BBC World Service to get extra £11m a year in deal ending funding uncertainty

Corporation welcomes three-year settlement as it continues to push for government to take on all of service’s costs

The BBC World Service will be given increased government funding as part of a three-year deal after ministers concluded it was needed to counter the rise of global disinformation.

The Guardian understands that Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, has agreed an additional £11m a year for the next three years on the government’s grant to the service.

It ends huge uncertainty over the settlement, which was still unknown weeks before the current funding was due to end.

It represents an 8% increase on the previous year’s allocation. However, BBC insiders warned that by the end of the three-year settlement the increase would barely keep pace with inflation, meaning funding will in effect be flat.

Other figures in the BBC welcomed the deal, believing it was the best that could have been achieved with the Foreign Office itself facing tight finances.

The BBC is continuing to push for the government to take on all of the costs of the World Service as part of its talks about the future of the corporation’s royal charter.

Lengthy discussions have been taking place between the BBC and ministers over the settlement. The broadcaster’s executives have warned that cuts have already had to be made to the service, even as China and Russia increase their global media spending.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said the World Service deal would take its total funding 42% higher than in 2024-25. Cooper said: “In a world of rising disinformation, the BBC World Service provides hundreds of millions with journalism they can trust and rely on.”

She said its importance had become even greater in countries such as Iran. Despite the BBC being banned there, one in four people sought out access to it before the internet shutdowns in January that followed protests against the Iranian regime.

Last month the BBC launched an emergency radio service in Iran, using its coverage from its Persian digital and TV channels to reach more people.

Last week the Commons public accounts committee warned that ministers risked “opening the door to propaganda from hostile states” and diminishing international trust in the World Service by allowing its funding to be frozen.

A BBC spokesperson welcomed the settlement, which they said “recognises the World Service as a priority and ensures it can deliver trusted, independent journalism to audiences around the world, and counter the rising tide of disinformation globally.”

They added: “The need for the BBC World Service has never been greater. The events of the past few days and weeks have shown the immense value and worth of our journalism for audiences around the world, in times of instability and insecurity.”

They said that with “intense global competition”, changes would still have to be made to the service.

The World Service’s funding will be officially revealed on Thursday as part of a broader announcement about where the government intends to spend its much-reduced aid bill for the next three years.

With Keir Starmer having previously announced that Britain’s development funding would be halved in order to pay for a rise in defence spending, people working in the sector are braced for heavy cuts to individual programmes.

Sarah Champion, the Labour chair of the international development committee, said: “The World Service is our international superpower. It is trusted and respected, which hugely benefits how the UK is perceived. Successive governments, and indeed the BBC, have reduced funding, when what we need to do is give it a massive boost and recognise just what influence it brings us.”