Recommendation 3

Weaknesses in the BBC’s approach to the World Service’s digital transformation have meant it has struggled to migrate its audiences from traditional TV and radio services to digital platforms. Over the period 2021–22 to 2024–25, the World Service’s digital audiences fell, meaning they did not offset the impact of closing costly traditional radio and TV services in the way the BBC expected. Over the same period, the digital weekly audience (digital reach across BBC-owned services and third-party platforms) declined by 11% to 131 million. Performance varied widely across language services: the seven that became digital-only in 2022–23 saw overall audiences down 63% and their digital audiences down 39%, with Nigerian languages particularly affected as platforms deprioritised news. Beyond its high-level digital strategy, the BBC did not set detailed, 4 language service-level targets; define what ‘good looks like’ for each market; or establish granular monitoring to track whether broadcast users were switching by language and platform. Without a shared view of what ‘good looks like’ and timely data, teams could not redirect content and distribution quickly enough to secure audiences online. recommendation In its response to this report, the BBC should set out its approach to ensuring that teams know what good looks like with regards to the World Service’s digital transformation and what it is doing to address its uneven digital performance to date and accelerate digital transformation of its services.