Review of services: BBC World Service & Global News 50 Annual Report and Accounts 2002/2003 Annual Report and Accounts 2002/2003 51 The BBC brought together its international news services – BBC World Service radio, BBC World television, and the BBC’s international-facing online news services – into a single BBC World Service & Global News division in December 2002. Its aim is to be the best known and most respected voice in international news broadcasting – across radio, television and new media – thereby bringing credit to Britain and to the BBC. The new division is developing a coordinated global news strategy to present a more coherent offer to audiences and achieve greater international impact for the BBC’s news services, promoting their values of editorial independence and impartiality around the world.These values were maintained in challenging circumstances during the war in Iraq, when the BBC’s international news services made an outstanding response during the diplomatic build-up and the military conflict. Commercially funded television joined the publicly funded radio and new media services for the first time.The separate funding streams are respected within a robust fair trading framework and there is no cross-subsidy. BBC World Service BBC World Service built on its reputation for trust, independence and quality during its 70th anniversary year. As a multilingual reference point, it displayed a surefootedness of tone and analysis while providing the greatest breadth and depth of any international broadcaster. Surveys of nine selected markets around the globe revealed that BBC World Service was the most trusted and objective international broadcaster compared to its main international competitors in each market. As the war in Iraq began, the BBC World Service in English undertook its biggest ever news and programming operation, with continuous news and analysis for over 220 hours. BBC Arabic played a pivotal role in providing independent information to the people of Iraq and the Arab world. It was presented live from Cairo each day at breakfast and produced 13 extra hours daily of news and current affairs output. Daily interactive World Forums on the English and Arabic services, in which a wide range of opinion was reflected, were a strong and distinctive feature of the output. BBC World Service retained its global audience of at least 150 million weekly listeners in a world of rapidly increasing competition.This was achieved by expanding local partnerships and presence on FM.The BBC World Service is now available on FM in 138 capital cities.The first independent city-wide survey in Kabul since the fall of the Taleban showed that an unprecedented 82% of Afghans were listening to BBC broadcasts in Persian and Pashto every week. BBC World Service programmes in Nigeria and Kenya have a weekly reach of over 30%. Audiences listening on short wave continue to fall, however, particularly in the developing world and the drive for improved audibility on FM and MW continues. In the light of changing listening habits, it was decided two years ago to discontinue direct short wave transmission to the USA and increase FM rebroadcasts on public radio. Since then, audiences to rebroadcasts have increased by 70% – up from 2.3 million in 2001 to 3.9 million. On average, 22% of opinion formers in Boston, New York and Washington listen to the BBC World Service each week.There was a further major surge in US listening as a result of the build-up to the conflict in Iraq when expanded BBC World Service coverage was taken by 353 US stations (compared to 265 in March 2002). Some 70% of the UK population is now aware of BBC World Service, a year on year increase from 54%. BBC World Service’s 70th birthday was celebrated with a 14-hour programme linking 50 broadcasts from around the world. Global links Facing, left:Tuning in to world news in Baghdad. Above right: Nik Gowing reports from Doha for BBC World. Right: Broadcasting live from Table Mountain, South Africa, for the BBC World Service 70th Anniversary celebrations. Review of services: BBC World Service & Global News Above left: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan presenting a special BBC World Service anniversary lecture from New York. Left: Head of the BBC Hindi Service congratulates teenage Indian film makers who follow in the footsteps of BBC World Service as this year’s One World Media Awards winners. This is a caption New investment plans focus on content enrichment for radio services to the Arab world and Afghanistan; FM expansion in the major global conurbations, and building the multilingual internet presence with enhanced interactivity. BBC World Service celebrated its 70th anniversary in December 2002 with a global concert – live from Dakar, Kabul, London, Mexico City and Mumbai – and a special 14-hour programme linking more than 50 outside broadcasts around the world. In a special 70th anniversary lecture, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan memorably described BBC World Service as a “lifeline to learning, enlightenment and to hope itself ”. BBC World BBC World has made substantial progress in the past year towards fulfilling its aims of being the world’s best and most authoritative international television news channel and showcasing the best of BBC journalism. During the conflict in Iraq, its tone, range of contributors and depth of analysis were distinctive. There were signs of a real appetite for the BBC’s balanced, objective and internationalist approach. Global distribution of BBC World grew by 25% in 2002/2003. It is now available in 255 million homes of which 103 million are on a 24-hour basis. Hotel distribution has increased by 17% year on year to 870,000 rooms.Take-up of BBC World’s rolling coverage by terrestrial broadcasters after the war in Iraq broke out added 80 million households. In the USA, nearly a million viewers are now watching BBC World via PBS where the channel is now available in 86% of US television households. At the outbreak of war in Iraq, evening network news viewing in the US went up 28% overall with a 33% increase for the 6pm bulletin on WNET. Research from India, Australia and South Africa showed that audience levels doubled during the Iraq conflict. Above: Click Online can be seen on BBC World. 52 Annual Report and Accounts 2002/2003 New media The BBC’s international new media service aims to be the most trusted news forum on the internet and to be a hub for debating key global issues across national and cultural boundaries. The international English language version of the BBC news site – bbcnews.com – was successfully launched in July and built on the BBC’s reputation for convenience, depth, analysis, expertise and innovation. It won the prestigious 2002 Webby for the best news website in the world. International traffic shot up in the final two months of the year because of the war in Iraq and the number of users rose from 7 million to 13 million in March.Year on year, traffic for the combined international-facing news site in English and the language services increased by over 200% to 228 million page impressions.There were particularly large gains for online services in English, Arabic, Spanish and Persian. BBC Monitoring BBC Monitoring, based at Caversham, responded to the high demand for fast and accurate global media monitoring in the past year, particularly during the Iraq conflict. It provided key source material on crucial global events for stakeholders including the Foreign Office, the Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Defence and the BBC. Customer satisfaction ratings for usefulness, range, selection and responsiveness remained at high levels. BBC World is now available in 255 million homes. Expanding world Annual Report and Accounts 2002/2003 53 Top right: BBC Monitoring provides key source material on crucial global events. Middle right: BBC correspondent Lyse Doucet. Right:Tim Sebastian’s Hard Talk. Millions 227.7 75.3 BBC World Service & Global News website page impressions March 2003 March 2002 Source: BBCi server logs.