Former World Service boss says govt full funding ‘very unlikely’

The former director of the BBC World Service has said it is “very unlikely” the government will return to fully-funding the international broadcaster. 

Jamie Angus was speaking on Roger Bolton’s Beeb Watch podcast, following yesterday’s announcement of a funding increase for the international service for 2025-26. 

While the details of this increase have not yet come to light, the former Newsnight editor welcomed it. 

But he said: “It’s very unlikely we’ll ever return to [the government fully-funding the World Service]… Looking at the current public spending climate it just seems unrealistic to expect the government to increase its spending on the World Service by hundreds of millions of pounds. 

“So, although there are good reasons to recommend it, I don’t think it’s likely to happen - certainly not in the short term.” 

On yesterday’s announcement, Angus said it appeared to be what Tim Davie and his team had been arguing for, with “the government increasingly taking up some of the slack as the licence fee support starts to fall away while we remain in search of a long-term solution”. 

“The crucial question over the next couple of days is does the additional funding make up the shortfall that has been lost in the last couple of years - hopefully it does - and if it goes further than that, what additional activities and important work can it support?” 

Angus suggested more long-term funding decisions could kick off next year as part of Labour’s Strategic Defence Review, which yesterday chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed would be published next year.  

“The government’s big decisions about who pays for what in terms of public spending tend to happen in these comprehensive spending review cycles.” 

He added that the BBC’s charter renewal at the end of 2027 is “probably the moment at which this will be completely finalised”.  

Hardtalk axing 

Angus also criticised the axing of international interview format Hardtalk as part of sweeping cuts across BBC News, suggesting the broadcaster “doesn’t believe in the value of interviews anymore”. 

He insisted the programme is “enormously resonant” with audiences around the world, saying: “Every time the BBC circles around the decision to close Hardtalk – which it has for 15 years – the decision has been knocked off table quickly because of its huge brand impact.” 

But he also conceded that the audience appetites are changing “really quickly”. 

“Part of that is because of podcasting. Audiences like long-form conversational interviews and they seem to have less appetite for shorter-form, traditional, confrontational interviews,” he said.