[HCDX] DXERS GUIDE Edition 10 [Special edition on BBC reduce]

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DXERS GUIDE Edition 10 [Published on 26-10-2005]+++++
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Transforming BBC World Service for a digital age: 
a strategy for 2010 and beyond
 
Nigel Chapman talks to staff on 25 October 2005 



Here is the full text of the speech to staff by Nigel
Chapman, Director, BBC World Service, on Tuesday 25
October 2005. 
Introduction
Good morning and thank you for coming to hear about
our strategy to take the BBC World Service to 2010 and
the exciting plans that lie at the heart of it. (A
special welcome to those of you joining us from our
international offices outside the UK, and the wider
BBC in the UK.)

The changes I am going to outline today will affect
everyone who works for the BBC World Service, and the
millions of listeners and new media users who value it
across the globe. They will also be of considerable
interest to many BBC colleagues who either work now,
or have worked in the past for the BBC World Service,
and are among its most passionate supporters.

All of you have waited patiently to learn the outcome
of the 2010 work. It has been a particularly anxious
time since the spring, when speculation about the
future of the services began to emerge. It is a
difficult time for some of us, but also a time of
opportunity too. 

BBC World Service, as we have known it, is about to
change profoundly.

It adds up to the biggest transformation of the BBC
World Service since the end of the Second World War ?
and one of the most far-reaching since the BBC began
international broadcasting more than 70 years ago.

The strategy was approved by the BBC Governors last
week. The Foreign Secretary has given his approval to
the opening and closing of services. He is obliged to
do so under our Broadcasting Agreement with the
Foreign Office.


The heart of this new strategy
At its heart, this strategy means a radical change in
the range and scale of the news services we can and
will offer global audiences in this new digital age.

Our world and the needs of our audiences are changing
faster than any of our predecessors could ever have
imagined. Audiences are demanding new multi-media
services from us.

However difficult it is to make changes personally and
professionally, audiences come first. But, we cannot
afford to provide the full range of multi-media
services to everyone.

It?s about providing the right services for each
market. We have to make difficult choices and in this
plan to take us to 2010, we have made them.


Background to the changes: the role of the WS2010
process, the journey over the past year
But before I go into detail on the future shape of the
BBC World Service, let me explain how we have got
here. I also want to stress the very important part
the BBC World Service 2010 sessions played in its
creation .

This new strategy is the result of over a year of hard
work, analysis and deliberation by the BBC World
Service Management Board, steered by the strategy team
under Fred Martenson?s very able leadership.


How this strategy fits with the Green Paper 
You will remember the Government?s Green Paper on the
future of the BBC as a whole, which was published in
the spring. It called for a ?bold and radical
reassessment of our strategy?, echoing our own
internal views.

The Green Paper also had another clear message: there
were no extra funds for any new services and funding
for them must be found from existing resources and
through reprioritisation.

In response, we pledged to ensure that we invest our
?limited Grant-in-Aid resources where they are most
needed?, and we welcomed ?the opportunity to review
the present portfolio of 43 languages with ?a view to
significant change?.

We also wanted to involve as many of you as we could
through the BBC World Service 2010 sessions. It was
vital you played a full part in the creation of this
plan.

I want to thank all of you who took part.

We noticed how the mood changed over time; from
apprehension and curiosity to excitement and
expectation. We argued over the detail, but a
consensus emerged that change was necessary.

You believed radio and, more recently, online were a
very important part of what we do, but we had to face
up to, and do something about, the competitive threat
of television, the growth of the web and the arrival
of the i-Pod generation.


Making choices within finite resources
Some people have asked: ?why can?t we get more money
to make new investments and keep everything else.
Surely the BBC World Service is important enough
especially in the current global climate? ?

It is hard to secure more funds when the income of the
BBC World Service is at its highest level in real
terms since the early 1990?s.

We have kept some funds back from the last two
spending rounds in 2002 and 2004 to help finance our
new plans.

But the sums involved in carrying out a true
multi-media strategy are considerable, particularly
when it comes to television.

The result is that, by the time the current Spending
Review ends, we are going to redirect up to 20% of our
total operating budget into new high priority
activities and covering rising costs.

All the savings we make ? and I cannot stress this too
strongly ? are going to be reinvested into BBC World
Service.


The BBC World Service vision for 2010 
Let me turn to the overall vision of BBC World
Service. We have started by being clear about our core
aim. It is: 

?to be the world?s best known, most creative and most
respected voice in international news, thereby
bringing benefit to the UK, the BBC and to audiences
around the world.?

But we have added a critical extra element: ?most
creative?. It has always been an implicit part of our
vision but we need to be more explicit about it. Why? 

Because creativity is at the heart of what we do. 

It is the driver of our world class journalism and
other outstanding output. We have recently seen how we
can meet this aspiration with our seasons on China,
Africa and the ?Who Runs Your World Season?. Or the
way we responded to a year of unprecedented news
events - Beslan, the tsunami, the London bombs and,
lately, the earthquake in South Asia.


Our mission up to 2010 
How will we deliver on this ambitious vision? We need:


?to provide the most trusted, relevant and high
quality international news in the world, and an
indispensable service of independent analysis, with an
international perspective, which promotes greater
understanding of complex issues.? 

The key words here are ?independent? and
?international?.

We serve no political or commercial interests, only
those of our audiences. Our international perspective:
is a vital quality in a world where global forces are
ever more powerful.

The next element of our work is to enable audiences
everywhere to connect with each other. We need: 

?a ?global conversation? ? which transcends
international boundaries and cultural divides, and
gives audiences opportunities to create, publish and
share their own views and stories.?

The internet makes this possible. 

For the first time, we are now recognising the
important part our audiences play in the creation of
our content. It enables us to build a deeper
relationship with our audiences. That is a real
competitive advantage. In essence, we want:

?to enable people to make sense of their increasingly
complex world, and thus empowered, lead more
fulfilling lives.?

This is a great ?public good? and an ambition I hope
everyone in BBC World Service can identify with, and
be proud of.


Identifying target audiences
I am also very conscious of your wish, highlighted
repeatedly in the BBC World Service 2010 sessions, to
identify our target audiences and priority markets.
Today is not the time for the detailed discussion on
this, but briefly we have three target audiences.

The first are opinion- formers and decision-makers ?
we will target them in every market.

Secondly, people needing basic news and information ?
as targets in developing markets.

And, thirdly, audiences for lifeline services in areas
of profound conflict and failed states.

We also need to be clear about what we broadcast and
where. English will remain our core service
everywhere, on radio, television and online. 

We will provide a multi-media service for the Arab and
wider Islamic world, as well as China, Russia, India
and the Americas. Radio will continue to be our focus
in Africa and Asia, including in countries like
Nigeria and Bangladesh. It will also continue to be a
lifeline in what some see as ?failed states? such as
Somalia, or ?closed societies? like Burma.

We will carry on serving a number of other markets but
review what we offer regularly to assess political and
market developments, and audience impact.

Over the next twelve months, we will be working with
Fred Martenson and Alan Booth, who head our Strategy
and Marketing teams, to continue to define our
measures of success. By next summer, no-one working
here should be in any doubt about their primary
audience targets, both in terms of size and type of
audience.


New investments ? five priorities to 2010
And now too our top priorites on the road to 2010. 

Let?s start with television.

It is the preferred medium for news and information in
many important markets.

As part of BBC Global News Division, we already share
in the success of BBC World, the BBC?s commercially
funded international news and information channel in
English, which can now be seen in more than 260
million homes and attracts almost 60 million viewers
every week.

But in some societies, where English is not widely
spoken, audiences will also need a service from the
BBC in their own language.

What BBC World Service needs to do, as many of you
argued at the 2010 sessions, is to offer television in
major regional languages.


1. BBC Arabic television
Outside English, Arabic has historically been one of
our highest priority languages and it remains so.

But the Middle East?s media landscape has changed
profoundly following the spread of satellite
television. Without a BBC news presence in Arabic on
television, we run the risk of always being second to
television, despite the quality of our radio and new
media offers.

Indeed, many of you will remember that the BBC was the
first to see and react to the potential of television
in Arabic.

We launched a commercially funded, subscription
channel in Arabic in 1994, which was then shut down
two years later following a major editorial
disagreement with the Saudi-backed distributor, Orbit.

But that experience does not negate the need for an
independent news and information channel in Arabic
from the BBC, as some have argued. It tells us instead
we had the wrong funding model and means of
distribution.

That is why we are now going to launch a publicly
funded BBC Arabic television service in 2007. It will
be funded exclusively from the Grant-in-Aid, and made
freely available to everyone with a satellite or cable
connection.

This will enable it to be seen easily in countries
where the growth of satellite television has been
fastest, and where local regulation prevents BBC radio
being heard clearly enough to make a significant
impact.


Evidence of demand for Arabic television.
But many of you have asked: how can we be sure that
there will be a demand for such a BBC channel in such
a competitive market?

The latest research from seven capital cities across
the Middle East in 2005 indicates that 85% or more of
the target group are likely to watch ? and that figure
has risen in all but one city in the last two years.

The main reason people give is quite simple ? it is
because the BBC would provide an independent news
service they could trust.


A world class news and information channel
The channel will consist of a world class news service
about international and major regional issues together
with multi-media discussion programmes and debates in
conjunction with our radio and online services.

We will begin by broadcasting 12 hours a day at times
of highest viewing and aim to increase that to 24
hours when we can secure additional funding.

We also need to strengthen our newsgathering
operations on the ground. Whilst broadcasting from
London is seen as ?brand advantage?, we must have a
strong presence in the Middle East itself. We will
develop our bureaux in the Middle East, adding
television facilities in Cairo and other Arab
capitals.

(In addition, we will build our presence at the centre
of the world?s global powers ? in the USA, Russia and
South Asia.) 

The initial annual cost for the service will be £19m,
all of which must be funded from within the existing
BBC World Service budget.

In five years we aim to win a significant share of the
market for international television news.

We will make a major impact with those in the Middle
East who follow news regularly and provide trusted
information to those who feel the current plethora of
channels are neither sufficiently independent or
international in their agenda.

Planning starts now for a launch scheduled in 2007. To
succeed, we will have to attract the top talent, train
them well, and ensure all our programmes live by the
BBC?s editorial values.

If we do this, the value to our audiences will be
considerable. The BBC will be the only media
organisation offering a full news service in Arabic
across all three media, and I believe that is a very
exciting prospect indeed.


Television in other languages
There is a strong case for television in other
languages. Persian would be the top priority for
public funding after Arabic. But we cannot fund such a
television service at the moment. We would need a
successful bid for Grant-in-Aid as part of the
Spending Review process in 2007.

There is also a case for exploring how we could mount
limited television operations in Spanish, Hindi and
other languages. But it would be hard to persuade our
funders that, whilst important, ventures like this are
a top priority for Grant-in-Aid, given their cost and
the range of free-to-air channels already in
existence.

Instead we will continue to look for partnerships with
commercial companies. But the partners would have to
sign up for an extended period and be able to fund our
production and distribution costs.

There are, however, alternatives to full-scale,
television. If we are resourceful, we can make the
most of our investment in new media to provide short
programmes or bulletins for television companies and
external websites. This arguably is a more realistic
proposition in the next three years for some
languages.


2. New media
That takes me to new media itself and its future
priorities. We are committed to delivering a major
expansion in our new media services, with the addition
of increased interactivity and news reporting in video
in our priority languages.

Our video investment will take account of the need to
deliver high quality news reports that can either be
downloaded or accessed as streamed video on demand,
both of which are emerging as major news platforms.

In most expanding internet markets, new users are
jumping straight across to broadband and expect
services which exploit this technology.

Additional resources will increase the opportunities
for users to interact and contribute their own
material. You will remember this lies at the heart of
our mission to connect and engage with audiences, to
create a truly ?global conversation?.

We are going to put more money into key areas to keep
us ahead in the new era of portable, on-demand digital
media, including podcasting.

All these new media initiatives will be focused
initially in English, Arabic, Portuguese for Brazil,
Spanish, Persian, Russian and Urdu languages.

This extra investment of £4.6m a year by the end of
2007/8 will mean the creation of 41 new jobs in New
Media and our priority languages over the current
Spending Review period.


3. FM developments
Now to distribution. Improving our audibility in radio
is critical to our long term success.

We need to intensify our fight for FM presence in the
world?s capital cities and in the larger conurbations.
For these audiences, short wave is increasingly an
irrelevance; medium wave an intermittent solution.

We will spend a further £3.5m a year by the end of
2007/8 in this critical area.

Some of this money will be used to nurture our
so-called ?platinum partners?, with programmes made
especially for specific stations, as well as
supporting a co-branded marketing presence in these
crowded urban markets.


4. International offices 
One of the ambitions of the whole BBC World Service
Board is to improve the quality and connectivity of
our international offices.

As I have traveled to our bureaux, I?ve become
increasingly aware that many of them fail to live up
to our ambitions. The worst ones can be debilitating
places to work in. In the last two years, we have made
great strides to improve conditions in places like
Moscow, Dakar, Cairo and Washington. But there are
still bureaux which fail the dual test of being both
pleasant and productive buildings to work in; Abuja
and Delhi to name two.

Over the next three years, we will accelerate our
strategy of rebuilding or relocating them with the top
priorities being in Nigeria, India, Pakistan,
Indonesia and Brazil.


5. Marketing
More money for marketing is an integral part of our
plans. I know that many of you will support this as
you argued in the 2010 sessions, that we have
underinvested in this area in the past.

We need effective marketing to promote our existing
services to increasingly demanding radio audiences and
online news consumers, as well as the new BBC Arabic
TV channel. By focusing its efforts in a smaller
number of markets, and being inventive and creative in
its campaigns, our marketing team are helping us break
through in both radio and new media. This extra
investment of £2.5m a year will enable them to react
quickly and creatively to fulfil our marketing needs.


Making savings
Altogether, the planned investments add up to an
almost £30m a year by the end of the Spending Review
period.

In order to achieve that scale of investment, we
started by looking at the scope for savings in areas
of the budget not linked directly to programme
-making. BBC World Service spends less than 10% of its
budget on overheads ; that means we spend more than
90% on content creation and distribution. Whilst we
can be more efficient in these areas, it will not help
us deliver sums of the kind we need. There is no
option but to close a number of existing services.


Closing language services
Making any decision about closing services is
extremely difficult. It has been the hardest part of
the 2010 work, and led to a lot of soul searching.
Everyone on the Board is deeply conscious of the
impact on people?s lives and careers, and the loyalty
of existing audiences.

Our review took into account three sets of factors -
the relative geopolitical importance of each market,
the availability of other national and regional
independent or ?free? media, and our current audience
levels and our best predictions for the future.

The outcome of this review is that we are going to
reduce the number of language services from 42 to 32,
and cut back investment in two others.

It is clear that recent political and media changes in
Europe have lessened the need for a number of language
services we currently broadcast to that region. In
many cases, but not all, as choice expands rapidly in
television and radio, our audience levels have
declined 


Changes in Europe
For these reasons we are going to close services for
Europe in the following eight languages: Bulgarian,
Croatian, Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Polish, Slovak and
Slovenian.


Other language service closures
We are also closing the Kazakh and Thai services,
essentially because of their relatively low market
impact.

In addition, whilst maintaining our radio news
bulletins for use by our key partners, we are going to
make Portuguese for Brazil an internet-only service.

The Brazilian service now attracts significantly more
online users than radio listeners in Brazil. With the
end of short wave broadcasts and little appetite from
key partners for longer programmes, we will withdraw
from our traditional long-form radio output.

We have also decided - with some strengthening of the
online offer ? and to reduce investment in BBC Hindi
online in the light of its relatively low traffic
levels and the higher usage of bbcnews,com ? our
English news online service ? in India. The balance of
staff will change with more of the team based in the
new bureau in Delhi.


Tribute to services that are closing
The time to pay a full tribute to the many
achievements of each of these language services is to
come.

But I would like to share with you what I said to
staff in these services earlier this morning.

The contribution of all the staff in these services
has been immense and their professionalism and skill
is beyond question. The decision to end broadcasting
in these languages is a strategic one and in no way
reflects adversely on the abilities of the individuals
in the services or the quality of their programmes.

Many of these services arose out of the conflict in
Europe during the Second World War. Many of them have
lit and maintained a beacon of free and independent
information which burned through the long Cold War
years and right up to the present day. They were a
lifeline for many.

Now the countries to which they broadcast have been
transformed: people travel freely, English is widely
taught in schools, in a climate of much greater free
expression.

Independent media is flourishing. New radio and
television services are springing up to provide a
genuine choice and challenge the hegemony of the state
broadcaster, and ourselves.

As a result, audiences to BBC World Service are
declining ? we now have under three million listeners
to these services in Europe. Five years ago we had
nearly seven million.

The BBC will still be available in English on radio
and I will shortly visit the capital cities where we
have an FM presence. I will be meeting the staff there
and seeing how we can maintain our FM presence for the
future. There is, of course, BBC World and our English
news online services, both growing rapidly in their
use.

For these language services, when they eventually
close, it will be a job truly well done. Their
distinguished record and their impact will never be
forgotten.

The Thai Service can also trace its roots to the
Second World War, and it too has an immensely proud
record. Its dedicated journalists have seen Thailand
emerge as an Asian democracy with an extensive choice
of radio and television outlets. As with some European
countries, that choice has meant a declining audience
despite the assiduous cultivation of many broadcasting
partners.

The Kazakh service, although set up comparatively
recently, in the 1990s, has covered the momentous
post-Soviet years with skill and dedication. But its
impact has been hampered by the decision of local
stations to stop broadcasting its daily programme on
FM. Given that audiences will still get our Regional
Russian service, it is the right decision to close it.

I want to say more about the Brazilian Service?s radio
contribution as one of the oldest services in Bush
House. In the sixties and seventies, at a time of
widespread censorship under military rule, its short
wave output was essential listening. People there will
always be loyal to the BBC. The team are reinventing
the service as the leading website for international
news, and that's why it?s right to build on their
online success.


Target date for the end of transmissions
I have set a target date of 31st March for the last
transmissions of these services. The majority will
close earlier as I am aware that staff will only want
to continue broadcasting with the highest quality
programmes and that this will become increasingly
difficult if their colleagues find other jobs. We have
to balance that against our obligations to listeners,
and our many partners. I will be guided on by Zdenka
Krizman, and her team in Europe and the other Regional
Heads, Behrouz Afagh and Abbas Nasir, as to the exact
date of the last transmissions.


Reorganising the regional structure
As a result of the language service closures, we are
going to reorganise BBC World Service?s regional
management structure.

This will help to reduce costs and simplify the way we
work.

Africa and the Middle East region, headed by Jerry
Timmins, will remain unchanged in terms of its
language portfolio, but will now face the added
challenge of launching BBC Arabic television. The
other four regions will merge into two.

The current Americas Region will be brought together
with the four remaining services to Europe ? Albanian,
Macedonian, Romanian, Serbian ? as well as the
Russian, Turkish and Ukrainian services. The new
region will be called Americas and Europe and will be
headed by Lucio Mesquita.

The Asia Pacific region will expand to include the
Central Asian languages together with Persian and
Pashto, and will be headed by Behrouz Afagh.

Jerry, Lucio and Behrouz will all do an excellent job
in their expanded regions. They have the track record,
creativity and stamina to carry out these demanding
leadership roles.

As a result of these changes, Zdenka Krizman, the
current Head of Europe, will take on the role of
overseeing the closure of the language services and
our disengagement from their locally based operations.
She will also take the lead role in managing the
transition of the current five Regions into three,
working closely with the Management Board to ensure an
effective implementation by April 2006. Zdenka is an
exceptional manager who will undertake this work with
sensitivity to her staff at this difficult time,
whilst taking into account the wider needs of the BBC.


After she has completed this important role, Zdenka
will be leaving the BBC herself at the end of next
year. She has done an outstanding job as head of the
Europe Region. Audiences and staff will always have
reason to thank her profoundly for leading her team so
well.

I would also like to thank Abbas Nasir, who will
return to his substantiveal role as Executive Editor,
Asia Pacific, for acting as Regional Head over the
past eighteen months. Placed in the role at short
notice, following Barry Langridge?s illness, he has
led the team ably and sympathetically and provided
strong editorial leadership over this difficult
period. I am delighted he will continue to play a
central role in this expanded region when it is
established fully next year.

After discussions with each of them, I am pleased to
say that all the five current Regional Executive
Editors will continue to support our journalism in a
similar or existing role. James Painter and Olexiyei
Soloubhubenko will join Lucio in the Americas and
Europe Region, Abbas and Nikki Clarke will support
Behrouz in the expanded Asia Pacific Region, and we
will advertise for another Executive Editor to work
with Jerry and Kari Blackburn in the Africa and Middle
East Region.


The role of Studio Managers and regionally-based
technical staff
Now I want to turn to the role our studio managers
will play in these new regions. They contribute
enormously to the success of our output and are keen
to learn new skills in this multi-media age. With the
changes to our regional structure, now seems the best
time to integrate them fully into our regional teams.
Linda Walker will work with Regional Heads to
establish how best to do this by March 2006.

I will also be asking Mike Cronk, our Controller
Distribution and Technology, to examine our technology
support and how this can be best structured given both
the new regional structure and our new investments.

Now that the new regional structures have been
finalised, work will continue to make sure our other
support services are configured in the right way for
the challenges ahead.

Alison Woodhams will lead a review of business
development and administrative support in the Regions
to ensure the scale of them and the way they are
organised fits our new priorities. Once we have made
clear decisions about the scope of these reviews, we
will organise special briefings on them with the
relevant teams or through the Regional Heads.


Changes to the English Network
Now I want to turn to changes in the English Network,
and how they will affect the role of those programme
makers who work in departments outside BBC World
Service, but provide their programmes for the English
schedule.

Our global English programming on radio remains a core
part of the BBC?s future multi-media service for its
worldwide audiences.

But technology and competition mean that audience
usage is changing here too and the English offer needs
to keep pace with that change.

Research clearly shows that eight out of 10 listeners
are exclusively or primarily interested in news and
topical information. That?s why, as now, news will
remain at the heart of what we do in English ? as in
all our languages.

And our research also shows that our audiences have a
fairly wide definition of what they mean by news.
That?s why, when we say that in future the English
networks will be focused around news and information,
our definition of what that will cover will be wider
than news and major geopolitical events. It will mean
at different times a rich mix of programmes about
business news and trends, science and technology,
health, religion, arts and culture, entertainment,
music, social issues and sport.

By a process of evolution the English Network will
move to a more focused offer centred on information,
offering a world view of events trends and cultures 

We announced earlier this autumn that a number of
programmes in factual and music areas will no longer
be commissioned and some other programme titles will
be merged.

The programmes will be different but the range and
insight will still be very evident.

Now I want to turn to the way we work with BBC News
and the extent to which we are asking staff in BBC
World Service News and in Newsgathering to find
efficiencies and new ways of working over the next two
years.

As I have stressed to you, news remains at the heart
of what we do.The BBC World Service newsroom is
rightly valued ? here in Bush and across the BBC and,
above, all by our audiences ? for its cool judgement
and expertise and its unflagging insistence on
?getting it right?.

Similarly BBC World Service?s excellent news
programmes, such as, Newshour and the World Today have
continued develop and grow in their ambition,
journalistic curiosity and creative flair. We intend
to continue that development.

But we cannot make the overall investments we need,
many of which will benefit listeners to our English
network, if we exempt our largest area of spend from
all future savings.

After detailed discussions with the management in BBC
News, we have agreed savings targets for News for the
next two years.

Over the past three years we have invested heavily in
new initiatives in News: new posts, new correspondents
and new programmes. Just under £2m in all. And at the
same time we have shielded our core news operations
from much of the annual impact of BBC World Service
efficiency savings. (This in turn has meant higher
percentage savings for other parts of the English
Networks. But the law of diminishing returns means we
can?t do that any longer.) We now need News to make a
significant contribution to the costs of the
investment plan.

Working with the BBC World Service commissioners, BBC
News have developed proposals to save approximately
£2.3m over the next two years ? this approximates to
7% of the BBC World Service spend with them every
year. This will come from four areas: new programming
and scheduling, a reduction in some services, new and
different ways of working and some reductions in our
newsgathering capacity.

An impact on jobs is inevitable. Of course, BBC News
will seek to do this through voluntary redundancies
and the team will want to begin negotiations with the
staff and with the Unions as soon as possible. The
ACAS agreement will cover these proposals in terms of
treatment for any member of staff losing their jobs
compulsorily as it will all staff in the UK affected
by today?s announcements. The relevant managers in
News will be holding briefings with their teams later
today.


Helping those facing redundancy
The human consequences of these changes are uppermost
in our minds. We will do everything we can to help
staff through this difficult period. We are putting in
place a package of support, including help for
individuals to deal with the personal impact of the
changes they are facing, to explore options for the
future and learn how to market themselves effectively.

In our international offices, we have a complex set of
employment issues to tackle. We have to take account
of national laws and work within these constraints in
terms of the compensation we can offer to staff
employed outside the UK. However, we will do all we
can to make sure international staff are treated
fairly and compatibly with their colleagues in the UK.


Sum up
Altogether approximately 236 posts will close across
BBC World Service. In addition, there will be more
arising from changes in BBC News, plus those already
announced in BBC Radio & Music.

At the same time, around 200 new posts will be funded
over the three year period ? the vast majority in the
UK here in Bush House, with the remainder in
international bureaux.

Whilst each area will have to meet annual efficiency
savings for the rest of the three year period,, there
are no plans for any more language service closures in
the foreseeable future. But we have to make sure each
service maintains its impact and does not suffer
either a dramatic fall in audience performance or
other issues with distribution.


The benefits of change
I now want to sum up what I have shared with you this
morning. I believe the benefits of this strategy to
global audiences are clear.

It will mean even more impact among audiences in the
countries where we continue to broadcast.

By 2010, together with BBC World TV and bbcnews.com we
expect to increase the global reach of the BBC?s
international news services from more than 190 million
to more than 250 million users a week.

We?ll be aiming to achieve greater reach than any
other international news provider in all priority
markets, with the highest ratings for reputation.

And we?ll aim to provide the most innovative
interactive services.

And when we achieve all this, we will have seized the
spirit of the times and shaped services fit for it.


Our values
But none of this will be either possible or worthwhile
if our services do not have at their heart the right
values. Indeed, we will not succeed if we dilute or
betray them.

Those editorial values; integrity, honesty, a passion
to broadcast the truth, without fear or favour, are
priceless. Those values create world class programmes
and services.

And values are also about how we treat our staff who,
through no fault of their own, have to leave the BBC
as a result of strategic changes like these. The whole
Board is committed to be as generous as we can afford
to be. Being mean spirited is not part of our agenda.

Today we have unveiled a strategy and the detailed
plans that underpin it. But this is only start, not
the finish. The hard work of doing it begins now.

In that spirit, I and the whole Board ask for your
support. Change of this kind is never easy. It means
difficult choices, but choices undertaken to nurture a
wonderful force for global good in an age of rapid
change.

We all believe in BBC World Service and what it does.
It has been in Kofi Annan?s famous phrase, ?perhaps
Britain?s greatest gift to the world in the last
century?.

In this new century, all of us want to ensure we
remain the leader in the world of international media.
To achieve this we have to work together.

I am confident that with your passion, your creativity
and your commitment to our BBC World Service, we can
do it.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Download PDF of Nigel Chapman?s speech in full  on
this site
http://www.bbc.co.uk/atw/wschange/what_changes/Nigels_messge.shtml

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Compiled by: Jaisakthivel, President, Ardic Dx Club,
No:3, First Floor, 21 Nathens Arcade, Malaviya Avenue,
L.B Road, Chennai-600041, Tamil Nadu, India E-Mail:
ardicdxclub@xxxxxxxxxxx Wub:
www.dxersguide.blogspot.com 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++




	

	
		
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