What makes the World Service so different from the rest of the BBC? I asked Mary Hockaday, the controller of the English-language service. And how does it justify the additional £289 million funding (spread over the next five years) which the Treasury granted it at the end of last year? Will that money, which could after all otherwise go to welfare or the NHS, be well spent?
‘News is our core,’ says Hockaday. ‘It’s all about the now.’ Which sounds a bit Day Today. Anyway, isn’t this what BBC News and Radio 4 do already? It’s not just about presenting the news, Hockaday adds, but putting it in context. This last bit the World Service certainly does better than anyone else. On the World Service we can find ourselves one minute inside Iran (Newshour Extra gave us 60 minutes talking to Iranians on the elections there), and the next in Athens for World Questions, with Jonathan Dimbleby chairing a ‘live’ debate on whether or not Greece should stay in the Eurozone.
The World Service also has a very different audience profile from, say, Radio 4 or 5 Live.
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