BBC global news reaches quarter of a billion people

The BBC’s global news services now reach 256m people each week – their biggest ever audience – according to new stats released by the corporation. 

The 2012/13 year figures, which measure the combined reach of the BBC’s international radio, TV and digital services – BBC World Service, BBC World News and the BBC’s global news website – represents an increase of 16.6 million people or 7% on the previous year, the BBC said.

World Service TV audiences for Persian and Arabic grew rapidly with a total of 41.5m viewers, compared to 28.7m last year. The BBC’s digital sites now also reach 38m people every week, an increase of 8m.