BBC relaunches global apps

21 March 2024

BBC relaunches global apps

Redesigned website and app offer a new contemporary look and more BBC content for digital audiences outside of the UK, alongside enhanced advertising capabilities.

BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC, and BBC News has announced the global launch of the all-new BBC.com and BBC app, transforming the way digital audiences read, watch, and find the BBC’s renowned journalism and storytelling outside of the UK. Available to users worldwide, the new website and app boast an updated design and navigation along with more of the trusted, impartial journalism that consumers rely on the BBC for across the world. The new BBC.com and BBC app also allow for a more premium and sustainable commercial offering with ad tech enhancements that unlock new opportunities for advertisers.

The BBC app, which replaces the International BBC News app, brings together content from across the BBC, for the first time ever. The app mirrors the refreshed BBC.com experience, offering stories and videos across Business, Innovation, Culture, Travel, Earth and more, alongside News, Sport, and live coverage. The BBC app is available for download today in the App Store for Apple users and for Android devices via Google Play.

Tara Maitra, Chief Commercial Officer, BBC Global Media & Streaming, BBC Studios, said: “We are excited to bring the new website and brand-new BBC app to audiences and partners around the globe, following a successful first introduction to consumers in North America,” said “These new digital products deliver an experience as premium as our news and storytelling and offers us the opportunity for future growth as we remain focused on finding new and innovative ways to make BBC content more easily accessible across the globe.”

Naja Nielsen, Digital Director for BBC News, said: “We know there is huge appetite for impartial BBC News journalism as we report – without an agenda – on the burning issues of our time. Thanks to our independent journalism, the BBC is the world’s most trusted international news media organisation, reaching more than 400 million people each week. As we expand and develop our global digital newsroom, I am thrilled our new global app and website will provide an excellent experience and much better showcase our world-beating journalism”.

BBC.com, which re-launched in North America last December, and the BBC app allow users to engage with the BBC’s content in a more cohesive experience. Some of the changes to the website and app include:

New Homepage: The new BBC.com homepage and home screen now include a mix of the biggest global news stories of the moment plus a selection of timely and relevant features, curated by BBC editors.
New Look, Same Trusted News: Visitors looking to dig deeper into what’s happening around the globe can navigate to News to find articles, videos, and live coverage. Those looking for news from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America, and Middle East can find it in the World section under News.
New Sections: BBC’s arts and entertainment coverage in Culture, technology, health and science in Innovation, and sustainability and environment in Earth. Sport, Business and Travel continue to offer agenda-setting stories from around the world, as well as the thought-provoking features readers have come to love from the BBC.
More BBC Videos: New Video section offers an extensive library of BBC videos and multimedia storytelling featuring content ranging from news and sport updates to captivating stories on climate, sustainability, science, health, entertainment, and history.
More Live Coverage: New Live section makes it easier to find live news updates and live global sport coverage as they unfold.
Up-to-the-Minute Breaking News Alerts: Audiences can sign up to receive the same breaking news notifications they always have.
The BBC Direct to your Inbox: Discover our newsletters, including The News Briefing, US Election Unspun, Tech Decoded, Future Earth, The Essential List and the brand-new In History

The new website and app, together, create a streamlined digital ecosystem that makes it easier than ever for audiences worldwide to discover a wider array of BBC content. The consistent, unified layout across web and app results not only in an improved user experience, but the unified, single product suite also allows for more opportunities and flexibility for advertising and sponsorship across both web and app.

Advertising partners can now take advantage of more premium high impact ad units that live seamlessly alongside the BBC’s content, making for a more effective consumer journey. Marketers will also benefit from advanced targeting capabilities featuring more sophisticated audience intelligence, segmentation, and attribution that connects campaigns across web and app products, delivering enhanced measurable results for partners.

These new digital platforms and features, coupled with research that shows advertising within news can drive business results, together bolster the opportunity for marketers to reach the coveted BBC.com audience of engaged and informed news consumers. In fact, according to the IAB1, advertising in news creates a halo effect, with consumers more likely to consider making a purchase after being exposed to a brand’s advertisement within their preferred news sources. Findings show that 90% of consumers have either a positive or neutral response to brands that advertise within news, while nearly half of consumers find brands that advertise in the news to be more customer-focused and engaging, more innovative, and relevant to them. The study from the IAB reinforces internal findings into the aggregated performance of advertising on BBC.com, which show an 80%+ average lift in likelihood to recommend and consideration across key categories.2

BBC.com and the BBC app are the latest step in the company’s ongoing digital transformation, and is supported by its investment in North America, which includes an expanded newsroom that facilitates deeper analysis and local expertise of the regional stories affecting the world. Recently, the company also launched the BBC News FAST channel in the U.S. across leading services, more than doubling the channel’s reach in the region. Ranked as the most trusted news broadcaster in the world, the BBC is driven by its public service mission and editorial guidelines and standards for which the organization is known.

The development and operation of BBC.com and the BBC app is driven by BBC Studios Global Media & Streaming division, which leverages the power of the BBC to reach and engage audiences worldwide. GM&S is responsible for the distribution and advertising of BBC News globally outside of the U.K. GM&S is a division of BBC Studios, the BBC Group’s commercial arm that helps to fund innovation, internationally recognized programming, and the organization’s public service mission.

Radio-Canada and RTS partner up to share podcast content

19 March 2024

Radio-Canada and RTS partner up to share podcast content

Radio-Canada and RTS (Radio Télévision Suisse) are teaming up to offer listeners the best in French-language podcasts as they broaden their audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. RTS becomes the latest broadcaster to join Radio-Canada’s circle of European partners alongside Radio France and RTBF, all members of Médias Francophones Publics (MFP). Radio-Canada OHdio, a leading player in the Canadian digital audio market for the past five years, is now French-speaking Canada’s second most popular podcast platform. For its part, RTS has been offering its audio content on demand for over two decades, and expanded into native podcasts six years ago. As of today, Radio-Canada OHdio will begin streaming three RTS productions: Faces Nord, Voyage au Gouinistan and Nuit blanche. In parallel, the Radio-Canada OHdio podcasts Résistance, Anna Caritas and L’incroyable histoire will be promoted on RTS. The two public broadcasters are also collaborating on an ambitious RTS-led podcast series about the Order of the Solar Temple, a cult that used to be active in Switzerland and Canada. This exclusive content will premiere on Radio-Canada OHdio and RTS in the fall.

“This partnership with RTS allows us to enrich our content offering while giving us the opportunity to showcase our top audio creators and productions in the European market. It reflects our commitment to bringing a wide range of high-quality content to our audiences and taking Canada to the world. It also marks the continuation of a decades-long collaboration between public broadcasters for the benefit of French speakers around the globe,” said Caroline Jamet, Radio-Canada’s Executive Director of Radio, Audio and Greater Montreal.

“Podcasts are windows into new worlds, often inner ones, made up of lived experiences and emotions. Perhaps that’s what travels best. We’re therefore excited to share with overseas listeners these unique yet universal stories that resonate well beyond our borders. That’s also what the Francophonie is all about — connecting with each other through our common language,” said Véronique Marti, head of RTS’s factual audio unit.

FOR STREAMING ON RADIO-CANADA OHDIO

Faces Nord

Set off on an extraordinary mountain adventure with Maya Chollet, who wants to try and climb the north faces of the Eiger, Matterhorn and Grandes Jorasses: three legendary north faces, formerly known as “the last three problems of the Alps.”

Producer: Didier Rossat
An RTS production

Voyage au Gouinistan

Join reporters Aurélie Cuttat and Christine Gonzalez on their travels through “Lesboland,” a journey filled with engaging conversations that provide insights into lesbian culture.

Producer: Marc Frochaux
An RTS production

Nuit blanche

This podcast looks at some of humanity’s strangest and most mysterious stories. From cursed places and unexplained disappearances, to unsolved murders, enigmatic characters and offbeat news stories, Nuit blanche invites listeners to take a deep dive into the heart of disturbing yet fascinating tales weaving together archive material, personal accounts and investigative reporting. Serving as your guides and storytellers behind the mic are hosts Anne Flament and Mickael Marquet. A selection of eight episodes will be available on Radio-Canada OHdio.

Producer: Franck Pourprix
An RTS production

CATCH THEM ON RTS

Résistance

Hip-hop artist Webster and his father, Cheikh Ndiaye, a former poli-sci professor, share a passion for the history of slavery. Together, they trace the journey of Shadrach Minkins, a man born into slavery in Norfolk, Virginia, who ran away to find his way to freedom. His path eventually led him to Montreal in 1851. As we follow in his footsteps, we experience not only the resistance of a hunted man but also the tumultuous history of slavery in the United States. The father/son duo have made it their mission to pass on this story that’s not just about America, but also Quebec and Canada.

Producer: Marie-France Abastado
A Radio-Canada production

Anna Caritas : Le sacrilège

Marianne Roberts, a troubled teen with a mysterious past, returns to Anna Caritas College, triggering a series of bizarre events in the small town of Saint-Hector. One night, William Walker and his pals decide to hold a Ouija seance for kicks. After the gang inadvertently awakens a malevolent force, they have no choice but to seek help from the one person everyone tries to avoid at all costs — Marianne.

Producer: Sébastien Heppell
A Radio-Canada production

L’incroyable histoire

“What was life like in the old days?” Energetic historian Evelyne Ferron has the answer to this question that has fired the imagination of children down through the ages. Nothing in the history of our vast and fascinating world escapes her attention, including mummies, Vikings, the Atlantic crossing, Jacques Cartier’s arrival in North America and more.

Producers: Stéphanie Mignacca, Mathieu Beauchamp
A Radio-Canada production

Check out these and other popular podcasts on Radio-Canada OHdio and RTS.

UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran reports on the threats faced by BBC News Persian journalists and their family members

8 March 2024

UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran reports on the threats faced by BBC News Persian journalists and their family members

The report published today by the UN Human Rights Council’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran raises concern that the Iranian authorities “harassed, threatened and intimidated journalists and other media employees working outside the country”, including those working at BBC News Persian, and for including BBC News Persian on a list of sanctioned organisations.

The Fact-Finding Mission was set up by the UN Human Rights Council on 24 November 2022, to investigate “the deteriorating situation of human rights in Iran, especially with respect to women and children” and human-rights violations in Iran related to the protests that began on 16 September 2022. The BBC World Service filed a submission highlighting Iran’s harassment of BBC News Persian journalists and their families in Iran and has been engaging with the UN Fact-Finding Mission in relation to its mandate.

Focusing on Iran’s treatment of journalists working for Persian-language media outside Iran, the report says:

“The mission has further established that the State authorities harassed, threatened and intimidated journalists and other media employees working outside the country, including those working at the BBC Persian service, Iran International television, Voice of America, IranWire and Deutsche Welle. The Iranian authorities summoned, threatened and in some cases arrested, detained and charged the family members of those journalists and media workers in an apparent effort to exert pressure on them and prevent them from reporting on the country. On 19 October 2022, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sanctioned the BBC Persian service and Iran International television, and imposed asset freezes on their staff. Journalists also received serious threats, including to their lives and personal safety, leading to the involvement of the police in some countries. Journalists, in particular women journalists, faced heightened online vilification, harassment and attacks.”

Recently the BBC became aware, through the publication of leaked documents, that a number of current and former BBC News Persian journalists have reportedly been secretly convicted in absentia in Iran of the crime of “propaganda against the Islamic Republic”.

This has obvious, significant implications for these individuals, and earlier today, BBC Director-General, Tim Davie, said:

“These developments add a new, even more sinister dimension to the threats and harassment our BBC Persian journalists have been exposed to for decades as punishment for doing their job. Instead of taking heed of the repeated calls from the UN and other international organisations to stop the horrendous multi-faceted harassment of Persian-language journalists, the Iranian authorities have been devising even more means of persecution using the Iranian judiciary. The Iranian authorities must stop harassing our journalists and their families.”

Since 2017, the BBC World Service has filed a number of UN complaints over the treatment of BBC News Persian staff and their families, represented by Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC and Jennifer Robinson at Doughty Street Chambers, and supported by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).

Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ General Secretary, said:

“Iran’s all-out war on Iranian journalists abroad is a cowardly attempt to hide the truth by silencing its conveyors. For more than a decade, NUJ members and their families have been subjected to increasingly more harassment and threats, be it by Iranian authorities abusing legal system of the country or even by hiring criminals to directly target journalists on UK soil. This must be stopped now. Every country and international organisation that believes in democracy or the rule of law needs to call Iran out. Failure to confront the Islamic Republic of Iran would be a green light to other authoritarian regimes to follow suit.”

Counsel for the BBC News Persian service, Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC and Jennifer Robinson, said:

“Iran has long attempted to silence journalists within its borders, but as the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran makes clear, Iran is now resorting to ever more extreme measures to try to silence journalists reporting on Iran, wherever in the world they may be. These drastic and dangerous tactics come at a time when independent reporting about Iran is needed more than ever – and particularly after the protests following the death of Mahsa Amini. The UN Fact-Finding Mission has today acknowledged and highlighted the harassment that BBC News Persian journalists face simply for doing their jobs. Journalism is not a crime, and Iran must be held to account for treating it as one.”

In a recent survey conducted internally among the BBC News Persian staff, half of the respondents said they had received online threats or been harassed online for working for the BBC. The work of the BBC journalists continues to cause harassment of their families or friends, with over 60% of the respondents having been harassed, threatened or questioned in Iran. Nearly 70% said that they hadn’t been able to say goodbye to one or both their parents before they passed away in Iran.

RFE/RL declared “undesirable organisation” by Russian government

22 February 2024

RFE/RL declared “undesirable organisation” by Russian government

The Russian government has designated Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty an “undesirable organisation,” according to a registry maintained by the country’s Justice Ministry.

The label effectively bans RFE/RL from working in Russia and exposes anyone who cooperates with the outlet to potential prosecution.

RFE/RL President Stephen Capus said the move shows that Moscow considers independent reporting to be “an existential threat.”

The move comes just days after the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Image: Adobe Stock

France 24 launches on Freeview UK

22 February 2024

France 24 launches on Freeview UK

France 24, the renowned international news channel launched on Freeview UK channel 266. This strategic expansion allows Freeview users across the UK to access France 24’s diverse and comprehensive coverage of global news, culture, and current affairs in French, English, Spanish and Arabic languages.

Freeview viewers can now enjoy France 24’s high-quality journalism, bringing a unique perspective on international events directly to their screens. With this launch, France 24 aims to further strengthen its presence in the UK market and provide Freeview audiences with a broader spectrum of global news content.

“We are excited to bring France 24 to Freeview users in the UK, offering a valuable addition to the UK news landscape,” said Tanya Kronfli, managing director of Global Distribution Services and France 24 distribution partner, “This expansion reflects our commitment to delivering engaging and diverse news coverage to the UK audiences using cutting-edge technology”.

“We are delighted that France 24 has joined the Freeview line-up. To have all 4 language feeds available on a single channel, on such a widely available platform, is great news and we are confident that UK viewers will appreciate our offer, whether in English, French, Spanish or Arabic.” said Serge Schick, Director of International Development and Commercial Resources.

France 24 is known for its 24/7 news programming, featuring in-depth analysis, interviews, and reports from correspondents around the globe. The channel covers a wide range of topics, including politics, business, culture, and sports, catering to a diverse and international audience.

The launch of France 24 on Freeview utilises the cutting-edge FAST SSAI & CDN, compatible with modern HbbTV-based TVs as well as older Freeview devices. This ensures maximum accessibility across the Freeview network.

OUTtv Proud heads to Freeview UK

24 January 2024

OUTtv Proud heads to Freeview UK

OUTtv, the leading LGBTQ+ television and streaming service, in partnership with Fuse Media, the leader in inclusive content, has secured a deal with Channelbox to distribute OUTtv Proud, its international FAST channel, in the UK via Freeview.

Following the recent deal with Netgem in 2023 which saw OUTtv Proud launch in the UK and Ireland, OUTtv is further expanding the reach of its FAST channel which features over 400 hours of content including OUTtv originals Call Me Mother, Hot Haus, and For The Love of DILFs. The service is available on Freeview UK, with audiences able to watch brand-new series via channel 271.

Brad Danks, CEO of OUTtv, said: “The UK is a primary market for us for both SVOD and FAST channel streaming and we had significant growth in 2023, but still have much more room to grow. This is why we are so excited about partnering with Channelbox to form part of Freeview’s extensive channel offer. They are an important leader in the UK FAST space and this launch enables us to extend our offering to reach more people who have yet to discover our diverse, fun and authentic LGBTQ+ programming made for and by the queer community.”

“OUTtv Proud has quickly become a destination for viewers around the world since its launch last year because of its truly robust offering of quality storytelling,” said Patrick Courtney, Head of Streaming & Business Development. “We’re happy that even more of the UK’s LGBTQ+ viewers and their allies will be able to access and enjoy OUTtv Proud on Freeview UK.”

Tanya Kronfli, Head of Content and Business Development for Channelbox, said “We are thrilled to launch the first LGBTQ channel on Freeview UK. OUTtv Proud is a fantastic addition to the diverse Channelbox lineup”

The OUTtv Proud channel, created by OUTtv and Fuse Media, features LGBTQ+-targeted original programming as well as library content from OUTtv’s original series, documentaries, films and specials.