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Other BBC activities
Some BBC activities fall outside the formal definition of a service or are funded differently to the UK public services of the BBC’s commercial activities. This section explains the BBC Trust’s role in these areas.
Grant funded activities
The BBC receives funding separate to the licence fee for the BBC World Service; the BBC's international news services on radio, online and, from late 2007, television; and BBC Monitoring.
BBC World Service is funded through a parliamentary Grant-in-Aid, administered by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. As part of the BBC, it has complete editorial independence from Government. The BBC Trust is responsible for ensuring that the BBC World Service delivers its remit in accordance with the Royal Charter; for agreeing its high level strategy with the Foreign Secretary and approving any funding submissions to Government; and for the BBC's stewardship of any Grant-in-Aid income. The Trust signs the Broadcasting Agreement for the BBC World Service between the BBC and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The Trust's World Service protocol also requires it to issue an operating agreement which sets the framework within which BBC World Service will be delivered, including the BBC World Service's contribution to the BBC's public purposes. These documents are available below.
- BBC World Service operating agreement, PDF (229KB)
- BBC World Service operating agreement, text only (18.9KB)
BBC Monitoring
BBC Monitoring is funded through a ring-fenced grant held by the Cabinet Office to provide stakeholders with international news, comment and information gathered from open sources around the world. The procedures agreed by the BBC Trust for oversight of this service are set out in the Trust's BBC Monitoring protocol.
BBC programming on S4C
Since 1982 the BBC has been required by statute to provide S4C with a minimum of 10 hours of programming each week funded from the licence fee. S4C also commissions BBC Wales to produce some additional programming.
BBC Wales' main programmes on S4C include news, politics, current affairs, children's and teenagers' programming, a daily drama, documentaries, sport and coverage of the National Eisteddfod.
Strategic partnership deed of agreement
Since January 2007 the relationship between the BBC Trust and the S4C Authority has been codified in a new strategic partnership. This sets out how the two organisations will work together and the BBC's financial commitments to Welsh language television production.
Operating agreement
The operating agreement was developed by the Trust Unit in consultation with BBC Wales' management. It defines the scope of the BBC's contribution to S4C, its aims and objectives, and its financial accountability arrangements. It provides a framework against which the Trust can monitor achievement against the objectives set for BBC programming on S4C in fulfilling the BBC's Welsh language television public service broadcasting obligations.
- Operating agreement, PDF (73KB)
- Operating agreement, text only (15.2KB)
"Non-service" activities
Not everything the BBC does can be defined as "a service". An example is the BBC's involvement in Freeview, the free-to-view digital television operation that enables people to view all BBC and ITV digital channels via their television aerials using a set-top box.
In formal terms, these "non-services" fall outside the system of service licences and the detailed requirements of the Public Value Test. However, non-service activities have the potential to be significant and may raise issues of public value and have market implications.
The BBC Trust will ensure that the principles underlying the treatment of services are, where relevant, applied to non-service activities as appropriate. This could include, for example, investigating and assessing the public interest and market implications before making a significant change to a non-service activity. In some circumstance it could be appropriate for the Trust to apply a full Public Value Test.
Exceptions
The Charter and Agreement make clear that this approach does not apply to non-service activities that fall within the definition of commercial services, or are undertaken primarily with the purpose of producing an effect outside the UK.