Global Reach, National Impact: The soft power impact of the BBC World Service to the UK

Author: Giles Winn
Editorial team: Professor Henrietta L. Moore (Founder and Director of the Institute for Global Prosperity) and Dr Fatemeh Sadeghi (Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Global Prosperity).
 

"If the UK is serious about sustaining its global influence and soft power, and championing understanding and truth, then the World Service must not be allowed to fade." - The Rt Hon Rory Stewart OBE

The BBC World Service was once described by Kofi Annan as ‘perhaps Britain’s greatest gift to the world this century’ admired for its reach, respected for its independence, and trusted in parts of the world where few other British institutions are present.

But for all its symbolic importance, a simple question has remained unanswered: what is the actual soft power impact of the BBC World Service? How much influence does it really have? With which audiences? And how should policymakers assess its value – not just as a broadcaster, but as a strategic national asset.

This report answers those questions. Drawing on original interviews, polling, focus groups, and structured analysis, we have developed a new framework to assess the World Service’s soft power impact across four key dimensions: Global Reach, National Strategic Value, British Values, and Audience Resonance.

The result is the first attempt to score an individual UK institution for its contribution to national soft power – and the clearest picture yet of why the BBC World Service matters more than ever. 

The work was led by CreativePower, a research agency focused on measuring and explaining the soft power value of institutions, brands and sectors – in collaboration with experts at the Institute for Global Prosperity (IGP) at UCL, whose mission is to redesign prosperity for the 21st century through pioneering research.

Among the experts interviewed for the report were former MI6 Chief Sir John Sawers, former Chancellor and Foreign Secretary Lord Hammond, former Permanent Secretary at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport Dame Sue Owen, and ex National Security Advisor Lord Sedwill.

The report gives the BBC World Service an overall Soft Power Impact Index score of 86% – a figure that reflects both the institution’s enduring credibility, and the emerging risks to its future influence.

Summary of Key Findings

• The BBC World Service makes an outstanding contribution to the UK’s global soft power, having built an unrivalled global reach and trusted presence over nearly a century. 
• It’s a strategic national asset, contributing indirectly to the UK’s foreign policy and security objectives, while remaining independent from political pressure. 
• Its activities closely align with British values – and it is strongly associated with positive perceptions of the UK.
• It plays a significant role in tackling disinformation - a recognised threat to global stability. 
• However, it now operates in an increasingly competitive global environment and is being outspent by its rivals like China and Russia, ready to move in as soon as the BBC cedes ground.
• Furthermore, the World Service is already paying the price of continued funding uncertainty and instability - with diminished global reach due to recent cuts.
• It is strategically undervalued and is too often treated as a communications tool rather than a long-term strategic national asset. 
• This perfect storm of competition, demand and decline puts the World Service at a crossroads – with a choice to either pursue sustained growth or accept managed decline. 

Summary of Recommendations

• Funding: The World Service should receive long term, stable funding, primarily from Government, sufficient to support sustained growth. 
• Growth: The BBC and the Government should develop a strategy to expand the World Service’s audience, exploring new markets where it can build trusted reach.
• Platforms: The World Service should pursue ambitious digital growth – particularly on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok – and develop a more coherent television strategy for international news.

As Professor Dame Henrietta Moore of the IGP writes in her foreword, we can no longer take the BBC’s place in the world for granted, and so “it must be scrutinised, understood, and supported with the same seriousness we apply to other instruments of international strategy”. 

Protecting the BBC World Service means protecting one of the UK’s most powerful soft power assets.