HL Deb 18 March 1985 vol 461 cc392-4WA
Lord Chelwood

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will tabulate, in real terms (i) the sums made available to the BBC External Services in each of the last 10 years, showing capital and current expenditure separately, (ii) the different languages broadcast in each year, and (iii) the average total number of hours broadcast each day.

Baroness Young

The information is as follows:

I. The sums made available, in real terms, to the BBC External Services in each of the last 10 years were as follows:

Current Capital
Financial Year broadcasting monitoring broadcasting monitoring Total
1975–76 58.0 5.3 5.1 0.2 68.6*
1976–77 55.9 5.4 7.4 0.2 68.9
1977–78 53.6 5.1 7.7 0.4 66.8
1978–79 55.5 5.5 4.6 0.6 66.1
1979–80 54.5 5.5 5.0 0.3 65.3
1980–81 59.0 4.9 6.3 0.3 70.5
1981–82 60.3 5.5 7.1 0.3 73.2
1982–83 61.4 5.5 10.4 0.3 77.6
1983–84 62.5 6.1 12.2 0.5 81.3
1984–85 64.3 5.9 10.0 0.9 81.1
*£ million (in 1984–85 prices)

This table excludes the cost of the relay stations operated by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on behalf of the BBC External Services, which will amount to approximately £13 million in 1984–85.

II. The following languages were broadcast by the BBC External Services throughout the last 10 years unless otherwise indicated:

  • Arabic
  • Bengali
  • Bulgarian
Burmese
Chinese Cantonese
Mandarin
  • Czech
  • Finnish
  • French
  • German
  • Greek
  • Hausa
  • Hindi
  • Hungarian
  • Indonesian
  • Italian (to December 1981)
  • Japanese
  • Malay
  • Maltese (to December 1981)
  • Nepali
  • Pashto (from August 1981)
  • Persian
  • Polish
  • Portuguese (Europe and Africa)
  • Portuguese (Brazil)
  • Romanian
  • Russian
  • Serbo-Croat
  • Sinhala (to March 1976)
  • Slovak
    • 394
  • Slovene
  • Somali
  • Spanish (Europe) (to December 1981)
  • Spanish (Latin America)
  • Swahili
  • Tamil
  • Thai
  • Turkish
  • Urdu
  • Vietnamese

English: World Service and alternative transmissions for Asia, Africa, and the Falklands.

III. The average total number of hours broadcast by the BBC External Services each day in each of the last 10 years was as follows:

Year ended 31st March Hours Broadcast: *Average Daily Total
1975–76 100.64
1976–77 100.89
1977–78 101.57
1978–79 101.64
1979–80 102.29
1980–81 103.61
1981–82 102.29
1982–83 102.89
1983–84 103.04
1984–85 103.18
*The average daily total is based on the total hours broadcast in the last week of March in each year with the exception of 1984–85, for which the week ending 9th March has been taken.