Why does Bill Gates fund the BBC?

And why do we have the BBC Media Action charity at all?

Last night the BBC ran a special feature about billionaire Bill Gates, with Culture and Media Editor Katie Razzall flying to Seattle to visit Gates’ childhood home and school.

Gates’ sisters Libby and Kristi were interviewed about the man and marvel. Libby grinned madly while Kristi told stories of younger Gates, the atmosphere in the room as though Jesus had just been born.

Gates wanted to get a few messages across on the feature, such as that under-16s should be banned from social media and that Robert F Kennedy Jr is a baddy, as well as boasting how he had given away over $100 billion. As the BBC helpfully explained online “That's dollars, just to clarify, worth about £80bn. It's roughly equivalent to the size of the Bulgarian economy or the cost of building the whole HS2 line.”