The BBC is reaching a record weekly audience of 376 million people, according to new figures released Friday.
The figures, known as the Global Audience Measure (GAM), show how many adults the BBC reached weekly with its news and entertainment content in the year 2017/18.
BBC World Service, which is increasingly focusing on digital platforms, has seen its audience increase by 10 million, to 279 million.
Shortwave radio listening continues to decline, with shortwave audiences virtually disappearing in Pakistan, and down substantially in Nigeria.
The increased availability of cheap smartphones are resulting in audiences continuing to switch to digital platforms for news. Overall, online news website audiences have grown by four million, with social media audiences up by nine million.
The total global news audience has risen by a million, to 347 million.
More people listen directly to World Service English via the internet than by any other method – a total of 27m. And World Service English podcasts now reach one million people every week.
Jamie Angus, Director of the BBC World Service Group, says: “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 top ten markets for the BBC’s international news services are Nigeria (41m), USA (33m), India (30m), Bangladesh (16m), Egypt (16m), Iran (13m), Afghanistan (12m), Tanzania (10m), Pakistan (9m) and Indonesia (8m).
