Short-wave reductions

Why has the BBC reduced its short-wave coverage?

BBC World Service ceased transmitting on short wave to North America and Australasia in 2001 and to South America in 2005. Short-wave transmissions for Central America, the Caribbean and Europe ended in February 2008.

These reductions in short-wave coverage have been made primarily as a result of falling audience figures in these regions, as many of our target listeners switch to other means of listening to the BBC (satellite, cable, internet, local FM frequencies where available) and to local media.

There comes a point where the short-wave audience in a given region becomes so small that spending money on it can no longer be justified. BBC World Service is funded entirely by a grant-in-aid from the British government and operates in a very tight financial climate. It has been necessary to weigh the needs of a small but loyal group of short-wave listeners in the regions affected against the millions of listeners in, for example, Africa and Asia, where alternative means of listening are not widely available. short-wave broadcasting to Africa, The Middle East, South Asia and East Asia has not been affected.

We should point out that the cuts have been fully approved by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the British government, which administers our grant-in-aid. BBC World Service receives no funds from the Licence Fee payable by UK residents which funds the BBC's domestic radio and television broadcasting.

Although the government has no influence over the editorial content of BBC World Service programmes, the regions to which we broadcast and the languages in which we broadcast are decided in consultation with the FCO.