Many audiences, one mindset

BBC Global News unites the strengths of all its international services, publicly-funded and commercial, to ensure expert, quality news and information for all audiences across all media.

By March 2009 BBC World Service, as part of BBC Global News, was the major contributor to the division's highest-ever combined weekly audience of 238 million across all media platforms.

click BBC Global News comprises BBC World Service, BBC World News and the international facing online offer, as well as click BBC Monitoring and the the click BBC World Service Trust, and this year BBC World Service worked more closely than ever with the other areas, especially editorial and programme commissioning.

Programme-makers also relied extensively on BBC Monitoring's open-source media monitoring services, and played a key role in delivering many initiatives from the international development charity, the BBC World Service Trust.

With converging technology in highly competitive global markets, BBC Global News made it a priority to ensure that all international audiences can count on getting the same editorial values, perspectives and quality from every BBC service, in every language and on every platform.

BBC World Service provides the template. "We have to ensure that all our services on all platforms are consistent to the brand, the values and journalistic standards that we espouse, and those are driven by the traditional BBC World Service values," says Richard Sambrook, Director, BBC Global News.

"So wherever you are, if you are watching BBC World News in a hotel room and then listening to BBC World Service on the radio or going online you get a consistent message from the BBC."

BBC World News changed its name and brought a bright, new modern look to its branding and on-screen appearance. Award-winning BBC World Service presenter Lyse Doucet also reports for BBc World News.

A new editorial structure meant significant progress was made in developing a shared editorial and commissioning agenda that complements BBC World Service activities.

"Specials and seasons covering big events such as the US Presidential election and the global financial crisis are now conceived and managed across languages and platforms," says Jim Egan, Controller of Strategy & Business Development.

"In the marketplace we are doing more complementary BBC Global News deals, such as joint carriage agreements for BBC Arabic television and BBC World News television."

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Multilingual commissioning

The launch of click BBC Persian television immediately offered opportunities for multilingual commissioning.

One example is the Persian programme on digital technology, click Click, the producer of which works with the sister programme on BBC World News television.

The four-part series Taste of Iran, exploring the nation's culinary history and tradition, was commissioned jointly in English and Persian and screened on both channels.

To promote coverage of the US Presidential election, radio, television and online services ran a joint marketing campaign, ‘The vote that affects your world'.

A large-scale research project of 7,000 respondents in seven countries, ranging from rich business people in the United States to relatively poor students in Ghana, demonstrated the attitudes among BBC consumers were highly consistent.

"You could sum up the findings of the research as ‘many audiences, one mindset'," says Sanjay Nazerali, Controller, Marketing, Communications & Audiences. "There is a group of people out there who want that little bit more. Who want a voice that challenges. They are the people who come to the BBC."

The research confirmed the need to tailor mobile and online services for international audiences.

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Working with BBC World News

The international news and television channel, formerly known as BBC World, was relaunched for a multi-platform world as BBC World News.

In March 2009 the television audience was 74 million viewers in over 200 countries, making it the BBC's most watched television channel.

Editorial teams across radio and television are working together to create multimedia versions of programmes, including the new business discussion show click The Bottom Line, which is available to radio, television and online audiences.

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BBC World Service Trust pioneers multimedia projects

The BBC's click international charity, which uses the creative power of the media to promote human rights and reduce poverty, increased the range of its innovative multimedia projects.

Mobile phones play a key part in a major campaign to ‘open a window' to learning English in Bangladesh.

Aimed at improving access to the global economy, the £15m initiative is pioneering mobile content and applications in a country where the number of mobile phone users has grown dramatically and it is now more than 37 million.

The BBC World Service Trust and click BBC Learning English are working with the Bangladeshi government and an international consortium on the nine-year project.

In the Middle East, a new project aims to give a voice to vulnerable, marginalised and disenfranchised groups in the Arabic-speaking world.

It is working with online social networking communities, developing a prime-time television series and introducing young radio programme makers to the latest ideas in interactive programmes.

In Africa, a new five-year project is supporting public service broadcasting in Angola, Sierra Leone and Tanzania.

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