Memorandum from BBC World Service
BBC RUSSIAN SERVICE CHANGES
The following plans to strengthen the BBC's
Russian Service were announced by Nigel Chapman, Director BBC
World Service, today.
As the recent conflict between Russia and Georgia
has shown, demand for the online and multiplatform news and current
affairs offer of BBC Russian increases dramatically as Russia's
relationship with the West and its neighbours become a major global
story.
This is in the context of media restrictions
becoming tighter in Russia. There is demonstrably a continuing
case for a strong Russian Service, which can supply audiences
in Russia and the wider FSU with trusted, high quality news and
current affairs programmes at key times of day on a range of platforms.
However, the BBC faces a number of challenges
in Russia, mainly around its availability as a radio service.
It is available in Russian on short wave, internet and satellite
and on medium wave frequencies in Moscow, St Petersburg and Ekaterinburg.
Despite extensive efforts, BBC Russian is not currently available
on FM—and is unlikely to be so in the foreseeable future—and
audiences are under pressure. Short wave has very limited impact,
satellite use of radio is low, and medium wave is restricted to
the cities above.
In this light, we are implementing a number
of changes to deliver a fresher, more relevant service for audiences
and to ensure that we are able to focus resources where they will
have most impact.
The major change is a greater investment in
bbcrussian.com as the key method for delivery of all our content,
and the strengthening of some existing areas such as news, video
and interactivity on the site.
Radio will also change, with our key news and
current affairs blocks at peak audience listening times. Utro
and Vecher na BBC will become longer and a new weekend
edition of Vecher will be introduced. Other key programmes,
such as, BBSeva, Vam Slovo and Ranniy Chas will
remain.
The key elements of the new offer will be:
RADIO
A re-focusing of BBC Russian radio resources on
peak audience listening times, with more investment in flagship
news and current affairs programmes
— Key daily radio programmes on short
and medium wave will be expanded to make up a simpler schedule—focused
on peak morning and evening drive time audiences—which will
be easier for audiences to find.
— The flagship morning weekday news
and current affairs programme Utro na BBC will be increased by
one hour to three and a half hours each day.
— The existing half hour programme
focusing on the FSU, Ranniy Chas, will remain, and reporting on
FSU for all outlets will be strengthened.
— The afternoon weekday drive time
news and current affairs sequence Vecher na BBC—which includes
the hour long BBSeva hosted by Seva Novgorodsev—will be
increased by one hour to four hours each day.
Filling a gap in the current radio schedules at
weekends by increasing the availability of our in-depth news and
current affairs output
— New weekend editions of Vecher
na BBC will be launched, on both Saturday and Sunday, to take
the place of current short updates. They will focus on current
affairs, analysis, and culture and will incorporate many of the
themes and issues currently covered by longer format programmes.
Strengthening our newsgathering
— We intend to develop extra newsgathering
resources in Russia, resulting in increased reporting and analysis
of Russian affairs in the key flagship radio programmes. We also
intend to increase the current affairs reporting of British, cultural
and social affairs, as well as reporting on the FSU, for all programmes
and online.
ONLINE
In Russia bbcrussian.com is having a significant
impact, where it is easier to access than BBC radio services and
where demand is growing. In August, at the height of the conflict
between Russia and Georgia, the number of unique users increased
dramatically to nearly three million.
The audience is also accessing other platforms
online—listening to audio doubled in August; demand for
video jumped sixfold to nearly 2,300,000 views. Even page impressions
to our mobile services, in which we are currently working without
a partner, more than doubled.
We are therefore investing in strengthening
bbcrussian.com through:
— Launching a new online rolling news
service, updated 24/7, on bbcrussian.com—the Russian market
has shown a considerable appetite for this type of content.
— Increasing the number of high quality
video reports, underpinned with original journalism from Russia,
to be updated 24/7.
— Strengthening resources for bbcrussian.com
during the morning peak periods.
— Increasing the resources for interactivity.
— Boosting the Learn English part of
bbcrussian.com
To pay for these improvements we will have to
reprioritise resources from within the current Russian Service
budget. This means there will be some changes to other parts of
the radio output:
— Production of some short news bulletins
outside key programme blocks—designed for Russian FM partners
with whom we no longer have agreements—will end.
— Longer format radio "features"
(non-news and current affairs) will also close, although key aspects
of these—their themes and issues—will be incorporated
into mainstream daily coverage.
There will be a small impact on overall staff
numbers in London; however, in Moscow there will be no overall
change. We need to maintain a strong presence in the Russian capital
and send out a strong signal to the Russian authorities of our
long-term commitment to covering events there.
BBC relations with the Russian authorities are
stable at the moment. We have recently completed sensitive negotiations
about the balance of Russian and English radio output on our MW
transmitters without serious problems.
These improvements are self-funded from within
the Russian Service budget, which will continue to be the second
highest after the Arabic Service in the World Service for this
Spending Review period.
We believe that a fuller multimedia news offer
for audiences will strengthen the impact of the BBC's second biggest
non-English language service, and that these changes will help
BBC Russian become the most trusted and influential international
news provider in Russia, serving audiences in the global Russian-speaking
community, across all borders and platforms. BBC Russian will
continue to be a distinctive public service which sits squarely
within BBC World Service's core global mission.
8 October 2008
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