BBC News is making available a daily half-hour news bulletin free of charge to other broadcasters who are members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
Audiences will get the chance to watch Outside Source, normally presented by Ros Atkins, from Monday to Thursday, and a BBC News bulletin from Friday to Sunday. The BBC expects the running order to concentrate largely on events around Ukraine.
BBC News has also launched TikTok accounts exclusively dedicated to videos about the war, in Russian and in English. The handles are @bbcnews and @bbcnewsrussian. TikTok has fast become a crucial platform for information – and disinformation – about the war in Ukraine.
Jamie Angus, Senior Controller, News Output and Commissioning, says: “Access to trusted, impartial and independent news is never more crucial than in times of conflict. We are always looking to find ways to ensure our news is available to those who need it most, on the platforms where they are. We welcome trusted European public broadcasters who want access to this daily bulletin via our partners at the EBU.”
These moves come amid a large increase in audiences for BBC News. Audiences to the BBC News channel were up 57% last week (w/c 28 February, compared to an average week in 2021).
Updated figures released by the BC show that in the last week of February, 200 million people turned to the BBC World Service’s digital news in languages other than English. Reach on social media in Russian tripled (with the biggest gains on Facebook) and in Ukrainian more than tripled.
