

3.6
3.4
2.5
3.6
6.9

2010
Number of
years

2009
Number of
years

2008
Number ofyears

Retiring today
Male
Female

27.0
29.7

26.9
29.6

26.6
29.1

Retiring in 20 years
Male
Female

29.0
31.8

28.9
31.7

28.1
30.7

Principal financial assumptions
Rate of increase in salaries
Rate of increase in pension payments:
Old Benefits
New Benefits
Career Average Benefits
Inflation assumption
Discount rate
* This is the assumption from 1 April 2011. The assumption to 31 March 2011 is 3.9% per annum.

The average life expectancy assumptions, for members after retirement at 60 years of age, are as follows:

Principal demographic assumptions

The longevity assumptions have been selected to reflect the characteristics and experience of the membership of the scheme.
This has been done by adjusting standard mortality tables (PMAC07MC+0.5 and PFAC07MC+1) which reflect recent research
into mortality experience in the UK.
The demographic assumptions have been updated from those used for the actuarial valuation of the scheme as at 1 April 2007 to reflect
the likely assumptions which will be used for the actuarial valuation of the scheme as at 1 April 2010.
16c(vii) Group Personal Pension Scheme and other schemes
The BBC also operates its own defined contribution pension schemes, including those operated in the USA and Australia. The pension cost
represents contributions payable by BBC World Service to the funds and this amounted to £0.03 million in the year (2009: £0.07 million).

50

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

BBC WORLD SERVICE NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CONTINUED

17. CONVERSION TO INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL REPORTING STANDARDSFollowing the BBC World Service’s adoption of IFRS, the 2009 and where relevant 2008 comparative financial information in these accounts
has been restated and represented under IFRS. The reconciliations below highlight the key impacts on both the surplus for the financial
year and the net assets.
Year ended
Year ended
31 March 2010 31 March 2009£m£m
Reconciliation of surplus from UK GAAP to IFRSDeficit (UK GAAP)IAS 19 – Employee benefits

(8.4)
(0.1)

(2.1)
0.1

Deficit (IFRS)

(8.5)

(2.0)

2010
£m

2009
£m

2008
£m

Reconciliation of net assets from UK GAAP to IFRSNet assets (UK GAAP)IAS 19 – Employee benefits

136.2
(0.8)

144.6
(0.7)

146.7
(0.8)

Net assets (IFRS)

135.4

143.9

145.9

The principal IFRS adjustment in the accounts of BBC World Service is as follows:
IAS 19 – EMPLOYEE BENEFITS. Under UK GAAP, BBC World Service did not make a provision for holiday pay, i.e. holiday earned
but not taken prior to the year end. In contrast, IAS 19 requires the cost of short-term compensated absences to be recognised
when employees render the service that increases their entitlement. As a result an additional accrual has been made to reflect this.

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

51

BBC WORLD SERVICE

GOVERNANCE

THE BBC WORLD SERVICE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORKBBC World Service is funded by a Parliamentary Grant-in-Aid, administered by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) of
the British government. Operationally BBC World Service is part of the BBC. The FCO, in close consultation with BBC World Service,
is involved in the process of deciding which languages are broadcast, but production and editorial control rests entirely with the BBC.
The relationship between BBC World Service and the FCO is governed by two documents: the Broadcasting Agreement which sets
out the aims and objectives of BBC World Service and provisions for performance assessment; and the Financial Memorandum whichsets out the financial arrangements. The BBC World Service Board is operationally responsible for complying with these two documents.
Within the BBC ultimate responsibility for BBC World Service is vested in the BBC Trust, which is the sovereign body of the Corporation.
The BBC Trust and the BBC Executive Board ensure that BBC World Service operates responsibly and maintains high standards ofeditorial integrity and content. The respective responsibilities of the BBC Trust and the BBC Executive Board relating to the operationof BBC World Service are outlined in a protocol published by the BBC Trust.
This and the following pages contain reports on BBC World Service’s policies, procedures and compliance on governancematters, namely:• BBC World Service Responsibility Statement;• BBC Executive Board Report on BBC World Service Trading Protocols;• Statement on Internal Control;• Our People;• The BBC World Service Board; and,• Compliance and Accountability.

52

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

BBC WORLD SERVICE GOVERNANCE CONTINUED

BBC WORLD SERVICE RESPONSIBILITY STATEMENTSTATEMENT OF BOARD RESPONSIBILITIES IN RESPECT
OF THE ANNUAL REVIEWThe Charter requires the BBC to prepare an audited annual
report and statement of accounts. The statement of accounts of
the BBC incorporates the financial results of BBC World Service.
The Financial Memorandum with the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office (FCO) requires BBC World Service to prepare its own
accounts and produce an Annual Review.
The BBC Executive Board and the BBC World Service Board haveaccepted their responsibility for the preparation of an operating
and financial review, statements of compliance with applicable
codes and regulations and the statement of accounts which areintended by them to give a true and fair view of the state of affairsof the BBC World Service and of the income and expenditure
for that period. The accounts have been prepared in accordancewith International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) as adopted
by the EU (‘EU IFRS’), reflecting the fact that IFRSs are widely usedin the UK, are being adopted in the public sector, and that theiruse is permitted under the Companies Act 2006.
The BBC Executive Board and BBC World Service Board must not
approve the statement of accounts (or ‘financial statements’) unlessthey are satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the assets,
liabilities and financial position of the BBC World Service and of thesurplus or deficit for that period.
In preparing the financial statements the BBC Executive Board
and BBC World Service Board have:• selected suitable accounting policies and applied them consistently;• made judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;• stated whether they have been prepared in accordance withIFRS as adopted by the EU; and,• prepared the financial statements on the going concern basis
as they believe that BBC World Service will continue in business.
The BBC Executive Board and BBC World Service Board are
responsible for keeping proper accounting records that are
sufficient to show and explain the transactions of BBC World
Service and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time its
financial position and enable them to ensure that the financial
statements comply with the BBC’s Charter and with the Financial
Memorandum with the FCO. The Boards also have a general
responsibility for taking such steps as are reasonably open to themto safeguard the assets of the BBC World Service and to preventand detect fraud and other irregularities.
The BBC Executive Board and BBC World Service Board are
responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the BBC World
Service’s website. Legislation in the UK governing the preparationand dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislationin other jurisdictions.

STATEMENT OF DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATIONThe BBC Executive Board and BBC World Service Board members
who held office at the date of approval of this Annual Review
confirm that, so far as they are each aware:• there is no relevant audit information of which the BBC World
Service’s auditors are unaware; and,• that each BBC Executive Board member and BBC World Service
Board member has taken all the steps that they ought to havetaken as a BBC Executive Board or BBC World Service Board
member to make themselves aware of any relevant audit
information and to establish that the BBC World Service’s
auditors are aware of that information.
GOING CONCERN
A review of the financial position of BBC World Service isincluded on page 30. This, together with the Director’s overview
on pages 2 to 5, provides an assessment of BBC World Service’s
performance and current position. The BBC World Service’s approach
to risk management is outlined on pages 55 and 56. This includes
regularly reviewing the risks faced by the business including
the impact of the current economic climate and the likelihoodof securing adequate ongoing funding.
The BBC World Service’s 2009/10 annual accounts have beendrawn up on a going concern basis. The BBC World Service
is funded by the FCO through Grant-in-Aid, which has in recent
years been awarded in three-year funding settlements. The current
three-year settlement period runs until 31 March 2011. Whilst
the BBC Executive Board and BBC World Service Board haveno visibility of the impact of the new Government’s spending plans
for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the BBC Executive
Board and BBC World Service Board expect the basis of futureyears’ funding to be agreed later in 2010 and are therefore satisfied
that the going concern assumption remains appropriate.
This statement was approved by the BBC Executive Boardand the BBC World Service Board on 14 June 2010 and signedon their behalf by:

MARK THOMPSONDIRECTOR-GENERAL, BBC

PETER HORROCKSDIRECTOR, BBC WORLD SERVICE

The BBC Executive Board and BBC World Service Board members
who held office at the date of approval of the Annual Review
confirm that, to the best of each of their knowledge and belief:• the financial statements, prepared in accordance with IFRS as
adopted by the EU, give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities,
financial position and deficit of BBC World Service; and,• the operating and financial review includes a fair review of thedevelopment and performance of the business and the positionof BBC World Service, together with a description of theprincipal risks and uncertainties that it faces.

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

53

BBC WORLD SERVICE GOVERNANCE CONTINUEDBBC EXECUTIVE BOARD REPORT ON BBC WORLDSERVICE TRADING PROTOCOLSBBC World Service is responsible for commissioning andscheduling its own programmes and for making programmes for
its language services, but purchases English language programme
making and technical and support services from other parts of
the BBC (‘the Suppliers’). BBC World Service also receives services
from and supplies services to the BBC’s commercial subsidiaries(‘the Subsidiaries’).
It was agreed by a joint Foreign and Commonwealth Office(FCO)/BBC World Service Working Group that the BBC would
draw up guidelines to govern the trading relationship between
BBC World Service and other parts of the BBC in order to ensurethat BBC World Service maintains its distinctive voice and to preserve
the clear separation between Grant-in-Aid and licence fee income.
Each of the Suppliers then drew up detailed agreements with BBC
World Service.
KPMG LLP (the BBC’s external auditors) have received a summaryof the value of transactions and the related cash flows whichhave taken place during the year between BBC World Service
and the Suppliers and Subsidiaries. KPMG LLP have reported to
the BBC’s Executive Fair Trading Committee that, in their opinion,
the information included in the summary of transactions for theyear ended 31 March 2010 has been accurately extracted fromthe books and records of BBC World Service and the Suppliersand Subsidiaries, and has been properly prepared on the basisof cost allocation and apportionment methods set out in theagreements between BBC World Service and the Suppliers andSubsidiaries and, on this basis, there has been no material crosssubsidy between Grant-in-Aid and licence fee funds or between
Grant-in-Aid and the BBC’s commercial subsidiaries.
BBC EXECUTIVE BOARD STATEMENT ON BBC WORLDSERVICE TRADING PROTOCOLSThe BBC Executive Fair Trading Committee is responsible formonitoring and reviewing compliance with the Trading Protocols.
Following reports by the Controller, Fair Trading & BBC Compliance
Officer and by internal and external auditors, the BBC Executive
Fair Trading Committee is satisfied that the BBC has compliedwith the Trading Protocols and that there has been no material
cross-subsidy between Grant-in-Aid and licence fee funds or
between Grant-in-Aid and the BBC’s commercial subsidiaries.
STATEMENT ON INTERNAL CONTROLThe BBC has an obligation under its Charter to apply the highest
standards of corporate governance. BBC World Service recognises
the importance of, and is committed to, applying these standards.
As a result, BBC World Service voluntarily complies with the2008 Financial Reporting Council Combined Code (2008 FRC Code)to the extent that it is applicable.
BBC World Service has achieved substantial compliance throughout
the year ended 31 March 2010 with the 2008 FRC Code. Those
areas where compliance has not been achieved are noted below:i) those requirements relating to shareholders
BBC World Service is not accountable to external shareholders.
Rather, through the stewardship of the BBC Trust, it is accountable
to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, to Parliament andto taxpayers.

54

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

ii) those requirements relating to non-executive directors,
remuneration and audit committees
The BBC Executive Board considers that BBC World Service should
comply with the 2008 FRC Code in a manner which is common
practice for an entity whose parent is complying with it. Hence the
BBC Executive Board does not require BBC World Service to haveseparate non-executive directors or remuneration and audit
committees from those established by the BBC, or to disclose theremuneration of the individual members of the BBC World Service
Board, except to the extent that this is required by the Companies
Act 2006. Although not a requirement under the 2008 FRC Code,
BBC World Service does have its own audit committee whichforms part of its risk management process. Also, in addition tofollowing the Companies Act 2006 requirements on remuneration,a voluntary disclosure of the remuneration of BBC World Service
Board members is made on page 59.
OUR STRUCTURE
BBC World Service Board
The structure of the BBC World Service Board is shown on page 24.
As explained above, BBC World Service does not have non-executive
directors. The BBC World Service Board meets every month.
Other members of management attend as required. A formalschedule of matters is reserved for Board decisions. This includes:• considering management structure and senior
management responsibilities;• agreeing membership and terms of reference of Board
committees and task forces and receiving minutes, reviewing
decisions taken and deciding action on recommendations;• agreeing contracts with major suppliers;• deciding significant staff and industrial relations issues;• agreeing business strategy;• approving the financial statements; and,• approving annual budgets, subject to final approvalby the BBC Executive Board.
BBC World Service Board members have access to the advice
and services of the BBC World Service’s Head of Governanceand Public Affairs who is responsible for ensuring that Board
procedures are followed.
BBC Executive Board
The operations of the BBC are managed by the BBC Executive
Board, made up of BBC executive directors and chaired by the
Director-General. The Board also contains a significant minority of
non-executive directors, nominated by the Board and approved by
the BBC Trust. The interests of BBC World Service are represented
on the BBC’s Executive Board by the Deputy Director-General.
The functions of the BBC Executive Board and the BBC Trust
are clearly defined. Operational responsibility rests with the BBC
Executive Board, and the BBC Trust, as the body responsible forthe strategic direction of the BBC, scrutinises the performance of
the Board in delivering the BBC’s services and activities. The BBC
Trust’s oversight of BBC World Service is represented by its general
duty to act in the public interest and to exercise rigorous stewardshipof public money. More information on how the BBC Executive
Board is run can be found in the BBC Annual Report and Accounts.
In practice, the BBC Executive Board delegates some of its
responsibility to other managerial groups. Any delegation from the
BBC Executive Board is stated in the relevant standing orders foreach group and a framework for reporting and review is established.

BBC WORLD SERVICE GOVERNANCE CONTINUED

In accordance with the requirements and provisions of the Charter,
the following committees continued to operate in the year:• Executive Fair Trading Committee• Executive Audit Committee• Remuneration Committee• Nomination Committee
The main responsibilities of these committees are explained in
the BBC Annual Report and Accounts as is the attendance recordof BBC Executive Board members.
INTERNAL CONTROLS AND AUDITThe responsibilities in relation to internal control are clearly defined.
The BBC Trust is ultimately responsible for the proper use of publicmoney whilst the BBC Executive Board and BBC World Service
Board are responsible for executing this requirement.
The BBC Executive Board is responsible for ensuring there is aprocess for managing significant risks to the BBC, and for maintaining
an adequate system of internal control and reviewing its effectiveness.
The processes for reviewing, managing and reporting on risks
within BBC World Service are set out below:
Control environment
The key aspects of the control environment operating throughout
the year are described below:i) risk identification and management
An ongoing process for identifying, evaluating, managing, monitoring
and reporting significant risks to the BBC, which accords with the
Turnbull guidance, has been in place for the year ended 31 March2010 and up to the date of approval of this Annual Review. The
overall management of risk within BBC World Service is considered
to be most effectively managed through the engagement of the BBC
World Service Board and the BBC World Service Audit Committee.
The BBC World Service Audit Committee forms a key part of therisk management process and is separate from the BBC Executive
Audit Committee. The BBC World Service Audit Committee has
reviewed the risks associated with the achievement of BBC World
Service’s objectives for the year. The risks identified, and the actions
planned in response, are maintained in a risk register. The risk
register is subject to regular review and assessment throughout
the year and feeds into the consideration of risk exposure at both
BBC World Service Board, BBC Journalism Group Board and BBC
Executive Board level.
ii) business unit controls
The BBC World Service Board has defined the system of controls
and procedures with which each business unit within BBC World
Service is required to comply. This system is designed to manage
rather than eliminate the risk of failure to achieve business objectives:
although no system of internal control can provide absoluteassurance against material misstatement or loss, the BBC World
Service’s controls are designed to provide reasonable assurance
that assets are safeguarded, transactions are appropriately authorised
and material errors or irregularities are either prevented or detected
on a timely basis.

Key controls over major business risks include formal authorisation
processes, regular financial reporting, the annual performance
review process, and exception reporting of financial and non-financial
matters. Internal audit reviews by BBC Business Assurance monitor
the operation of controls.
iii) financial reporting and business performance
BBC World Service has a comprehensive budgeting system withan annual budget approved by the BBC Executive Board, preparedin line with the BBC World Service Three Year Plan. Monthly
financial information is reported against budget figures, withcorrective action being taken by the BBC World Service Board as
appropriate. All capital expenditure over certain upper thresholds
must be approved by a BBC investment approval committee and,in some cases, by the FCO.
iv) business and broadcast continuity
BBC World Service business continuity plans have been further
strengthened in the past year. The second phase of a major project
to build a new emergency production facility outside central
London has been completed and has considerably enhanced ourcapability to maintain programme output and other critical services
in the event of an incident.
Continuity plans have been tested and successfully invoked
on a number of occasions to respond to incidents both in the
UK and internationally. Work is currently underway to enhance
the continuity plans for a number of key international offices toreflect their increased role in delivering services to our audience.
BBC World Service has maintained and improved controls
and procedures over the security of data held on IT systems.
Arrangements are in place to protect key data and maintainthe operation of critical IT systems in the event of an incident
affecting normal operations.
v) controls over outsourced functions
The outsourcing of key services presents a significant change to theBBC’s risk profile and as a consequence, that of BBC World Service.
Risk is not necessarily outsourced with these services. To address
this, the BBC has processes in place to manage the risks associatedwith the outsourcing of key business services (e.g. financetransaction processing, HR services, technology systems andsupport) and to ensure continuity of ongoing business operations.
vi) whistle-blowing
The BBC has a ‘whistle-blowing’ or ‘protected disclosure’ policy.
This policy facilitates the confidential communication via a number ofroutes of any incident in which there is a suspicion that there has beena breach of the BBC’s codes. The BBC fosters an environment where
all staff should feel free to report concerns and suspicions to line
management. However as there may be sensitivities regarding actualor suspected incidents, we also provide the alternative of a ‘whistleblowing’ hotline. This is administered by an independent external
company to ensure anonymity. Each incident or suspicion reported
via any route is investigated in a confidential manner, a response iscommunicated and action taken as appropriate. The BBC Executive
Audit Committee ensures that there are suitable arrangements inplace for the proportionate and independent investigation of mattersreported, and for appropriate follow up action.

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

55

BBC WORLD SERVICE GOVERNANCE CONTINUEDvii) fraud awareness
Although incidents of fraud are rare, BBC World Service takes its
responsibilities to minimise the risk of fraud, and the consequential
loss to the taxpayer, very seriously. The BBC has implemented aclear fraud policy which clarifies responsibilities for ensuring that theappropriate controls are in place to minimise the risk of fraudulent
activity and to ensure that all suspected incidents of fraud arethoroughly investigated. The policy is managed by the BBC Anti-Fraud
Group which reports to the BBC Executive Audit Committee.
From time to time BBC World Service undertakes anti-fraud
workshops to identify key fraud risks and to promote fraud
awareness across the business. This applies to staff working
in international offices as well as in the UK.
Potential risks of fraudulent activity, and the actions planned in
response, are maintained in a risk register and reviewed and assessed
throughout the year as described above in the section on risk
identification and management.
Internal Audit
BBC World Service is within the remit of the BBC’s Business
Assurance function which is led by the Director of Risk
and Assurance. Business Assurance comprises Internal Audit,
Risk Management and Investigation Services. The authority andindependence of Internal Audit is assured by the Director of
Risk and Assurance’s independent and direct access to the BBC
Executive Audit Committee and to the BBC Director-General.
Internal Audit undertakes regular testing of control systems andcore business processes, evaluating their adequacy and effectivenessand ensuring their consistent application across the BBC. The work
plan is based on a continuing assessment of key risks and is agreed
annually with the BBC Executive Audit Committee. It covers financial,
operational and compliance controls, including the exercise of theBBC’s right of audit over external parties, including independent
production companies and suppliers of key outsourced businessservices. Any significant control failings or weaknesses identified
are reported promptly to appropriate levels of management.
The findings, and the status of corrective actions taken to address
them, are reported to the BBC Executive Audit Committee.
BBC Executive Audit Committee
The BBC Executive Audit Committee has its authority delegatedto it by the BBC Executive Board. The members of the BBC
Executive Audit Committee, all first appointed in January 2007,
are non-executive Directors David Robbie (Chairman), Dr Mike
Lynch and Dr Samir Shah. The BBC Executive Board is satisfied
that David Robbie has significant, recent and relevant financial
experience. The Committee augments the broad range of skills of
its three members, gained from considerable experience in senior
roles with other organisations, with advice as necessary frominternal and external professionals, on relevant matters including
developments in financial reporting and company law. Meetings arealso attended by the Director-General, the Chief Financial Officer,
the Director of Risk and Assurance, and representatives fromInternal Audit, Risk Management and the external auditors.

56

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

During the year, the BBC Executive Audit Committee has
reviewed its terms of reference and has approved their continued
application, deeming them appropriate to ensure the Committee’s
continued effectiveness.
The BBC Executive Audit Committee met four times during thefinancial year. The Committee meets at least annually with theexternal auditors without any member of management present.
The Chairman of the BBC Executive Audit Committee meets with
the Director of Risk and Assurance, alone or with the external
auditors, but without management, and also meets privately withthe external audit lead partner.
Minutes of each Committee meeting, once approved, areavailable to the BBC Executive Board and to the BBC Trust.
Recommendations of the Committee on any area within its remit
where action or improvement is needed are reported back to theBoard by whatever route is deemed most appropriate to thenature and circumstances of the issue. The Committee Chairman
formally reports to the Board at least once a year on all matterswithin the Committee’s duties and responsibilities.
The BBC Executive Audit Committee has fulfilled its responsibilities
for the year. In doing so it has:• reviewed the effectiveness of the system of internal controls.
In doing so it has considered the findings of the internal andexternal auditors and sought assurance from management thatany control issues highlighted are being addressed. It has also
considered reports from management on processes for managing
significant risks;• reviewed the BBC’s arrangements for the adoption of IFRS;• reviewed its group financial statements and those of BBC World
Service, including accounting policies, compliance with legal andregulatory requirements, and the findings of the external auditors;• overseen the BBC’s relationship with the external auditors,
including their engagement, the scope of and approach totheir work, their fees, their performance and their independence,
including the approval and compliance with the policy
on non-audit work;• approved the work plan of Internal Audit; and,• reviewed the fraud detection processes and whistle-blowing
arrangements.
Independence of external auditors
BBC World Service, as part of the BBC, complies with the 2008
FRC Code guidance on maintaining an appropriate relationship withexternal auditors. The BBC re-appointed KPMG LLP as external
auditors during 2008 for a period of three years starting with
2008/09, after a formal tender process. This period is extendable
twice by one year each time, subject to a formal review process
to be led by the BBC Executive Audit Committee. The Committee
is satisfied that KPMG has adequate safeguards in place to avoid
the possibility of its audit objectivity and independence being
compromised, including appropriate rotation of its team, as wellas an appropriate quality assurance programme.
To safeguard and support the external auditors’ independence andobjectivity the BBC Executive Audit Committee has set a clear
policy which defines the threshold above which proposed non-audit
work to be carried out by KPMG LLP must be approved in advanceby the Committee, and also defines when it must be submitted
to competitive tender. In all cases, KPMG LLP are not considered
for work which might compromise their ability to independently
opine on the BBC’s financial statements. Recruitment from KPMG
LLP into any senior management position in the BBC requires
the prior approval of the BBC Executive Audit Committee.

BBC WORLD SERVICE GOVERNANCE CONTINUED

Fair trading
The BBC must work to ensure that it meets its fair trading
obligations as set out in the BBC’s Charter, Agreement andthe BBC Trust’s Statement of Policy on Fair Trading. These areencapsulated in the BBC’s Fair Trading Guidelines which canbe found at bbc.co.uk/info/policies/fairtrading. These Guidelines,
which include the BBC World Service Trading Protocols, were
updated on 1 April 2009, following a public consultation.

INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONAll BBC World Service managers are expected to hold aface-to-face team meeting with their staff at least once a month.
These meetings are part of a two-way internal communications
cycle of information and feedback where issues of importance tothe team are regularly discussed. In response to a staff survey, senior
managers were required to brief teams outside their normal areaof responsibility as a way of sharing information and creative ideas.

Compliance with the Fair Trading Guidelines was overseen
during the year through formal sub-committees of the BBC Trust(Finance & Compliance Committee, formerly the Public Value andFair Trading Committee) and BBC Executive Board (Executive Fair
Trading Committee).

Regular formal and informal discussions are held with the recognised
trade unions: Bectu (Broadcasting Entertainment Cinematographand Theatre Union) and the NUJ (National Union of Journalists).

The BBC Trust commissions independent auditors, Deloitte LLP,
to undertake an annual fair trading audit to determine whether
BBC management has established and applied a system of internal
controls which provides reasonable assurance that it has compliedwith the fair trading policy. Details of the audit and opinion canbe found at bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/research.
OUR PEOPLE
BBC World Service employs approximately 2,000 people ofwhich around a quarter are based outside the UK, spread across
45 countries. The diversity of our staff and our presence in so many
key locations around the world contributes to making BBC World
Service the leading voice in international broadcasting. We operate
a number of schemes to ensure we recruit, retain and develop theright people for the right roles.
TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
Training and development remains a key priority for BBC World
Service. During 2009/10 just under £2m was spent on staff
development inside and outside the UK.
The introduction of the International HR and Development
Managers (IHRDMs) in late 2009 has allowed us to deliver morebespoke training across our international offices. The IHRDMs havealso played a key role in ensuring the BBC World Service Training
team can gain accurate on the ground assessments of training needs.
The close formal link between training, planning and the programme
review process meant that the right people were targeted toattend the right courses, for the right reasons. The conversations
BBC World Service Training was able to have with most editors
and team leaders continued to help create a close match between
the training needs raised in staff appraisal conversations andthe training actually delivered.
In the coming year, emphasis is being placed on deliveringmuch more journalism training, with a focus on multimedia andemerging technologies and platforms to the hundreds of BBC
World Service people based outside the UK. This is to be achievedby close collaboration with BBC News through the BBC’s College
of Journalism, sharing resources and, where possible, funding.

The BBC Global Reith Awards were held in March 2010. Presented
by Annie Lennox and George Alagiah, the awards recognised
excellence and celebrated achievement across BBC Global News,
encompassing BBC World Service. The BBC Global News Craft
Award was introduced to recognise “behind the scenes” workin programme-making, and the One BBC Award (for innovative
collaboration across the BBC) was voted for by staff for the firsttime. Notably, BBC Persian television won four awards, receiving
particular recognition for its coverage of the Iranian Presidential
election and its aftermath just six months after the channel’s launch.
The Professional Services Award went to VT Group’s Thailand
Relay Station team, who went to incredible lengths to keep the
BBC World Service on air when the station became flooded.
DIVERSITY
Proportion of ethnic minorities
The composition of the workforce of BBC World Service reflects
the multilingual nature of its broadcasting and therefore exceeds
the BBC’s targets including the BBC target for senior managers.

Staff working
in the UK
Senior managers
working in the UK

At 31 March2010%

At 31 March2009%

BBC grouptarget
%

49

47

12.5

16

13

7.0

Gender representation
BBC World Service closely monitors gender representation within
the workforce. At the end of March 2010, women represented
40.4% of the workforce (2009: 39.5%).
People with disabilities
Of the staff employed by BBC World Service, 2.3% declarethemselves to have a disability (2008: 3%). This continues toremain a priority for BBC World Service and steps are being
taken to increase this towards the BBC target of 5.5%.

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

57

BBC WORLD SERVICE GOVERNANCE CONTINUEDSENIOR EMPLOYEES
Details of the number of senior employees earning over £50,000
per annum are set out below. Senior employees are defined as
staff on the BBC’s “senior manager” grade. Earnings represent basepay for the year to 31 March 2010 for staff employed at that date.
Where staff are part time, the full time equivalent salary is given.
Staff on maternity or unpaid leave are excluded.
2010

2009

£60,000-£69,999£70,000-£79,999£80,000-£89,999£90,000-£99,999

5
8
7
1

4
7
7
2

Total

21

20

Salary band

BBC World Service Board members are excluded from the table.
Details of their remuneration and the associated remuneration
policy is contained on pages 58 and 59.
OCCUPATIONAL RISK MANAGEMENT
The management of occupational risk has continued to be a highpriority for BBC World Service in the past year and a numberof improvements have been made. These include publishing a newhealth and safety policy and developing a new approach to assessing
risks associated with our production work. This process is supported
by a new guide and training course for our production teams.
Health and safety risks have been managed as an integral part ofthe overall risk management strategy and processes at BBC World
Service. With an increasing number of staff working internationally,
ensuring their safety and security continues to be a key area of work.
A rolling programme to review risk management in international
offices has continued and additional health and safety training
is being provided.
Advising, training and equipping staff deployed to hostileenvironments, including war zones and areas affected by natural
disasters, remains a vital area of work and BBC World Service
continues to be supported by the BBC’s specialist High Risk Team.
Over 200 staff have received training to equip them to workin higher risk environments in the past year.
Work has also taken place in a variety of areas to ensure compliancewith new or changing legislation and to strengthen our managementof risk. This includes noise management, reporting & investigationof accidents, and provision of training for staff. All activities arecontained within a divisional action plan.
THE BBC WORLD SERVICE BOARD
The members of the BBC World Service Board who served during
the year are detailed on page 59.
Remuneration policy
In the year to 31 March 2010 the remuneration package for the
Director of BBC World Service was set by the Director of BBC
Global News, and approved by the BBC Director-General andthe Director of BBC People.
The Director of BBC World Service assesses the performanceof the Board members before recommending their annual
remuneration and bonus awards. Their remuneration is approvedby the BBC Director-General and the Director of BBC People.
The BBC World Service’s Director of Human Resources, provides
technical support in this respect, but has no input into decisions
affecting his own remuneration.

58

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

The BBC aims to ensure that the packages offered to BBC World
Service Board members:• enable BBC World Service to attract, retain and motivate
high-calibre executives;• remunerate individuals fairly for individual responsibility andcontribution, while providing an element of performance-related
pay, reflecting the underlying performance of BBC World Service;• take into account salary policy within the rest of the BBC
and the relationship that should exist between the remunerationof Board members and that of other employees.
The remuneration arrangements for the members of the
BBC World Service Board include the following components:
Base pay
Base pay is reviewed in August each year, taking into accountexternal market levels and internal comparisons as well as theindividual’s responsibilities and performance.
Benefits
In addition to salary and bonus, the main contractual benefits
provided to members of the BBC World Service Board are a
car allowance, private health insurance, pension and life assurance.
Pensions
Members of the BBC World Service Board are eligible toparticipate in the BBC Pension Scheme, which generally provides
salary-related pension benefits on a defined benefit basis. For any
employee joining on or before 1 November 2006 the accrual rateis 1/60th of final salary per year of service, subject to the HM
Revenue and Customs earnings cap where appropriate. Normal
retirement age is 60. For members of the Board who joined after
this date, the accrual is 1.67% of their average base pay adjusted
in line with price inflation, with a normal pensionable age of 65.
Only base pay is pensionable and does not include any bonuses
or other payments. The scheme provides for early retirement
on medical grounds and life assurance cover of four times base
pay up to a prescribed limit.
Annual bonus
In 2008/09 the BBC took a decision not to award any bonuses
relating to that financial year and similarly no bonuses are expected
to be paid to BBC senior managers, including the BBC World
Service Board, for the 2009/10 year.
Remuneration in the year
The remuneration of the permanently appointed members of
the BBC World Service Board is set out below. As several of theBoard members have responsibilities across the BBC Global News
these remuneration totals contain only those costs borne by
BBC World Service. Remuneration costs are allocated in proportion
to the amount of time spent on BBC World Service matters.
The proportion of the costs to be allocated to BBC World Service
is assessed separately for each Board member. These allocations
are assessed on an annual basis.

BBC WORLD SERVICE GOVERNANCE CONTINUED

BBC World Service Board Remuneration			Note
Members serving at 31 March 2010
Behrouz Afagh
Nikki Clarke
Mariita Eager
Jim EganPeter Horrocks
Liliane Landor
Sanjay Nazerali
Lindsey North
Hugh Saxby
Richard Thomas
Richard Thurston
Jerry Timmins
Gwyneth Williams

Members leaving during 2009/10
Richard Burdon
Mike Cronk
John Renner

Members leaving during 2008/09
Nigel Chapman
Lesley Granger

Total

		
2010

2009

Base pay£000

Allowancesand benefits£000Compensation
for lossof office
£000

Total
£000

Total
£000

Share of costs
allocatedto GIA
%

105
90
22
95
206
25
80
74
76
134
2
122
138

9
9
2
4
9
2
6
4
6
8
–
9
8

–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–

114
99
24
99
215
27
86
78
82
142
2
131
146

112
97
–
99
–
–
91
77
80
140
–
128
131

100
100
100
67
100
100
57/65/13
85
90
95
80
100
100

1,169

76

–

1,245

955

66
112
68

3
9
10

–
360
230

69
481
308

81
130
94

246

22

590

858

305

–
–

–
–

–
–

–
–

239
27

–

–

–

–

266

1,415

98

590

2,103

1,526

1, 2

3
4
5
6
7

8

9
10
11

12
13

80
95
100

100
80

Notes:
1. Remuneration shows the proportion of each BBC World Service Board member’s costs attributable to Grant-in-Aid funded activity.
Because a number of Board members have roles which cover other parts of the BBC, a proportion of their costs are charged to thoseareas. The proportions charged to Grant-in-Aid are listed above.
2. Allowances and benefits include, where applicable, car allowance, health insurance and any adjustments relating to buying
or selling leave. Compensation for loss of office has been charged in full to Grant-in-Aid.
3. Mariita Eager joined the BBC World Service Board on 1 January 2010.
4. Peter Horrocks joined BBC World Service on 14 April 2009.
5. Liliane Landor joined the BBC World Service Board on 1 January 2010.
6. In 2008/09 57% of the costs of Sanjay Nazerali were charged to Grant-in- Aid. On 1 April 2009 this figure was revised to 65%.
On 1 January 2010 Sanjay Nazerali joined the BBC’s Journalism Group, after which time 13% of his costs were charged to Grant-in-Aid.
7. Lindsey North’s contracted employment is for 4 days per week.
8. Richard Thurston joined BBC World Service on 23 March 2010.
9. Richard Burdon joined BBC World Service on 12 May 2008 and left on 31 December 2009.
10. Mike Cronk left the BBC on 31 March 2010 after 34 years’ service.
11. John Renner left the BBC on 31 December 2009 after 30 years’ service.
12. Nigel Chapman was Director of BBC World Service until 27 February 2009. His 2008/09 remuneration includes a payment
for unused annual leave.
13. Lesley Granger, previously Director of HR at BBC World Service, retired from the BBC on 30 June 2008.
BBC World Service employer contributions to the BBC Pension Scheme for BBC World Service Board members in the year were£257,000 (2009: £280,000). In addition, the BBC operates a salary sacrifice scheme for members of the BBC Pension Scheme.
Under this arrangement the terms and conditions of employment of participating members are altered such that employee pension
contributions made via salary sacrifice are treated as employer contributions, with a corresponding reduction in base salary.
The base pay for the BBC World Service Board shown above has not been adjusted to reflect the impact of the salary sacrifice scheme.
Total salary sacrifice of the BBC World Service Board was £85,000 (2009: £64,000).
For the purposes IAS 24 (Related Party Disclosures) the key management of BBC World Service in 2009/10 is defined as the BBC World
Service Board and Richard Sambrook who served as Director of BBC Global News until leaving the BBC in February 2010. As a result,the proportion of Richard Sambrook’s costs charged to Grant-in-Aid are included in the remuneration of key management in note 3c.
For the period between 28 February 2009 and 14 April 2009 Richard Sambrook also served as Acting Director of BBC World Service.
BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

59

BBC WORLD SERVICE GOVERNANCE CONTINUEDCOMPLIANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
Like other public bodies, BBC World Service is subject to the
UK Freedom of Information Act 2000. Twenty-seven requests for
information were lodged under the terms of the Act during the year
ended 31 March 2010. This represented a small increase on theprevious year’s figure of twenty-four. Requests for information camefrom a range of academics, journalists and members of the publicand covered areas such as editorial decisions, availability of broadcasts,
programme costs, the BBC’s history and personnel matters. All were
responded to within the deadlines laid down in the Act.
The Head of Governance & Public Affairs conducted four internal
reviews (appeals) relating to information withheld by other partsof the BBC in response to requests made under the Freedom ofInformation Act.
DATA PROTECTION
BBC World Service did not receive any requests under the
UK Data Protection Act 1998. During 2009/10, 84 BBC World
Service staff attended face to face training sessions on the
Data Protection Act. A further 170 staff completed a dataprotection online training module.
COMPLAINTS
BBC World Service wants to be open, responsive and accountable
to its audiences. The handling of complaints demonstrates its
commitment to these principles. The complaints handling policy
operated at BBC World Service is the same as that for the wider BBC.
BBC World Service receives a lot of feedback, both negative andpositive, but considers something to be a complaint if it is a specificcriticism of BBC editorial judgement or controls which expects a
response and, implicitly or explicitly, would like things to be changed.
Complaints are also handled which deal with non-editorial issues
such as audibility.
Complaints are logged and managed by Audience Champions
across BBC World Service, and replies are sent from the relevant
department or a senior BBC World Service editor. During theyear, 682 complaints were received concerning 62 different issues.
Of these, over half (354) were about non-use of an unauthenticatedvideo clip during coverage of violence following an international
football match, and were rejected.

60

BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW 2009/10

A further 116 related to coverage of the Ugandan parliamentary
debate on its Anti-Homosexuality Bill, in particular the question“Should homosexuals face execution?”(reflecting a key proposalof the bill) which was posed as the title of an Africa Have Your Say
online forum. The BBC accepted that this question was too stark
and apologised for any offence caused, but maintained that
impartial coverage of the issue was legitimate.
Other complaints alleged political bias, factual errors or
inaccuracies, poor use of language and excessive or insufficient
coverage of news events. Of these, 14 were upheld, and in thesecases editors were made aware of shortcomings and required
to make sure lessons were incorporated into future output.
Complaints alleging a serious breach of BBC editorial standards may
be escalated to the BBC’s independently run Editorial Complaints
Unit (ECU). Finally, an appeal may be made to the BBC Trust’s
Editorial Standards Committee (ESC). One complaint was handled
by the ECU, relating to the privacy of a contributor to an Outlook
report on Zimbabwe. This was not upheld by the ECU.
A BBC Trust review of BBC Arabic recommended that thecomplaints system be made more transparent and rigorous to
improve editorial oversight and help build audience engagement.
An Audience Champion was subsequently appointed andconsiderations for improvement are being incorporated intoa review of complaints handling across BBC World Service.
BBC World Service is represented on the BBC’s Complaints
Management Board which takes regular reports and promotes
the learning points arising from them.
Further information about the BBC’s complaints management process
and a selection of responses is published on bbc.co.uk/complaints.
The BBC Trust publishes its appeal findings at bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/appeals.
DONATIONS AND GIFTSBBC World Service does not make political donations or gifts.
The Financial Memorandum with the FCO does permit BBC
World Service to make gifts of equipment subject to no single
item exceeding £50,000. Government accounting guidelines
on gifts must be followed. However, no gifts of equipment,
services or cash were made during the year.

BBC World ServicE

further information

BBC World Service contact details
Bush House, PO Box 76, Strand, London WC2B 4PH, UK
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7240 3456
Email: worldservice@bbc.co.uk
Visit: bbcworldservice.com
How to listen
Visit bbcworldservice.com/programmeguideWeekly programme information
Subscribe to the free weekly email service by signing up at
bbcworldservice.com/email
Audience feedback
Contact BBC World Service at the above email and postal
address, or air your views via the independently produced
programme Over to You, by emailing overtoyou@bbc.co.uk
How to complain
To make a formal complaint about BBC World Service, write
to the above address or visit the BBC’s centralised complaints
site online at bbc.co.uk/complaints

Business relationships
BBC World Service has a number of formal partnerships withorganisations across the globe. If you are interested in knowing
more, email worldservice@bbc.co.uk
Other parts of BBC Global News
BBC Monitoring
Caversham Park, Reading RG4 8TZ, UK
Telephone: +44 (0)11 8948 6000
Email: marketing@mon.bbc.co.uk
Visit: monitor.bbc.co.uk
BBC World NewsPO Box 5040, London W12 0ZY, UK
Telephone: +44 (0)20 8433 2221 (weekdays 0930-1730 UK time)
Email: bbcworldnews@bbc.com
Visit: bbcworldnews.com
BBC World Service TrustBush House, PO Box 76, Strand, London WC2B 4PH, UK
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7557 2462
Email: ws.trust@bbc.co.uk
Visit: bbcworldservicetrust.org

Media relations
The direct telephone line to the BBC World Servicepress team is +44 (0)20 7557 2941 or the centralised email
is press.office@bbc.co.uk. For the latest press releases
visit bbc.co.uk/press office

Further information online

bbcalbanian.com bbcarabic.com bbcazeri.com
bbcafrique.com bbcbangla.com bbcbrasil.com
bbcburmese.com bbccaribbean.com bbcchina.com.cn
bbcchinese.com bbcgreatlakes.com bbchausa.com
bbchindi.com bbcindonesian.com bbckyrgyz.com
bbcmacedonian.com bbcmundo.com bbcparaafrica.com
bbcpashto.com bbcpersian.com bbcnepali.com
bbcrussian.com bbcserbian.com bbcsinhala.com
bbcsomali.com bbcswahili.com bbctamil.com
bbcturkish.com bbcukrainian.com bbcurdu.com
bbcuzbek.com bbcvietnamese.com bbcworldservice.com

Picture Credits
COVER: Stringer/Iran/Reuters/Corbis
IFC(02): Mark Bassett
IFC(06): Moises Saman/Panos
IFC(12): Ahmad Masood/Reuters
IFC(14): Kamene M Traca
IFC(16): Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
P2: Ken Passley
P3/01: Raheb Homavandi/Reuters
P3/02: Massimo Percossi/EPA/
Corbis
P4/04: Mark Bassett
P4/05: Peter Foley/EPA/Corbis

P5/08: Suzanne Plunkett/Bloomberg
via Getty Images
P5/09: EPA/Carlos Dias/Corbis
P5/10: Raheb Homavandi/Reuters
P6/01: Moises Saman/Panos
P9/02: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/
Getty Images
P9/04: William Daniels/Panos
P9/05: Alvaro Ybarra Zavala/Edit
by Getty Images
P11/01: Amir Azimi
P11/02: AP Photo/Vahid Salemi
P11/04: AP Photo/Ben Curtis

You can also broaden the BBC World Service experienceby downloading podcasts and taking part in social networking
opportunities via blogs, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and social
networking sites in various languages.
Visit the BBC Global News online magazine World Agenda
at bbcworldservice.com/worldagenda to keep up to date with
how BBC World Service and its international colleagues deliver
news and information to millions across the world.
To access the BBC World Service Annual Review online,
visit bbcworldservice.com/annual_review2010.

P13/01: Ahmad Masood/Reuters
P13/02: Jeff Overs
P13/03: Reuters/Omar Sobhani
P17/01: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
P19/01: Sipa Press/Rex Features
P19/02: Kambou Sia/AFP/Getty Images
P22/01: Mark Bassett
P22/02: Mark Bassett
P23/04: Duffour/Andia.fr/Still Pictures
P23/06: Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/
Getty Images
P24: Ken Passley
P25: David Fisher/Rex Features

editorial Credits
Head of Brand Identity: Jane Futrell
Production Manager: Dominic Martin
Feature writer: Robert Wilson
Picture researcher: Heather Vickers
Designed and produced by:
AB Design Group ab-uk.com
Designs based on original concepts
by Natalie Beavis
Printed using vegetable-based ink
on FSC-certified paper containing 50%
recycled content. The printer holds
the environmental standard ISO 14001.

BBC World Service Annual review 2009/10

Annual Review 2009/10

bbcworldservice.com