BBC News reaching 394m people worldwide each week, new figures show

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BBC News is reaching 394m people worldwide every week, up 47m on the previous year, according to new global audience figures.

The World Service, which broadcasts primarily on radio in English and 42 other languages, makes up the majority of the BBC’s global news audience at 319m, up 41m year-on-year.

The World Service’s English-language news provision alone reaches a record 97m. Its foreign language news services have an audience of 259m, Global Audience Measure figures, released today, show.

The World Service grew to include a further 12 languages in 2017, including Pidgin, as part of its biggest expansion since the 1940s, backed by £289m in Government funding.

The BBC said the expansion has “taken place against a background of rapid growth of rival international news services from Russia, China and the Middle East”.

India, where BBC News now operates in nine languages, is the largest overseas market for the corporation. It reaches an audience of 50m in the country, up 20m on the year before.

Second is Nigeria with an audience of 41m and third is the USA with an audience of 38m. Its lowest market is Pakistan with an audience of 9m.

BBC World News TV reaches a record 101m people worldwide.

BBC Global News, the commercial subsidiary of BBC News which operates the BBC World News channel and bbc.com, reaches 121m.

Overall, BBC News has seen audience increases of 23m for TV to 214m, 12m for audio to 178m and 18m for online to 95m.

BBC director-general Tony Hall said: “Every day our teams do an amazing job bringing independent, impartial news to audiences around the world, and today we can see just how much the BBC is valued.”

He said World Service figures “show how much the BBC can do for the UK”.

Jamie Angus, director of the BBC World Service Group, added: “The BBC is on track to reach its audience target of 500m weekly, and has posted all-time record audiences for both World Service Radio and BBC World News.

“But most importantly we’re continuing to produce ground-breaking journalism that is attracting growing audiences, and making huge impact.

“From investigative journalism like Africa Eye to our work countering fake news and disinformation, the BBC is showing why it remains the world’s most trusted source of news.”

BBC content syndication via partner TV and radio stations around the world, and distribution via digital platforms such as Youtube and Facebook, now add up to over 60 percent of its audience reach.