The BBC Governors’ World Service Consultative Group, chaired by Dame Pauline Neville–Jones, was established following the BBC restructuring in 1996 in order to provide the governors with independent external advice on the range and quality of BBC World Service output. The Group aims to review BBC World Service English and vernacular output over a three-year cycle.
 
For 2000/01 the Group decided to review again services to Europe and the EurAsia region, both on radio and online. Languages selected this time were English, Albanian, Czech, Polish and Serbian for Europe, and English, Persian, Russian and Turkish for EurAsia.
 
For each of these languages, between two and four assessors were recruited by an independent consultant, using a number of local market research agencies and other contacts. The assessors were asked to listen to up to ten hours of highlighted output with the focus on news and current affairs programmes, or to surf BBC World Service online sites. Altogether, 36 individual assessors submitted reports.
 
The Consultative Group members note the higher quality of the assessors’ reports this year. Whilst being aware of the limitations of the research, the Group feels that the reports provide valuable diagnostic tools and give detailed feedback which should be useful to programme-makers.
 
The Consultative Group is pleased to note, as the single most important finding of the review, that the quality, authority and trustworthiness of BBC World Service broadcasts continues to be rated very highly. The Group is also impressed this year by the perception of relevance and added value displayed regularly in the assessors’ reports.
 
In its discussions the Group identified, however, a number of areas where the assessors’ reports indicate room for improvement. These are:

the balance between world news and local news

the order in which news items are presented

presentation style

labelling of programmes and the clarity of output structures

trailing and promotion of programmes across radio and online output

opportunity for more interactivity with listeners, particularly online

ease of navigation on the World Service online site

The Consultative Group has also asked BBC World Service management for a report for its next meeting in the autumn on how it is planning to improve the relevance of the present output mix to its audience