While the BBC World Service has achieved savings primarily through closing TV and radio platforms, it has experienced a fall in audience numbers and it has not yet achieved its aim to switch audiences to its digital content, according to a report from the National Audit Office (NAO). The NAO has assessed the Service’s progress […]

BBC World Service is launching BBC Global Women, a new commitment to highlight women’s storytelling across its global output. The BBC says that this new editorial priority will “enhance the BBC World Service’s storytelling by listening, sharing and amplifying stories for women around the world,” all year-round. Alongside new commissions, the initiative aims to elevate […]

Through an extended partnership with Zeno Media, BBC World Service and BBC News Hausa content is now available on Zeno’s global audio platform, Zeno.FM.  Audiences around the world can now access BBC World Service English and BBC News Hausa audio streams on Zeno FM, featuring popular English-language programmes such as The Newsroom, The Documentary and […]

The BBC World Service is bringing its award-winning international journalism to UK audiences with Global Eye, a new weekly current affairs programme launching on BBC Two from Monday September 8th at 7pm. Global Eye will showcase stories from around the world, present forensic journalism from BBC Eye, the BBC World Service’s critically acclaimed investigative unit, […]

The Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the UK House of Commons has written to the Government to ask for reassurances over the future funding of the BBC World Service, following reports of potential cuts planned for the forthcoming Spending Review, which will set the Government’s contribution for the following few years. The letter highlights […]

The BBC has published research exploring the impact and influence of its work internationally. The Impact and Influence research demonstrates that, predominantly through the BBC World Service, the BBC is driving favourable impressions of the UK. The BBC is the country’s most recognised cultural export internationally with 76 per cent of influential audiences around the […]

To ensure audiences can access crucial information in the aftermath of the Myanmar earthquake, the BBC World Service has added a direct-to-home satellite video channel to the platforms delivering BBC News Burmese content. In the coming four months, the Thaicom 6 satellite, which covers Myanmar, Thailand, and the wider region, will deliver BBC News Burmese […]

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the UK House of Commons has published written evidence by a group of BBC World Service (former and current) journalists, on the impact of cuts to the World Service. The evidence discusses the recent announcement by the BBC to appoint “six regional directors to oversee output in its devolved regional […]

Three UK House of Commons Select Committees – the Culture, Media and Sport, Foreign Affairs and International Development Committees – have called on the Government to sufficiently resource the BBC World Service so that it is less reliant on the licence fee and short-term funding cycles. The letter calls on the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development […]

The BBC World Service has announced that it will be making a series of changes in order to meet savings requirements for the year ahead. Despite the UK government providing an uplift in the grant-in-aid funding for the World Service, the BBC says that previous freezes on the licence fee, global inflation, and the need […]