BBC’s global audience climbs 13%

The BBC’s weekly global audience for news and entertainment across TV, radio and digital has grown 13% year-on-year to 348 million people.

According to the BBC’s stats, a total of 152 million are accessing BBC news in English and 201 million in another language, while the audience for non-English language TV at 91 million is nearly as big as the audience for non-English language radio at 94 million.

BBC Global News, which comprises BBC World News and BBC.com, has seen its audience grow to 108 million, and the top three markets for the BBC’s international news services are the US, Nigeria and India, said the corporation.

“These are fantastic results which show the BBC going from strength to strength around the world and demonstrate the global appetite for accurate, impartial news. We’re about to begin the biggest expansion of the World Service since the 1940s, thanks to the additional funding agreed by the UK Government last year. This will ensure we reach more people than ever, especially in countries where media freedom is under threat,” said Francesca Unsworth, director of BBC World Service Group.

Tim Davie, Director of Global and CEO of BBC Worldwide, added: “BBC Worldwide continues to fuel international audiences’ appetite for premium content, and in the second year of the Global Audience Measure, we’ve reached 36.4m people per week across our owned and operated TV and digital platforms providing a 27.4m incremental contribution to the Corporation’s total.”