House of Commons - The Work of the BBC World Service 2008-09

The Work of the BBC World Service 2008-09 - Foreign Affairs Committee Contents

2 Performance in 2008-09

6. In 2007-08 the World Service's performance measures were based on audience size, reach and awareness. They intended to support the World Service's agreed objective to be the "best known and most respected voice in international radio and online broadcasting".[6]

7. The 2008-09 Annual Review set out a new set of agreed objectives for the current Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) period (2008-11). These are:

to maintain radio audience levels in an increasingly competitive market, and to increase the audience overall through the newly-launched television service in Arabic;
to increase impact for the BBC in the Middle East by extending the Arabic television service to a full 24-hour offer; and,
to launch a BBC Persian television service, to reach audiences in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.

8. In support of these objectives, a number of new targets were agreed with the FCO for financial year 2008-09. The first two relate to TV and radio audiences and multimedia audiences. The second two relate specifically to the BBC Arabic and BBC Persian Services.[7]The first two are considered in the paragraphs which follow. Targets relating to the BBC Arabic and BBC Persian services are considered in more detail in chapters three and four below.

Global audience

9. The first target for 2008-09 was to reach an estimated global audience on radio and/or television of at least 190 million adults a week. The overall audience reach figures for 2008-09 fell slightly below this target at 185 million. However, the World Service states that this figure does not include any audiences for BBC Persian television, which was included in the original target, but not then counted as that service was launched later than originally anticipated.[8] Online figures also are not included, as the FCO agreed target is for radio and television only.

10. There were 177 million radio listeners in 2008-09. Decreases in the number of listeners were noted in Nigeria, Kenya and Pakistan (where there was a general decline in short-wave users). Nevertheless, short-wave radio remains a key method of delivery in less developed parts of the world, accounting for 104 million listeners.[9]Digital short-wave took a significant step forward with the Digital Radio Mondiale consortium creating a new channel covering most of Europe with content that includes BBC World Service.

11. Notwithstanding the continuing importance of short-wave in some regions, the future of BBC World Service radio is increasingly focused on FM radio and on expanding the availability of FM services where possible. The World Service highlighted progress in securing new FM relays and partners in key markets such as Kenya, the Middle East and Bangladesh in 2008-09. In Kenya, five new FM partners were secured and in Bangladesh the FM network was expanded from three to seven transmitters, thereby extending the reach of the BBC's services to more than 40% of the population.[10]

12. In terms of television audiences, significant audience increases were measured in Egypt, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey and the USA. In Turkey a new current affairs television programme, launched in partnership with Turkish News TV, has increased audiences.[11] Decreases were measured in Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Kenya and Iran.[12] Furthermore, BBC Persian television went on air on 14 January 2009, and is available to a potential audience of more than 100 million Persian speakers in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.[13]In oral evidence in October 2008, the then Director of the World Service, Nigel Chapman, identified a figure of 7 million viewers as an "aspirational and longer term" target audience for the channel.[14]

OTHER AUDIENCE EVALUATION MEASURES

13. In addition to measuring audience reach, the World Service also conducts a survey of its customers. In 2008-09 the survey considered measures of objectivity, relevance, value and loyalty. In 2008-09, the survey results for objectivity and relevance showed that BBC World Service scored higher than its nearest international competitor in four-fifths of the countries surveyed, and higher than its nearest international competitor in over three quarters of indicators. Ratings for value and loyalty were also measured in some markets; Bangladesh, Nepal, Nigeria and Liberia were amongst the countries where BBC World Service came out on top.[15]

Multimedia audience

14. The World Service's second target for 2008-09 was to increase the impact of the BBC's online offer through high-quality, on-demand multimedia services in key languages.[16] This target specifically reflects the World Service's multimedia strategy to focus on supplementing traditional audiences with new audiences on "more rapidly growing platforms".[17] The World Service noted that "online growth continued to outstrip predictions and all targets were exceeded". The number of users reached 5.3 million, 17% higher than the 4.5 million target. Page views (text and audio) reached 66 million, exceeding the target of 60 million by 10%, while video views exceeded the target of 1.3 million by 26%, reaching 1.64 million.[18]

15. The World Service acknowledged that "while online audiences are currently considerably lower than the traditional audiences on radio and the large audiences available on TV, the potential future size of online audiences is enormous and this, together with the inevitable decline of short-wave radio, is the reason for significant investment in this platform and development in general".[19]In oral evidence to the Committee in October 2008, the then Director, Nigel Chapman, cited the example of Russia, where the decline in both short-wave and medium-wave audiences were more than compensated for by the fact that the BBC Russian website was reaching 2-3 million people, about three times the level of radio audiences.[20]

16. We conclude that the strong performance of the BBC World Service across all media in 2008-09 is to be welcomed. We particularly welcome the unprecedented growth in online audiences, which exceeded all targets.

BBC multimedia reach in Arabic

17. The third World Service target for 2008-09 was to deliver a high-quality news service in Arabic for the Middle East, including a 24-hour television service to reach at least seven million weekly viewers, as part of an overall BBC reach in Arabic of over 18 million weekly users. Countries covered by this service include Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Israel (Arabs only) and the Gulf (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, UAE and Qatar).[21] Performance in relation to this target is discussed in chapter three.

Multimedia news service in Persian

18. The final target for the World Service in 2008-09 was to deliver a high-quality multimedia news service in Persian. The targets for this service were:

i. to reach at least three million weekly viewers, as part of an overall BBC reach in Persian of over 10 million weekly users; and

ii. to have the highest reputational indicators of any international TV channel in the region, measured in Iran (and Afghanistan when possible).

Performance in relation to BBC Persian TV and the multimedia news service is discussed in Chapter 4 below.

6 BBC World Service, Annual Review 2007-08, p 3 and Foreign Affairs Committee, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Report 2007-08, para 304 Back

7 BBC World Service, Annual Review 2008-09, p 22 Back

8 Ibid., p 23 Back

9 BBC World Service, Annual Review 2008-09, p 3 Back

10 Ev 12 Back

11 Ev 14 Back

12 BBC World Service, Annual Review 2008-09, p 23 Back

13 Ibid., p 10 Back

14 Foreign Affairs Committee, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Report 2007-08, Qq 125-26 Back