Russia and China flood airwaves as BBC World Service funding weakens – PAC report

- Poorly managed digital transformation risks leaving audiences behind 

- More must be done to protect media freedom and journalists operating in hostile states  

The BBC World Service is at risk of losing its position as the most-trusted international broadcaster as it is unable to present a strong case for future investment.  

In an increasingly unstable global political environment, the BBC World Service performs a critical role in providing news and programming around the world, often in areas of declining media freedom. Reaching an average weekly audience of 313 million in 43 languages, the Service is a crucial soft power instrument for the UK Government.  

However, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has found that the Service is in danger of losing ground to its rivals, driven in part by increased international media spending of state actors such as Russia and China. These nations invested a combined c.£6bn-£8bn/yr in global media during a period of real-terms spending cuts on the Service. Trust scores have also increased markedly for both countries' state broadcasters in recent years, as BBC's own ratings have remained stable. 

The World Service is funded by a combination of the BBC licence fee and grant funding from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). The Service's total budget has fallen 21% in real terms between '21-'22 and '25-'26, mainly due to reductions in contributions from the licence fee. However, the PAC was deeply troubled to learn that the BBC still does not know how much government would fund the World Service for the coming year. The Committee is recommending that the Treasury give the BBC World Service a separate line in the Spending Review to enable multi-year and timely funding settlements to allow for longer-term planning. 

Despite its importance, the BBC was unable to provide the Committee with a single, transparent suite of value‑for‑money measures across the Service's TV, radio and digital offerings. The PAC recommends that it should set out clear measures it can use to quantify the value for money of the World Service to support a clear, evidence-based case for continued government funding.  

Weaknesses in BBC governance, which have led to poorly evidenced decisions and unclear lines of responsibility within the organisation. The BBC's management of the Service's digital transformation had weaknesses which has contributed to a fall in digital audiences of 11% between '21-'22 and '24-'25. The PAC is calling for it to set out what it is doing to address its uneven digital performance to date and accelerate digital transformation of its services to future-proof the service for a digital age. 

The PAC was concerned by the BBC's failure to clearly document its rationale for key decisions made as part of savings programmes, and the lack of non-financial metrics to effectively track performance and understand the impact on its audiences. In BBC Arabic, concerns prompted the BBC to tighten oversight, including appointing new leadership and strengthening checks on contributors. The BBC had announced plans to move to a new international governance model in February 2025, but as of January 2026, only one of six regional directors was permanently in post. In its response to this report, the PAC is calling on the BBC to provide an update on its plans for improving its decision-making processes and how it plans to set, monitor and report non-financial metrics. 

World Service staff are operating in hostile countries, including those where journalists are not permitted at all, where they and their families may be at risk of imprisonment or worse. The Committee recognises and praises their work and is calling on the UK Government to work with allies and the United Nations to improve conditions for journalists working in these environments. 

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said: “The professionalism of the World Service's productions and educational content is amazing, and a jewel in the crown of the UK's soft power effort around the world. But its prominence is being diminished by poor governance and short-sighted funding decisions. My Committee is urging the Government and the BBC to set out a clear direction of travel for the World Service to ensure that its audience is not left behind.  

“The Government must be clear-eyed about the realities of a diminishing audience for the BBC World Service. As it cuts back, it risks opening the door to propaganda from hostile states such as Russia filling the void it leaves behind, who are spending billions of pounds in this field. At a time of heightened geopolitical tensions and declining media freedom the UK cannot afford to lose such a crucial soft power instrument. 

“Both government and the BBC should seriously think about how the World Service's influence can be bolstered around the world, rather than risk its reach withering by degrees year on year. And importantly, journalists working in increasingly dangerous environments deserve more than just our praise, the UK Government must do all it can to improve the conditions they are working in and to protect and restore media freedoms globally.” 

PAC report conclusions and recommendations  

The BBC is at risk of losing the trust of its World Service audiences, undermining its crucial role in countering misinformation globally. The World Service reaches 313 million people each week and remains a core instrument of UK soft power. Around 75% of its markets have low or restricted media freedom, meaning its journalism often provides one of the few independent sources of news available. Yet state‑backed rivals are out‑spending the UK and gaining ground. China and Russia invest a combined estimated £6 billion to £8 billion a year in global media. From 2021 to 2025, trust scores for the Chinese state broadcaster rose from 62% to 70%, while those for the Russian state broadcaster increased from 59% to 71%. Over the same period, the BBC's trust ratings remained stable at around 78%. Weaknesses in BBC governance, which have led to poorly evidenced decisions and unclear lines of responsibility, could increase the risk of losing further ground to these competitors. In BBC Arabic, concerns prompted the BBC to tighten oversight, including appointing new leadership and strengthening checks on contributors. The BBC announced its move to a new international governance model in February 2025, but as of January 2026 only one of six regional directors is permanently in post, so the benefits of clearer accountability and stronger audience trust are not yet secured. Notwithstanding this, we must both remember and praise all BBC staff working in countries in which they and their families may be at risk of imprisonment or worse and call on our Government working with allies and the United Nations to seek to improve conditions for journalists working in hostile countries, including those where journalists are not permitted at all. 

Recommendation 1. 

a) In its response to this report the BBC should provide the Committee with an update on its progress in implementing its new international governance structure and set out how it is monitoring whether this has been successful in rebuilding trust in the World Service. 

b) The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office should write to the Committee within two months to set out the steps it is taking to seek to improve conditions for journalists working in hostile countries, including those where journalists are not permitted at all. 

The BBC struggles to articulate how the World Service provides value for money to UK taxpayers and why it should therefore continue receiving government funding. The Committee recognises the World Service's importance amid volatile geopolitics and the rapid growth of state‑backed competitors that do not present impartial views, alongside the US government's closure in March 2025 of the US Agency for Global Media, an independent federal agency that provided similar content globally to the World Service. As the World Service is paid for by UK taxpayers, through the licence fee and FCDO grant‑in‑aid, it must show more clearly the value this investment buys. The BBC cites compelling efficiency of the World Service costing around 87p per user per year. But a single cost‑per‑user figure cannot capture strategic impact or soft‑power benefits. Some language services will always look 'expensive' on a narrow audience‑per‑pound basis because they operate where free media is repressed and trusted news is scarce. For example, in Afghanistan radio and education output can be the only reliable source. At present there is no single, transparent suite of value‑for‑money measures across TV, radio and digital that brings costs together with outcomes such as reach, trust, audience need and strategic benefit. 

Recommendation 2. The BBC should report back to the Committee within six months on measures it can use to quantify the value for money of the World Service, both overall and at language-service level, to support a clear, evidence-based case for continued government funding. 

Weaknesses in the BBC's approach to the World Service's digital transformation have meant it has struggled to migrate its audiences from traditional TV and radio services to digital platforms. Over the period 2021–22 to 2024–25, the World Service's digital audiences fell, meaning they did not offset the impact of closing costly traditional radio and TV services in the way the BBC expected. Over the same period, the digital weekly audience (digital reach across BBC‑owned services and third‑party platforms) declined by 11% to 131 million. Performance varied widely across language services: the seven that became digital‑only in 2022–23 saw overall audiences down 63% and their digital audiences down 39%, with Nigerian languages particularly affected as platforms deprioritised news. Beyond its high‑level digital strategy, the BBC did not set detailed, language service-level targets; define what ‘good looks like' for each market; or establish granular monitoring to track whether broadcast users were switching by language and platform. Without a shared view of what ‘good looks like' and timely data, teams could not redirect content and distribution quickly enough to secure audiences online. 

Recommendation 3. In its response to this report, the BBC should set out its approach to ensuring that teams know what good looks like with regards to the World Service's digital transformation and what it is doing to address its uneven digital performance to date and accelerate digital transformation of its services. 

The BBC's ability to carry out long-term planning of the World Service is hampered by repeated short-term funding agreements from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). Since 2021-22, the FCDO has provided around 30% of funding for the BBC World Service. It is therefore critical that FCDO funding is agreed over a sufficiently long time period, such as three years, and in a timely manner to allow the BBC to carry out effective long-term financial and strategic planning. However, FCDO funding has often been agreed in one-year funding agreements finalised late in the preceding financial year. For example, in January 2026 when we took evidence, the BBC still did not know the level of FCDO funding for the World Service for 2026-27. This means that the BBC is at risk of making decisions which support short-term budgeting pressures rather than being able to effectively plan expenditure to support longer-term value for money. The committee believes that the BBC should be facilitated to obtain more prompt funding settlements through the Treasury spending review process. 

Recommendation 4. The Treasury should give the BBC World Service a separate line in the Spending Review to enable multi-year and timely funding settlements. 

The BBC World Service's poor documentation means that the BBC cannot explain why it made key decisions and has hindered their ability to learn lessons going forwards. From 2021-22, the BBC has implemented three savings plans for the World Service which aimed to save £54.2 million. As a result of the need to make savings, the BBC has had to make difficult decisions about the level and range of World Service programming that it provides. This included the decision to close 19 Radio and TV outputs which directly led to a reduction in weekly audiences of around 30 million. However, the BBC failed to clearly document or explain in full its rationale for these critical decisions and accepts that some of these choices have not stood the test of time. Without clear documentation or evidence of a consistent approach to its decisions, the BBC is hampered in its ability to examine why and how it made these decisions. This means it is unable to learn lessons which support better decision making and the best possible value for money in future. In the current financial climate, it is likely that the BBC will continue to need to make savings in the World Service and therefore it is crucial that it improves its processes and documentation for decision making. 

Recommendation 5. In its response to this report, the BBC should provide the committee with an update on its plans for improving its decision-making processes in relation to the World Service's savings programmes. This should include details on how current documents, such as business cases, will be improved to meet good practice and how the BBC will ensure a clear document trail and rationale for its decisions will be in place going forwards. 

The BBC's lack of adequate monitoring of the World Service meant it was unable to assess its performance when implementing savings programmes. The BBC's monitoring of its World Service savings programmes to date has focused primarily on financial metrics - for example the amount saved against targets. However, it did not set or monitor clear non-financial performance metrics which would have allowed it to assess the impact of its savings programmes on critical areas of delivery such as the amount of content it produced or the quality of that content. This means that senior leaders were unable to assess whether the savings programmes were performing in line with expectations or identify areas of concern and intervene quickly to improve performance. In addition, it means the BBC is unable to learn lessons with regards to the impact of its World Service savings programmes on the service it provides and use this to make better-informed choices going forwards. The BBC believes it has already begun to make changes to allow it to carry out better monitoring of the World Service going forwards. 

Recommendation 6. In its response to this report, the BBC should set out how it plans to set, monitor and report non-financial metrics in its World Service savings programmes going forwards.