World Service HQ at Bush House in London

The move to bring together all the BBC's international news operations might seem an obvious one.

The global media market is becoming ever more competitive, and the BBC says the formation of the new division will boost the impact of its international news services on radio, television and online.

Grant

So why hasn't it happened before? One complication was that the services are paid for in different ways.

On radio, the BBC World Service is funded by a grant from the UK Foreign Office, but the UK Government has always refused to extend that grant to pay for a television channel.

So the TV news service BBC World is funded commercially, from advertising and viewers' subscriptions.

These separate forms of funding will continue - and the BBC has to observe strict government guidelines on fair trading, to ensure that the TV service is not subsidised by the British taxpayer.

Growth

Otherwise there would be complaints from rival commercial services, such as CNN or Sky News.

Byford: wants BBC to be most respected global news provider

The formation of the new single division has been prompted by the growth of the TV service - BBC World can now be seen in 180 million homes in 200 countries - and the rapid expansion of the internet.

The BBC Online news service has proved highly successful, both in the UK and around the world.

The BBC World Service website provides interactive news services in English, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish - and audio streams in 43 languages.

Global audience

The new division will be led by the head of the radio World Service, Mark Byford.

He said the World Service already had a record global audience of 153 million listeners a week.

And he is determined the BBC should be the best-known and most respected global news and information provider, across radio, television and new media.

In the highly competitive - and increasingly international - media marketplace, that will be a tough challenge.