International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

The → international radio station with the largest global audience and the one with the best-known name, the BBC World Service, began as the Empire Service on shortwave in 1932. Today, while most of its estimated weekly audience of 188 million (all figures given here are for 2009) continue to rely on direct transmission on shortwave and medium wave from the BBC's own transmitters, it is also available via satellite, on mobile phones, on the → Internet , and through hundreds of local radio stations in countries around the world (→ Radio Technology ). BBC World News, a global → television service in English, is funded and organized separately. Organized within the World Service itself are TV services in Arabic and Persian. On radio, the World Service broadcasts in English and 31 other languages. The original Empire Service was intended to be a link between the metropolis and the immense empire Britain then ruled. In the vastly changed world of today, when Britain's world role is much reduced, the English services are aimed both at mother-tongue English speakers and at the growing number of people for whom English is a major second language, one that they are comfortable to use as a source of → news and → information . The global weekly audience for English output on radio is estimated at 40 million.   The second largest audience for English is in Nigeria, where it is estimated ... log in or subscribe to read full text