important for World Service to be in place, in the right languages, to "be there", so as to be able to capture the audience when the time comes - as it did in China recently.'
Since then, these principles have been endorsed by events. It became important, for example, in the view of the FCO and the BBC to increase the hours of Russian, Arabic, Mandarin, Romanian, Serbian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Burmese, Pashto, Persian, Nepali, Tamil, Hausa and Portuguese for Africa. This was possible only because the services were already there. It was also decided to start Ukrainian, and re-start Sinhala and Albanian.
We accept that we must continually review our activities in the search for savings. We believe, however, that the evidence shows that it is usually a false economy to end a broadcast service. The Prescription has concentrated attention on hours broadcast as the prime measure of activity to which funding should be related: we have already proposed in the chapter on the Contract and the Prescription that this is misleading. Our view, therefore, is that generally speaking it is unprofitable to end a service (although hours might be reduced if the saving were significant), and that World Service must itself find savings. where necessary by (1) increasing the efficiency of its programme-making processes and by (2) actively taking the savings from its non-broadcasting, non- core, activities.
THE PROGRAMME PLAN: TOWARDS 2000
The following pages set out the main regional strategies and that for global English which have been developed to take World Service forward through the next Triennium towards the goals of the millerinium year.
The structure, which is common to all area plans, allows for easy cross- reference to our regional and global priorities stated under (2), (3) and (4).
Part 1 gives a brief description of the political background, the competitive environment and the role of World Service in the area. (relates to overall aims, geo-political priorities)
Part 2 compares the main languages spoken in the region with those in which the BBC broadcasts at present and then gives reasons for any proposed change. (relates to appropriate languages)
Part 3 reflects the specific programming needs of the area: the importance of regionally based production facilities, of educational programmes etc. (relates to improved programme quality/mix, educational programming)
Part 4 outlines how we intend to schedule the mix of programmes and languages so that the region is covered as effectively as possible. (relates to
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