LONDON -- The British Broadcasting Corporation said Wednesday it planned to put its World Service broadcasts on the Internet as part of a US$49 million investment over three years.
The World Service, supplier of BBC news around the world, aims to run all its foreign-language broadcasts on the Internet by 2005, enabling listeners to tune in on their personal computers. World Service in English is currently available at the site.
The World Service broadcasts in English and 44 other languages to more than 140 million regular listeners -- more than any other international station.
A 24-hour World Service news and general program called World Service Plus also will be on the Internet and available by satellite.
World Service also will seek more FM frequencies, aiming to be on FM in every capital city of the world within five years. But it will maintain a shortwave network, particularly in the least-developed and politically sensitive parts of the world.
The international radio network plans to broadcast in 12 languages online in both text and audio by 2002. This would make the World Service the world's leading online news provider. It will expand English-language coverage of South Asia, Africa, the Far East, and the Middle East.
But the German-language service, which started in 1938, will close as part of the changes, with the loss of about 29 jobs. The BBC said audience research showed that a quarter of opinion formers in Berlin listen to the World Service, but nine out of 10 listen in English.
Copyright© 1999 Reuters Limited.
