‘We Are In A Golden Age’

Jim Egan, CEO, BBC Global News, talks to BW about the emerging trends in the news & broadcasting industry.

Excerpts

Q: Over the last 25 years how has been the journey of BBC World News?
A: The journey has been a period of rapid growth. We started with a 30 minute broadcast daily to Europe. Till 1990, we were broadcasting 24 hours a day, and in 2002, we were available in 100 million homes. Today, we have reached at 440 million homes with a weekly audience of 85 million around the world.

Q: How is BBC World News enabling itself to switch to mobile over desktop reporting worldwide?
A: Mobile is unquestionably the dominant theme in news, both for reporting and distribution. Mobile devices now boast broadcast, quality cameras, in fact we filmed an entire episode of our technology show Click using mobile phones last year. On the distribution side, consumption of news on mobiles has exploded in recent years — more than half of our digital traffic both in India and globally is now on mobiles. I don’t see it as a “switch” though — mobile, desktop, radio and TV consumption are co-existing in a way which is both exciting but also challenging.

Q: How important is India as a market for BBC?
A: India has been important to the BBC for 90 years. Today India is our top five markets — both for TV and online. In addition to the central importance of our audiences in India, we work closely with major Indian advertisers, helping them in reaching their global marketing and brand promotion goals.

Q: What are the future plans for the channel globally and in India?
A: We will be featuring India heavily in our coverage during 2016. In addition to the big political and business stories of global resonance, we will be going beyond the news to look at topics such as sport and Indian cuisine (with a 12 part series presented by celebrity chef Rick Stein). By 2016-end, we are planning a special season of programmes called India Direct, which will take an in-depth look at business, cultural and social life around India.

Q: What are the emerging trends in news & broadcasting industry?
A: News has never been more popular — more people are consuming it in increasingly diverse formats. And interest in global news, our focus, has also never been higher. In many ways, we are in a golden age. But the economics of the industry are challenging, especially for publishers committed to high quality, high cost international news. Successfully monetising what we do while staying true to the fundamentals of our journalism continues to keep me awake at night.