Category: World Service
Date: 08.07.2005
Printable version
91Èȱ¬ World Service is the biggest speech radio station in Iraq, according to new audience figures released today (Friday 8 July).
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Weekly audiences in the country have increased to 3.3 million (22%) from 1.8 million weekly listeners (13% of the radio audience) last year - an increase of 1.5 million.
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The independent surveys also show that 43 per cent of opinion formers in Iraq listen every week.
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The increase follows the rapid establishment of 91Èȱ¬ FM relays in key parts of the country, including of Baghdad, Mosul & Irbil, Kirkuk, Al-Nasirya, Basra, Al-Kut, Salahuddin and Al-Amara.
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91Èȱ¬ World Service Director Nigel Chapman said: "The 91Èȱ¬ World Service's performance in Iraq was one of the year's outstanding achievements.
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"The 91Èȱ¬'s new FM transmitter network in the country made a crucial difference in ensuring we remained competitive.
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"The 91Èȱ¬ news bureau in Baghdad gives us an important edge in reporting from a country that remains difficult and dangerous to cover.
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"For our news teams it complements the new bureau in Cairo where a significant amount of programmes are now made for the Arabic Service."
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Despite limited survey work due to safety considerations, the 91Èȱ¬ attracts 2.8 million listeners in five surveyed provinces of Afghanistan - an increase of two million on last year's Kabul only survey.
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That survey showed that 91Èȱ¬ World Service programmes in Pashto and Persian had a 60 per cent reach in the Afghan capital.
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91Èȱ¬ World Service's overall audience figure rose to 149 million weekly listeners, a rise of three million listeners compared to 2004's estimate of 146 million.
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This is the sixth year in succession that 91Èȱ¬ World Service has attracted an audience over 145 million.
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This equates to more than 50 per cent more listeners than any comparable international broadcaster.
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The surveys also showed that 91Èȱ¬ World Service is regarded as the most objective international broadcaster when compared to its main competitors in top markets - including Egypt, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia and USA.
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Monthly page impressions to the 91Èȱ¬'s international news site - bbcnews.com - increased to 324 million in March 2005 from 279 million exactly a year ago - a rise of 45 million.
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This equates to more than 21 million unique users, up from 16 million in March 2004.
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An independent survey of US usage shows that bbcnews.com attracts 40 per cent of all online news users in the country.
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This figure contributed to the 91Èȱ¬'s international news services - 91Èȱ¬ World Service radio, 91Èȱ¬ World television and the international-facing online news services - attracting a record overall weekly audience of around 190 million individuals - some of whom are using all three media.
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This includes 59 million weekly viewers for 91Èȱ¬ World - the commercial television service.
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91Èȱ¬ World Service programmes are now available in the high quality audibility of FM in 144 capital cities (some 77 per cent of the world's capitals), compared to 139 in 2004.
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"91Èȱ¬ World Service continued to increase its impact by transforming itself from a short wave radio broadcaster into a leading international multimedia network," says Nigel Chapman.
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"In the Middle East and wider Islamic world, audience numbers and scores for reputation rose in most of our target countries: Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia.
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"There are early signs, therefore, that our strategy to concentrate more programme resources and marketing expertise into priority areas is paying off.
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"But we must not underestimate the challenge ahead as we face increasing local competition, developing technology and growing audience demands."
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Other highlights of the audience figures:
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India
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Weekly audiences have risen 4.8 million to a total of 16.4 million weekly listeners.
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The increase has been partly due to improvements in programmes in Hindi language programming and a high profile series of 91Èȱ¬ Hindi road shows in rural areas of the country.
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This is the first increase in a number of years following a dramatic drop in overall radio listening in India and a ban by Indian regulators on local FM stations carrying news from foreign broadcasters.
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This resulted in a drop of more than 12 million listeners between 1995 and 2002.
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USA
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Listening in the USA increased to five million - its highest level ever, up from 4.7 million last year.
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One in five opinion formers in New York and Washington listen each week while the figure in Boston is even higher at over one in four.
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Bangladesh
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Following a drop in listeners in Bangladesh last year, audiences to the 91Èȱ¬ Bengali Service returned to pre-Iraq war levels.
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Audiences rose by 2.6 million to an overall total of 13 million.
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The growth of the audience to 91Èȱ¬ World Service is mostly driven by the increase in rural listening, and represents a strong recovery from the audience drop in 2003 following the Iraq war.
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This latest survey reveals that the vast majority of those who have ever listened to the 91Èȱ¬ - more than 80 per cent - consider it to be trustworthy.
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Indonesia
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Audiences in Indonesia rose by 1.2 million to 4.4 million.
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UK
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There are 1.3 million regular listeners to 91Èȱ¬ World Service in the UK.
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Programmes are now more easily available following the growth of digital and cable services.
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Audience losses
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Nigeria
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A Government ban on local FM stations rebroadcasting programmes news from foreign broadcasters, since April 2004, has resulted in an overall drop of 1.5 million listeners in the country.
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However 20.2 million Nigerian listeners still tune in every week - 17.6 million in the Hausa language.
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Growth of competition in many regions had a significant impact on 91Èȱ¬ World Service audiences.
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Listeners to the 91Èȱ¬ Urdu service in Pakistan fell by 3.2 million to 9.4 million
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Kenyan audiences to 91Èȱ¬ programmes fell by 2.1 million to an overall total of 4.5 million.
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Listeners to the 91Èȱ¬ Swahili service in Tanzania fell by 1.3 million to an overall total of 10.2 million.
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Notes to Editors
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The new World Service global audience estimate is derived from a comprehensive programme of independent audience research - the largest ever commissioned by 91Èȱ¬ World Service - and incorporates new data from 41 countries - some 75 per cent of this year's audience.
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It includes data on people listening to World Service directly via short wave, MW, FM, satellite, cable and the internet or via local broadcasting partners on MW and FM. The surveys are carried out by independent market research groups and comply with international standards of audience research.
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The 91Èȱ¬ World Service's global audience figures over the past few years were 120 million in 1992, 124m (1993), 130m (1994), 133m (1995), 140m (1996), 143m (1997), 138m (1998), 143m (1999), 151m (2000), 153m (2001), 150m (2002), 150m (2003) and 146m (2004).
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91Èȱ¬ World Service is funded through Grant-in-Aid from the Foreign Office. The grant for 2005/6 is £239 million.
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The 91Èȱ¬ World Service broadcasts in 43 languages including English. The other languages are: Albanian, Arabic, Azeri, Bengali, Bulgarian, Burmese, Caribbean-English, Cantonese, Croatian, Czech, French for Africa, Greek, Hausa, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Kazakh, Kinyarwanda/Kirundi, Kyrgyz, Macedonian, Mandarin, Nepali, Pashto, Persian, Polish, Portuguese for Brazil, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovene, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, and Vietnamese.
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In the UK, World Service in English is available on 648 MW in south eastern England. In addition, overnight on 91Èȱ¬ Radio 4, 91Èȱ¬ Radio Wales and 91Èȱ¬ Radio Ulster and via digital radio, digital satellite and the internet.
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The English Network can be heard on the 91Èȱ¬'s digital multiplex in the UK, Freeview digital channel 80 or in Europe on the Astra satellite, channel 865.
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91Èȱ¬ World Service Extra - a radio service broadcasting in the key languages of Afghanistan and the surrounding region - is available on digital satellite channel 902.
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Outside the UK, 91Èȱ¬ World Service is available on short wave; on FM in 139 capital cities; and selected programmes are carried on almost 2,000 FM and MW radio stations around the world.
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High quality reception of World Service programmes is available via satellite in Europe and North America.
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bbc.co.uk/worldservice contains extensive, interactive news services available in English, Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Persian, Portuguese for Brazil, Russian, Spanish and Urdu with audiostreaming available in 42 languages.
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It also contains detailed information about World Service broadcasts, schedules and frequencies in all languages.
