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| In Brazil, BBC online services now attract larger audiences than radio |
Broadband technology and mobile communications are transforming
audience behaviour in many markets. The BBC is leading the way among
international broadcasters in enhancing content to meet this demand by
introducing greater interactivity and video content in key languages. Online
forums in which people can express their views on the issues of the day
are now an established feature of BBC websites in many languages.
International traffic to BBC online news services grew to a record 324
million page impressions in March 2005, up from 279 million a year earlier.
Although the annual increase was lower than expected, the rise in the
number of individual users was higher, growing 29% from 16.6 million to
21.5 million. This corresponds to around 6.7 million weekly users.
The in depth sites now bring together information and analysis, including
audio and video, on major issues such as Islam and the West, the changing
face of China and development in Africa. Significant progress has been
made to develop fully interactive multimedia sites in key languages,
including Arabic, Spanish, Russian and Urdu, in addition to English.
Interactive programmes such as Talking Point have pioneered a new form
of global debate on issues of the day that brings together radio, television
and online audiences.
'In Brazil, online services now attract larger audiences than radio,' says Lucio
Mesquita, Head of Americas Region. 'People there now see the BBC as a
multimedia organisation. We recognise that the market is moving very fast
and jumping into broadband very quickly. So we are pioneering the
introduction of video content and getting closer to key media partners.'
A strategy of growing audiences through partnership with major Brazilian
internet service providers such as UOL and IG has proved highly effective
in attracting online users who may never have heard of the BBC. In
January 2005 the BBC's Brazilian website, bbcbrasil.com, registered 14.3
million page impressions, up more than 120% in a year. There were a
million individual visitors. Anyone logging on to one of the country's main
websites is now likely to see BBC content featured prominently on the
front page, linked directly to bbcbrasil.com.
It is a similar story in Spanish, where the BBC's website bbcmundo.com
– principally directed at Latin America but with sizeable audiences
in the United States and Spain – recorded similar growth to reach
13 million page impressions in January. Partnerships with major
portals such as Mexico's T1MSN and Argentina's La Nación are
a key factor.
'It's similar to the change that has taken place in radio broadcasting
with the move away from short wave transmission to broadcasting
our programmes on partner FM stations,' explains Myra Hunt,
Head of New Media. 'Within a month of making an agreement
with T1MSN this was driving at least 10% of the traffic to
bbcmundo.com. Partnerships like these are helping us to win
new audiences.'
The same partnership strategy is being pursued with new media in
other parts of the world. Arabic online content is now available through
partner sites serving Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The Taiwanese
news website Ettoday.com has become the first site to take BBC
Chinese news headlines. Partnerships have been agreed with leading
Hindi, Persian and Russian sites. Mobile phone users in parts of the
world can also receive text alerts and audio news bulletins. Agreements
have been reached in several African countries where text messaging is
increasingly widespread.
Interactivity is increasingly important and the BBC's investment in
processing material from users is proving its worth. Individuals are
increasingly feeding their own information, views and pictures back to the
BBC. This has made an important contribution to coverage of major news
events such as the Asian tsunami. 'We had 25,000 emails in the first week
after the tsunami,' says Myra Hunt. 'When people send in thousands of
photos we process them and select the best ones. Sometimes they have
really powerful stories to tell. That is making it possible for us to think
differently about how we do the news. We have got this incredible
audience and many are potentially journalists.'
After the tsunami, more than two million people accessed special
webpages with notice boards of missing people in India, Indonesia, the
Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Online users are making a growing contribution to coverage of major
events, providing eyewitness accounts and blogs (web diaries) that can give
a new angle to the story. Close connections between the BBC's language
services offer new ways for communities in different parts of the world to
share their experiences.
When US-led forces in Iraq entered Falluja, a doctor called one of the
BBC's Arabic interactive programmes to describe what was going on
outside his house. The material was translated into English making it
accessible to other parts of the world, including North America.
'Interactivity is all about getting more voices heard, and that is helping to
give our journalism a new edge, vitality and passion,' says Myra Hunt.
'People from Africa or the Middle East whose voices could never be
heard in Europe or North America are now doing so. Our interactive
connections are making that possible.'
Multimedia sites are fostering new dialogue between communities who
have been separated, whether through political developments or natural
disasters. bbcurdu.com helped families that had been separated for years
by the Line of Control dividing Kashmir to communicate for the first
time through video conferencing.
BBC Russian mounted a high-profile interactive discussion reviewing 20
years of perestroika in partnership with two Russian radio partners, the
state-run network Radio Mayak and influential private station Moscow
Echo. The programme brought together three leading figures of the time:
former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, and former UK foreign secretaries
Lords Howe and Hurd.
During the year BBC World Service received recognition for the way
it has made its online services accessible in other languages besides
English. The 'Your Voice' interactive websites won the Best Global Website
Award given by the Localisation Research Centre for the most innovative
multilingual and multicultural website.
'Lots of organisations are now offering content in languages such as
Spanish, Arabic and Russian, but most are doing a mechanical job of
translating either through machines or translators,' says Interactive
Editor Santosh Sinha. 'Our websites have a soul – they actually talk to
people like someone speaking their own language.'
The site also won two 'Webby' awards in 2005 - including the People's
Choice award in the Best News category. The website's World Editor,
Steve Hermann, says: 'The range of international coverage, the
combination of depth and immediacy allowed by the medium and the
traditional journalistic virtues of sharply written stories, striking images
and well-crafted audio and video ensure it remains one of the world's
largest and most popular news sites.'
A US survey conducted for the BBC showed that the BBC's international
news site bbcnews.com is now used by four out of 10 online news users.
It is one of the 10 news sites of which US users are most aware – ahead
of CBS News, USA Today, Reuters, Google News and AOL News. Over
60% said they trusted it more than US news sources. 'This survey revealed
that bbcnews.com is a popular and much admired site in the world's
most competitive market,' says Alan Booth, Controller of Marketing,
Communications and Audiences. 'It is the first time we have surveyed US
online users and the results are very encouraging.'
The BBC News website, partly funded by the World Service, won the
main award for general excellence in journalism at the Online News
Association awards in Hollywood, beating washingtonpost.com and the
Wall Street Journal website.
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A year in review |
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New media |
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