HC Deb 27 January 1976 vol 904 cc180-6W
Mr. Ashley

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what further financial cuts are planned in 1976–77; and which parts of the BBC's External Services will be reduced in scale so as to make economies in line with these cuts.

Mr. Ennals

Cuts imposed for 1976–77 amount to £288,000 in BBC External Services recurrent expenditure. In addition cuts in Foreign and Commonwealth Office expenditure on broadcast relay stations related to the External Services will in the same year amount to £12,000 on recurrent expenditure and £100,000 on capital expenditure.

The reduction in broadcasting time arising from these cuts was given in a reply to a Question on 23rd January from my hon. Friend the Member for Derby, North (Mr. Whitehead).

Mr. Ashley

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if any further cuts in the BBC's External Services are envisaged in the years beyond 1976–77.

Mr. Ennals

Yes. Reductions are envisaged in public expenditure generally, including the Overseas Information Programme of which the BBC External Services form part, for the years beyond 1976–77. A White Paper will be published shortly.

Mr. Ashley

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list in the Official Report the countries which receive the BBC Overseas Service broadcasts and his estimate of the average number of people in each country who listen to the programmes each week.

Mr. Ennals

The BBC World Service in English is broadcast virtually worldwide.

Foreign language broadcasts are transmitted in the following vernacular services:

  • Arabic.
  • Bengali.
  • Bulgarian.
  • Burmese.
  • Cantonese.
  • Chinese (Standard).
  • Czech.
  • Finnish.
  • French.
  • German.
  • Greek.
  • Hausa.
  • Hindi.
  • Hungarian.

Country Scope and date of survey Service '000s
Pakistan … … … … Urban areas: June 1975 … … Urdu … … … 2,000
World (in English including English by Radio) 200
Thailand … … … … Urban areas: August-September 1975 Thai … … … 100
World … … … 75
Indonesia (Java and Sumatra) … Urban areas: March-April … … Indonesian … … 800
September 1975 — World … … … 600
Greece … … … … Urban areas: February 1975 … … Greek … … … 110
World … … … 40
West Bengal … … … Urban areas: May 1974 … … Bengali … … … 960
World … … … 780
India … … … … Urban areas: April 1973 … … Hindi … … … 3,500
World … … … 1,500
Northern Nigeria … … … Urban and rural areas: February-April 1973 … Hausa … … … 3-5,000
Sierra Leone … … … Freetown only … … World … … … 110

  • Indonesian.
  • Italian.
  • Japanese.
  • Malay.
  • Maltese.
  • Nepali.
  • Persian.
  • Polish.
  • Portuguese.
  • Portuguese (for South America).
  • Romanian.
  • Russian.
  • Serbo-Croat.
  • Sinhala (to April 1976 only).
  • Slovak.
  • Slovene.
  • Somali.
  • Spanish.
  • Spanish (for Latin America).
  • Swahili.
  • Tamil.
  • Thai.
  • Turkish.
  • Urdu.
  • Vietnamese.

Where language crosses national frontiers some of these services are heard in more than one country.

Audience surveys are expensive, and in many parts of the world it is not possible to undertake them. There are, therefore, no overall figures for BBC audiences in all the countries to which the External Services broadcast.

Surveys are carried out in as many countries as possible, the results usually being published in the BBC Handbook. Typical results are given below. They represent adults who listen at least once a week—many listen more often—but are subject to normal sample survey margins of error.

Mr. Ashley

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if, in each country that receives BBC External Services broadcasts, he will list the other countries that also broadcast to it; where possible, if he will list the foreign broadcasts including the BBC in order of popularity; and, in each case, whether the language of the foreign broadcast was in the local vernacular or English, or that of the country of origin.

Mr. Ennals

In view of the length of the detailed lists required fully to answer the first part of my hon. Friend's Ques-

Regular listeners (percentages of sample interviewed
Language Date of Survey and Sample BBC VOA Radio Moscow Radio Peking Radio Australia
Urdu … May-June 1975—
Urban adults in Pakistan … … 28 2 2 2 —
Note: Provisional figures only—results still being processed.
Indonesian March-April 1975— Urban adults in Java and Sumatra ex. lowest socio economic group 12.1 4.9 less than 0.5 18.6
0.05
Hindi … April 1973— Urban adults 10 towns in Hindi-speaking states of N. India. 15 1 1 less than —
0.5
Hausa … February-April 1973—Urban adults in Northern Nigeria … 29 — 5 less than —
0.5
Hausa … February-April 1973—Rural adults in Northern Nigeria … 32 — 7 1 —
Note: VOA has no Hausa Service.
BBC VOA Radio Moscow Radio Peking Radio Australia
Greek … February 1975— Urban adults Regular listeners … 3.5 1.0 1.8 — 3.4
Thai … August-September 1975— Urban adults … … … 2.8 1.1 0.1 1.8 —

Mr. Ashley

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many countries of the world receive broadcasts from foreign countries but do not get them from the BBC; and if he will give the names of the countries receiving and sending the broadcasts.

Mr. Ennals

I am arranging for information relating to broadcasting in languages other than English to be sent to my hon. Friend direct. As explained in the answer to another of my hon.

Broadcasting Monitoring Civil
Current £000 Capital £000 Total £000 Current £000 Capital £000 Total £000 Defence £000 Total £000
1966–67 … 8,761 2,019 10,780 811 20 831 — 11,611
1967–68 … 8,572 1,107 9,679 857 30 887 — 10,566
1968–69 … 8,878 1,289 10,167 896 30 926 — 11,093
1969–70 … 9,619 926 10,545 946 26 972 — 11,517
1970–71 … 10,718 1,490 12,208 963 30 993 — 13,201
1971–72 … 11,826 980 12,806 1,151 52 1,203 — 14,009
1972–73 … 12,921 751 12,672 1,308 46 1,354 — 15,026
1973–74 … 14,246 1,008 15,254 1,399 50 1,440 10 16,713
1974–75 … 17,952 881 18,833 1,660 50 1,710 3 20,546
1975–76 … 21,772 1,987 23,759 1,960 74 2,034 — 25,793

tion, I am arranging for the information to be sent to him direct.

It is not possible to list broadcasters in the languages used by the BBC External Services in order of popularity. In general, however, the BBC normally comes at or near the top of every list of international broadcasters, both for English and for vernacular programmes. Its precise position will depend on a number of factors, including the strength of the BBC's signal compared with its competitors. Sample ratings are given below, taken from the most recent surveys available to the BBC.

Friend's Questions today, the BBC World Service in English is heard virtually everywhere.

Mr. Ashley

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what has been the cost of the BBC's General Overseas Service for each of the last 10 years.

Mr. Ennals

The grant in aid provided for the BBC External Services is set out in the following table:

In addition to the above, recurrent and capital costs of relay stations operated by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office are borne on FCO Votes.

The annual direct cost of the BBC External Services World Service over the last four years is as follows:

£000
1972–73 917
1973–74 974
1974–75 1,198
1975–76 1,301

The above figures exclude engineering, transmitter and other substantial indirect costs.

Mr. Ashley

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what cuts have been made in the Government's financial support to the BBC's Overseas Service in each of the last five years; what has been the cumulative total of these cuts in real terms; and if he will express the total as a percentage of the cost of the Overseas Service five years ago.

Mr. Ennals

The information in the precise terms requested is not readily available. Apart from minor cuts in 1973–74—£6,000 recurrent and £77,000 non-recurrent—the only cuts in the last five years, 1971–72 to 1975–76, were in 1974–75. These amounted to a total of £400,000 a year in recurrent expenditure by the BBC External Services and by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on broadcast relay stations used by the External Services. In 1974–75 there was

Service Reduction (weekly) Present (or, where appropriate, 1st April 1976) weekly output
Arabic … … … 7 hours: April 1976 … … … 63 hours.
Bulgarian … … … 45 minutes: November 1971 … … 12½ hours.
1¾ hours: September 1975 … …
Chinese … … … 1¾ hours: April 1976 … … … 16 hours.
Czech/Slovak … … … 1 hour: November 1971 … … … 2¼ hours.
French … … … 5¾ hours: September 1975 … … 39 hours.
German … … … 7 hours: September 1975 … … 24½ hours.
Greek … … … … 1 hour: January 1972 … … … 10½ hours.
Hungarian … … … 45 minutes: November 1971 … … 18 hours.
Polish … … … … 1 hour: November 1971 … … … 21 hours.
Romanian … … … 45 minutes: November 1971 … … 14 hours.
1¾ hours: April 1976 … … …
Serbo-Croat … … … 45 minutes: January 1972 … … 16¼ hours.
Sinhala … … … To be abolished April 1976 … … —
Spanish … … … 1 hour: January 1972 … … … 7 hours.
Turkish … … … 45 minutes: January 1972 … … 7 hours.
Special service in English to Caribbean. Abolished: April 1974 … … … World Service continues.

also a rephasing of the capital expenditure programme by the BBC and FCO which had the effect of reducing capital expenditure on overseas broadcasting during the five year period 1974–75 to 1978–79 by a total of £1,760,000. These cuts, which were based on 1973–74 levels of expenditure, amounted to approximately 2½ per cent. on recurrent expenditure, and to 20 per cent. on capital expenditure during the period.

Mr. Ashley

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will detail the cost of cuts in the BBC's Overseas Service, specifying whether they have been made in current or capital expenditure and listing countries to which broadcasts were ended or reduced and the number of hours by which they were reduced; and, for each of the countries where broadcasts were either ended or reduced, which other foreign countries are still broadcasting.

Mr. Ennals

For details of the financial cuts in the BBC's External Services over the last five years I refer my hon. Friend to the answer to his immediately preceding Question.

A list of reductions in foreign language broadcasting by the BBC External Services since 1st April 1971 is given below, together with details of present weekly broadcasting in these languages. Information showing which countries continue to broadcast in each of these languages is being sent direct to my hon. Friend.