Press Release: BBC World Service expands medium wave transmissions and key broadcasts serving Afghanistan and the surrounding region

BBC World Service is reinforcing its medium wave transmissions, with an additional frequency, serving a large part of the region surrounding and including Afghanistan, it was announced today (Thursday, September 20).

The BBC World Service has also boosted short wave transmissions to the region and expanded output in Arabic, Pashto, Persian and Urdu - the key languages of the region, in response to the escalating tension in the area following the US attacks last week.

News and current affairs content in the usually mixed schedules of each language service has been boosted. The Arabic service is running a continuous 24 hour rolling news and current affairs format.

A vital lifeline

BBC World Service Director Mark Byford says:
"For the region, the BBC World Service is a vital lifeline. Audiences, literally, depend on the BBC for impartial, accurate, trustworthy news and information. In Afghanistan, with no television and no national newspaper, BBC radio is a main form of communication."

"Our expansion is a prime example of the BBC World Service responding to audience need and moving resources quickly to where it is needed most. Short wave savings, made by responding to audience migration to FM and the internet in the most developed broadcasting markets of the world, are being moved to less developed regions where access to accurate information is limited but a matter of crucial importance."

The new frequency

The new medium wave frequency 1314 kHz covers Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, and UAE during different times of the day, as well as large parts of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. This supplements medium wave broadcasts on 1413kHz in the region.

Increased broadcasts

The Arabic service has increased its broadcasts to become a 24-hour service, providing news bulletins throughout the night, and adding other long-form current affairs and analysis programmes.

The Pashto service has increased its broadcasts from 11¾ to 18¾ hours per week. The Persian service has increased its broadcasts from 28¼ to 37 hours per week. The Urdu service has increased its broadcasts from 11½ to 13¼ hours per week. Further increases in Persian and Urdu are planned.

The Persian and Pashto services have added an extra lunchtime news programme to supplement the usual breakfast and flagship evening news programmes. Survey work before the crisis indicates that some 72 per cent of Pashto language speakers and some 62 per cent of Persian speakers in Afghanistan listen daily to the BBC World Service. The Urdu language service, with an audience of more than 15 million in Pakistan, has changed its usual mixed programming schedule to rolling news and current affairs.

Online response

All three languages are increasing their online service, which includes access to audio broadcasts, for locals and nationals living elsewhere around the globe. BBCArabic.com already contains extensive, interactive news services available and updated 24 hours a day.

"We've had an unprecedented response to our services in the past week," says Mark Byford. "In the aftermath of the attack, our public radio partners in the US (and elsewhere around the globe) took direct feeds of our broadcasts in high quality FM sound, many on a rolling basis, including stations in New York, Washington, Boston, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Two Talking Point programmes on Wednesday (September 12) and Sunday (September 16) - an international phone-in and e-mail programme - attracted over 30,000 e-mails - many of them from America."

"In the 24 hours after the attack, provisional figures show the BBC World News online site increased traffic to our text and audio nine-fold. Our Spanish site increased traffic 10-fold and Arabic site six-fold," he says.

For further information:
BBC World Service Press Office
Telephone: 020 7557 2941


Additional information

• The BBC World Service broadcasts in 43 languages including English. The other languages are: Albanian, Arabic, Azeri, Bengali, Brazilian, Bulgarian, Burmese, Cantonese, Croatian, Czech, French, Greek, Hausa, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Kazakh, Kinyarwanda/Kirundi, Kyrgyz, Macedonian, Mandarin, Nepali, Pashto, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovene, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, and Vietnamese.



• In the UK, World Service is available on 648 MW in Southern England. In addition, overnight on BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio Wales and BBC Ulster and via digital radio, digital satellite and the Internet.



• Outside the UK, BBC World Service is available on shortwave; on FM in more than 117 capital cities and selected programmes are carried on almost 2,000 FM and MW radio stations around the world



• High quality reception of World Service programmes is available via satellite in Europe and North America.



• It can be heard on the BBC's digital multiplex in the UK or in Europe on the Astra satellite, channel 926.



• The BBC World Service website: www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice contains extensive, interactive news services available in English, Arabic, Chinese Russian and Spanish with audiostreaming available in 43 languages. It also contains detailed information about World Service broadcasts, schedules and frequencies in all languages.



• The BBC World Service's global audience figure is 153m - its largest ever.



• BBC World Service is funded through Grant-in-Aid by the Foreign Office. This year's grant was £183 million.