MUMBAI: New research from ComScore* has revealed that the BBC’s global audience has grown by 30% since 2012 to 73.4m unique browsers – just 200,000 (0.27%) short of CNN’s 73.6m.
The competition to claim the top spot in online news intensified in July as the BBC outpaced the market to overtake all other international rivals.
The BBC puts its sustained growth down to a programme of product investment, enhanced feature content on bbc.com, the increasing popularity of the BBC’s suite of language sites and its continued commitment to first-hand reporting from an unmatched network of international correspondents.
In a period of unprecedented industry change the BBC has retained its position as the most trusted international news broadcaster and continues to take market share. Studies** have shown the BBC to be the leader in global breaking news with stories from a wider geographical spread of places and journalists in more countries than any other international news provider.
Separate research also showed that the BBC is by far the most shared news brand on Twitter, with the latest figures*** revealing that its stories were shared a record-breaking 3.5 million times in July – over a million more than its nearest competitor.
Peter Horrocks, Director of the World Service Group, said, “In a year that has seen wave after wave of fast-moving and constantly evolving breaking news stories from all corners of the world we are delighted that audiences are increasingly turning to the BBC for up-to-the-minute coverage from a trusted and impartial source.
“As the world gets smaller and big stories affect us all, our worldwide network of journalists and uniquely global perspective are increasingly valuable. Our aim is to become the leaders in global news online. It’s a bold ambition and we do not underestimate the competition, but the game is on.”
The BBC enjoyed particular success in North America – the home market of many of the BBC’s competitors and one of only a handful of regions in the world where it does not already take the top spot. July saw its unique desktop users grow 6% month on month and 16% year on year, bucking the trend and moving the BBC up to 4th place.
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