The U.S. Agency for Global Media’s networks reached a record 427 million weekly measured global audience in Fiscal Year 2024, as documented in the Agency Performance Report released today. The agency’s audience nearly doubled in the last decade, according to nationally representative surveys measuring the reach and impact of the five journalistic entities USAGM oversees: Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (Radio and Television Martí), Radio Free Asia (RFA), and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN).

This year’s findings underscore the success of USAGM’s networks in informing, engaging, and connecting audiences, even in the most challenging environments. Despite a recent military coup in Niger, VOA reaches more than 45% of adults in the country each week, in multiple languages. In a difficult year of conflict in the Middle East, MBN continues to provide a high-quality Arabic-language alternative to polarized local media, registering strong growth in Algeria and Jordan. In Latin America, VOA reaches 100 million people across the region in Spanish, by working in partnership with some of the most important local and regional media outlets.

RFE/RL and VOA together reach more than 34% of Ukrainian adults each week, almost 45% of Armenians, and a quarter of Serbians; countering Russian malign influence across Eastern Europe and Eurasia with truthful reporting.

Research with Russian- and Mandarin-speaking global diasporas, and on Martí audiences outside Cuba, found new international audiences for RFE/RL, RFA, VOA, and OCB outside the networks’ traditional target markets. This strategy for reaching audiences is important as China joins a growing list of restrictive markets, including North Korea and Eritrea, where USAGM is unable to measure audiences.

The new report emphasizes USAGM networks’ value to their audiences. USAGM research shows that well over 80% of each network’s audience reports finding their content trustworthy, and more than 65% say the networks’ reporting informs their opinions on important issues.

USAGM’s broadcast entities operate across a range of media platforms, innovating to reach audiences in the ways they prefer to consume news. The Open Technology Fund (OTF), a USAGM grantee, is a key driver of these efforts, providing circumvention technology to tens of millions of users in countries where the internet is censored, like Iran, Russia, China, Burma and more. Despite the challenges of censorship and the constantly shifting social media landscape, USAGM networks recorded 334 million video views each week for digital content in FY 2024.

“This remarkable audience growth shows just how impactful truthful, independent journalism is to so many people around the world,” said USAGM CEO Amanda Bennett. “Amid mounting global challenges to press freedom, our networks’ growing reach — and audiences’ increased trust in the content they provide — proves an enduring demand for the independent, objective reporting from our entities, and the tireless dedication of our journalists that goes into it.”

The USAGM FY 2024 Agency Performance Report, as well as the USAGM Audience and Impact Overview, which summarizes the agency’s key performance highlights for FY 2024, can be found here on usagm.gov.

[Source: USAGM press release]