BBC looking at new media market in South Asia

Going beyond its traditional medium of radio, BBC is looking at opportunities in the new media market -- Internet, mobile phones and FM radio -- in South Asia. It is also trying to produce a majority of its regional language programmes locally.

"The South Asian media market is big and a lot will happen here in the coming days. We are looking at the future and the future is Internet, FM radio, mobile phones. We will be looking at every platform to deliver news," Nazes Afroz, BBC's executive editor for South Asia, told IANS in an interview.

It is also thinking of television channels in Hindi and Urdu, although there are no concrete plans yet.

"Just look at mobile phones. People can download news and listen to it whenever they want. There are 150 million mobile phones in India. By 2010 the number is expected to reach 300 million. It is a huge market," he said.

"This does not mean we will forsake radio. It will remain one of our focus areas. In fact we are looking at how the audio content can be provided over new platforms. Our Urdu website, for instance, provides the content of three programmes daily and this content will be increased in the coming days," he said.

News over FM radio is one of the big opportunities BBC is looking at in India.

"FM is the biggest growth area. There are already more than 200 FM stations in India. The third phase of FM radio and soon to be launched community radio will open up immense opportunities. We will enter FM news as and when the government allows it," Afroz said.

BBC has already got a foothold in FM in India with stakes in Radio One of Mid Day group. "We are providing entertainment and sports content for Radio One in Hindi and Tamil. We will soon do it in Bengali. Our Hindi content is heard in Haryana, Rajasthan, Orissa and Maharashtra," he said.

Except India, all South Asian countries allow news over FM. "In Nepal, we have 33 FM stations as our partners. They all pick up our news in Nepali. We also have 4-5 FM partners in Pakistan, 12 in Sri Lanka and one in Bangladesh," Afroz said, hoping that India would also allow private FM stations to broadcast news.

It is not just the new opportunities in South Asian media that BBC is looking at. It is also shifting the majority of its production activities in six regional languages to the countries in the region where the languages are widely spoken.

"This is part of BBC's vision 2010. The slogan is for the region from the region. We would like to produce more material for the region from the region. It is a strategic policy announced two years ago," he said while admitting that it also helps in cutting down cost.

BBC has been implementing this policy for the last two years. "Our Delhi bureau now has 60 to 70 people and very soon we will be 90 to 100," Afroz said. It also has bureaus in Mumbai, Islamabad, Karachi, Colombo and Kathmandu.

"More than 50 percent Hindi content is now produced in Delhi. Urdu content is largely produced in London," he said while hinting that BBC would like to have a presence both in London and South Asia to meet any exigency.

BBC World has radio services in six languages in South Asia -- Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Nepali, Tamil and Sinhala.

Out of 183 million listeners of BBC World radio in 33 languages all over the world, 55 million are in South Asian languages. Hindi and Bengali services have 19 million listeners each while Urdu has 13 million listeners. The rest are in Nepali, Tamil and Sinhala services.

Afroz pointed out that BBC would be launching its Arabic television channel next month. It will be the BBC's first non-English channel. It also plans to launch a Persian channel next year.

Afroz, who hails from Kolkata, is currently in India on a campaign to promote the Urdu website of BBC. "We want to connect with readers and explain how the website works and how can they navigate. We are talking directly to users," he said.

Indo-Asian News Service