UK public broadcaster the BBC has said Nigeria is the biggest market for its World Service (BBCWS) offering.
According to the recently released Global Audience Measure (GAM), the corporation reaches a weekly audience of 376 million, up three million since last year, across all its services outside the UK.
The BBCWS has seen its weekly non-UK audience rise 10 million to 279 million since 2017, while the weekly non-UK audience for BBC News rose a million to 347 million over the same period.
The report shows how many adults the BBC’s international services have reached in the first half of 2018 compared with 2017. It also said that with the growing number of cheaper smartphones, the BBC has been able to expand viewership via its digital platforms, as a total of 27 million people opt for the BBCWS English service via the internet.
Nigeria was revealed to be the largest market for the BBC’s international news services, consuming the most of the BBC’s content with an audience of 41 million. The US comes a close second with 33 million users. After that is India (30 million), Bangladesh (16 million), Egypt (16 million), Iran (13 million), Afghanistan (12 million), Tanzania (10 million), Pakistan (nine million) and Indonesia (eight million). BBCWS’s audience is aged between 15 and 24.
GAM statistics also revealed that just under 40% of the adult population of Nigeria consumes BBC News in some way.
Jamie Angus, director of the BBCWS Group, said: “This has been an exciting year for the BBC World Service, with the launch of 12 new services, new programming and the opening of new and expanded bureaux across the world. So it is great to see international audiences continuing to turn to the BBC for independent and impartial news.
“The figures highlight not only the successes of our global news operation, but the challenges that lie ahead for us. We still need to grow the share of women engaging with our news services globally, and we need to ensure we have the right services to continue to attract young audiences.
“At a time when Britain is forging a new relationship with nations around the world, the BBC’s global news services are more important than ever.”
In February, BBCWS launched two new local-language service in Africa, Yoruba and Igbo, some 60 years after it launched the Hausa service. A month later, it opened its West Africa bureau in Lagos.
tagged in: BBC, BBC News, BBC World Service, Jamie Angus, UK