The BBC should create a Russian language TV service, its director general will say on Monday as part of a “passionate defence” of the role the public broadcaster plays at home and abroad.

Arguing that the World Service represents the BBC at its best, Tony Hall will make the case for international expansion at a time when the corporation is also calculating how to contend with a £750m funding shortfall.

BBC sources said Lord Hall’s plan should be “above the politics of the debates about the BBC’s future” and that the World Service should be “a national priority”.



The source added: “We have a strong commitment to uphold global democracy through accurate, impartial and independent news. There should no longer be any no-go countries for the World Service.”

However, since the general election, the BBC has come under intense scrutiny over its size and scope. Ministers asked the BBC to shoulder the £750m burden of paying free licence fees for the over-75s in July, and later that month unveiled a green paper on the future of the broadcaster which questioned if it should continue to be “all things to all people”.

Speaking at the Science Museum in Kensington, Hall is expected to set out the corporation’s contribution and importance to the success of the UK’s wider creative industries, and make a “passionate defence of the important role the BBC plays at home and abroad” as the first in a series of responses to the green paper.



Hall will not detail any cuts the BBC needs to make until next month, other than to say the corporation has to live within the bounds of the financial settlement with the government. The most likely parts of the BBC to suffer cuts are its digital TV channels, such as BBC4, and smaller radio stations.

With the BBC alreadyhaving announced that 1,000 middle management roles would go, further job cuts are anticipated.

For now, though, Hall will unveil proposals for a significant expansion of the World Service, including a satellite TV service or YouTube channel for Russian speakers, and a daily news programme on shortwave for North Korea. The expansion proposals also include beefing up the BBC Arabic Service to offer more regional content, with increased coverage of north Africa and the Middle East.



The BBC will argue that in light of the rise of big state-sponsored rivals, such as al-Jazeera and RT (previously Russia Today) – both of which now have UK operations – and China Central Television, the proposals are not about creating a bigger BBC but reflect “the importance of democracy and a free press”.

To fund the news services, the BBC is to seek financial support from the government for the expansion. Hall will offer to match any increase in public funding for the World Service if it can be allowed to more heavily commercialise its Global News operation outside the UK, which already generates more than £100m in revenues annually from sources including advertising and sponsorship.

In the coming weeks, Hall is also expected to focus on how the BBC can further develop commercially, focusing on the future of BBC Worldwide, which makes £1bn in revenues annually from activities including selling hit shows such as Doctor Who, Top Gear and Planet Earth around the world.

The speech due to be made on 7 September will also discuss plans to spin off the BBC’s TV production business and allow it to make shows for rivals. It may directly address the comments made by Armando Iannucci, who urged the BBC to sell more of its programmes to make more money in his lecture to the TV industry at the Guardian Edinburgh International TV festival last month.

However, sensitive to criticism from commercial rivals such as the News Media Association – the trade body for the UK newspaper industry, which has called for the BBC’s digital news operation to be curbed – Hall is also expected to articulate a plan for a more open BBC that will focus on different ways of working, such as creating more partnerships.

