The BBC’s weekly audience has risen to a record 348 million people worldwide, a 13 per cent increase on last year. The BBC Global Audience Measure (GAM) figures represent the combined measured reach of international content, both news and entertainment, for the year 2015/16.
They show that the BBC’s weekly global news audience has increased by 38m people, or 13 per cent, to a total of 320 million.
Television (162 million) remains a bigger platform than radio (147 million) for the BBC’s international news services, though all platforms, including digital, have grown.
The BBC World Service has seen its audience increase to 246 million, from 210 million last year. This branch of the broadcasters is to start adding new services after receiving new funding from the UK government.
BBC Global News Ltd, which comprises BBC World News and bbc.com, has seen its audience grow to 108 million.
Francesca Unsworth, director of BBC World Service Group, said: “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.
Tim Davie, director of Global and CEO of BBC Worldwide, commented: “BBC Worldwide continues to fuel international audiences’ appetite for premium content, and in the second year of the Global Audience Measure, we’ve reached 36.4 million people per week across our owned and operated TV and digital platforms providing a 27.4 million incremental contribution to the Corporation’s total.”
The top five markets for BBC’s international news services are the US, Nigeria, India, Pakistan, and Iran. Brazil, the sole digital-only market for the BBC, makes the top ten. In total, 152 million are accessing BBC news in English and 201 million in another language. Non-English language radio remains popular, with an audience of 91 million, against non-English language TV’s 91 million audience. According to the results, one in every 16 adults around the world uses BBC News.