The British broadcaster has asked the UK government for more money, pointing to the rapid growth of channels like RT
The BBC has submitted a request to the British government for more funding for its World Service in order to compete with other international broadcasters such as Russia’s RT and China’s CGTN. Its demands were supported by the Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) – a non-profit trade association for TV, radio and digital broadcasting.
In a Call for Evidence filing to the UK Parliament, the outlet expressed concern that RT, for example, was rapidly expanding in Africa and building an audience across the Middle East and North Africa thanks to its much larger budget, which the broadcaster estimated at an annual £1.5 billion ($1.9 billion).
Meanwhile, China’s CGTN, according to the BBC, is operating with a budget of £5.3 to £8 billion and also rapidly gaining ground across new regions, particularly in Africa and Latin America.
The BBC argued that many other nations were responding to the rapid growth of Russian and Chinese broadcasters by heavily investing in their own news outlets and suggested that the UK should follow suit in order to remain competitive.
The AIB, which filed its own Call for Evidence, also shared its concerns that Russia’s and China’s media operations were “constantly growing and the budgets for the various media outlets of these two nations likely significantly exceed those of the BBC World Service and those of nations allied to the UK.”
Pointing to the recent expansions of RT and Sputnik into countries including Venezuela, Mexico, India, and South Africa, the AIB noted that the global distribution of Russia’s international operation is “possibly greater than that of Western broadcasters.”
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