BBC World Service Funding Increases

BBC World Service will receive £70 million of extra funding from the UK Government for the three year period from 2008/2009 to 2010/2011.
The announcement was made by Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling during his Comprehensive Spending Review announcement in Parliament on Tuesday, October 9.
The announcement formally confirmed £15m per annum funding for a BBC news and information television channel in the Farsi (Persian) language for Iran which will be launched next year.
BBC World Service also received funding to enhance its forthcoming Arabic language television news and information channel.
The services in Arabic and Farsi will be the first television news services to be launched by the BBC in a decade and they will be the first television services to be publicly funded by Grant-in-aid from the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office.
The overall settlement also includes £1m per annum from 2009/10 to enhance BBC World Service’s multi-media operations in languages relevant to ethnic communities resident in the UK.
BBC World Service Director Nigel Chapman said: “As we mark the 75th birthday of the BBC’s service to the world this December, this settlement strengthens BBC World Service’s future as a multi-media provider of high quality independent and impartial news and information around the world."

(Source: CBA)