India is the top international market for BBC News with an audience reach of 50 million, according to the British public broadcaster’s annual Global Audience Measure (GAM).
BBC News, which operates in nine languages in India, has seen an additional 20 million people tune in across its platforms from last year’s country-by-country figures.Second behind India, Nigeria clocked up an audience of 41 million, while the USA was the third largest market with 38 million consumers - up five million on 2018.Kenya also saw an impressive audience gain, from 6 million to 15 million n the last year, reaching 50% of the population. In Afghanistan, the BBC reaches 59% of the population, with an audience of 12 million.
Overall, the global audience reach of BBC News has risen to a new high of 426 million a week – an increase of 50 million (13%) over the year. The GAM shows BBC News has an audience of 394 million globally, a rise of 47 million.
The BBC World Service in English and 42 languages account for 319 million of that figure – with an increase of 41 million. While BBC World News TV channel has achieved an all-time record audience of 101 million.
The BBC News websites - World Service and bbc.com -have increased their combined reach by 6 million to 51 million globally, the broadcaster said.
“Every day our teams do an amazing job bringing independent, impartial news to audiences around the world, and today we can see just how much the BBC is valued. Thanks to Government investment we’ve been able to launch the biggest expansion of the World Service since the Second World War, and this shows how much the BBC can do for the UK,” said Tony Hall, director general, BBC.
BBC World Service Group director Jamie Angus said: “The BBC is on track to reach its audience target of 500 million weekly, and has posted all-time record audiences for both World Service Radio and BBC World News. But most importantly we’re continuing to produce groundbreaking journalism that is attracting growing audiences and making a huge impact. From investigative journalism like Africa Eye to our work countering fake news and disinformation, the BBC is showing why it remains the world’s most trusted source of news.”
Syndication of BBC content via partner television and radio stations around the world, and distribution via digital platforms like YouTube and Facebook, now comprise over 60% of audience reach.
New BBC News bureaux have been opened in India, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Korea, and 12 new language services were launched in the past year as part the largest expansion of the BBC World Service since the 1940s.
