BBC global audience reaches 348m

The BBC reports it now reaches a record weekly audience of 348 million people worldwide, a 13 per cent increase on last year, according to new figures released today.

The figures – the BBC Global Audience Measure (GAM) – represent the combined measured reach of international content, both news and entertainment, for the year 2015 / 16.

They show that the BBC’s weekly global news audience has increased by 38m people, or 13%, to a total of 320 million. The broadcaster hopes to reach 500m weekly by 2022. One in every 16 adults around the world now uses BBC News (incl. digital).

For the second year running, television (162m) is a bigger platform than radio (147m) for the BBC’s international news services. All platforms have grown since last year – television, radio, and digital (80m).

The BBC World Service has seen its audience increase to 246m, from 210m last year. This growth is largely driven by new TV news bulletins in languages other than English.

BBC Global News Ltd, which comprises BBC World News and bbc.com, has seen its audience grow to 108m.

Francesca Unsworth, Director of BBC World Service Group, says: “These are fantastic results which show the BBC going from strength to strength around the world and demonstrate the global appetite for accurate, impartial news.

“We’re about to begin the biggest expansion of the World Service since the 1940s, thanks to the additional funding agreed by the UK Government last year.

“This will ensure we reach more people than ever, especially in countries where media freedom is under threat.”

Tim Davie, Director of Global and CEO of BBC Worldwide, comments: “BBC Worldwide continues to fuel international audiences’ appetite for premium content, and in the second year of the Global Audience Measure, we’ve reached 36.4m people per week across our owned and operated TV and digital platforms providing a 27.4m incremental contribution to the Corporation’s total.”

Other key findings include:

the top 10 markets for BBC’s international news services are the US (35m); Nigeria (35m); India (23m); Pakistan (13m); Iran (12m); Egypt (11m); Tanzania (10m); Brazil (8m); Afghanistan (7m); Bangladesh (6m). The figures in Brazil are notable because it is a digital-only market for the BBC. US reach increases to 43m when BBC Worldwide figures are added.

in total, 152m are accessing BBC news in English; 201m in another language. The audience for non-English language TV (91m) is nearly as big as the audience for non-English language radio (94m)
the figures show the BBC on track to reach the target of 500m weekly reach by 2022.

The GAM is measured every year by the BBC using a consistent methodology comprising surveys, ratings data, and digital analytics. These data sources are converted into individual adult weekly reach and de-duplicated.