BBC World Service is to launch a television news and information service in the Farsi (Persian) language for Iran, it was announced.
The service will complement the BBC's existing Persian radio and online services for Iran.
The service is expected to launch early in 2008 and will be based in London. It will initially broadcast for eight hours a day, seven days a week, from 17.00 hrs to 01.00 hrs - peak viewing time in Iran. It will be freely available to anyone with a satellite dish or cable connection in the region.
Funding for the new service was announced by UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown in a speech this morning in London. This follows BBC proposals for the service drawn up by senior BBC management. These were approved by the BBC Governors and submitted to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) for their consent as the BBC is obliged to do under the agreement with the FCO.
The operating cost of 15 million a year will be funded by the UK Government. This funding will be in addition to BBC World Service's existing grant-in-aid funding from the UK Government and will have no impact on the current BBC World Service portfolio of services.
BBC World Service Director Nigel Chapman said: 'The BBC's Persian radio and online services are well-respected by Iranians, especially by opinion formers. In Iran we are regarded as the most trusted and objective of all international broadcasters for the way we provide impartial news and information about the wider world and the crucial part Iran is playing on the regional and global stage.
'But television is increasingly dominating the way that millions of Iranian people receive their news. Therefore the BBC proposed to the Foreign Office that we launch a television service in Farsi to complement our existing independent news and information services for Iran on radio and online. Like all BBC services, the new television service will be editorially independent of the UK Government. I am delighted the BBC Farsi television service proposal has been given the go-ahead,' he adds.
The channel will cover international and major regional issues. It will also carry multi-media discussion programmes and debates in conjunction with the BBC's well-established and trusted Farsi radio and online services.
The new BBC Farsi television service will:
Be completely editorially independent in line with BBC's long-held reputation for impartial, trust-worthy news reporting and analysis
Meet the strong demand for a BBC Farsi television service expressed in recent surveys where 73 per cent of Iranians with satellite access say they will definitely or are fairly likely to watch a BBC Farsi television service
Make the BBC the only tri-media international news provider offering Farsi language news and current affairs on television, radio and online
Draw on 66 years of BBC experience covering the region in Farsi - supported by the world's most extensive newsgathering operation: 250 news correspondents reporting from 50 bureaux allowing a global rather than purely regional perspective
The BBC's existing Persian radio service for Iran is available on shortwave, medium wave or online. Limited independent surveys indicate around two million Iranians listen to the BBC each week.
It is well-respected, according to independent surveys. The BBC scores higher with Iranians on trust and objectivity than other international broadcasters in the country.
bbcpersian.com - the BBC's international news website and the biggest internet site in the Persian language - is the market leader in the field. It currently attracts around 19 million page impression per month - the second highest level of traffic among BBC language sites (after Arabic). However, access to the site has been partially blocked in Iran, on the orders of the Iranian authorities, since January 2006.
BBC World Service is an international radio and online broadcaster delivering programmes and services in 33 languages.
It uses multiple platforms to reach 163 million listeners globally, including SW, AM, FM, digital satellite and cable channels. It has around 2,000 partner radio stations which take BBC content, and numerous partnerships supplying content to mobile phones.
Its international online sites, which include audio and visual content and offer users opportunities to debate world events, receive over 650 million page impressions, attracting around 44 million unique users a month.
BBC World Service is funded through Grant-in-Aid from the Foreign Office. The grant for 2006/7 is 245 million.
In October 2005, BBC World Service announced that it is to launch a publicly funded BBC Arabic television service. This is set for launch in the autumn of 2007. The new Farsi television service is a further indication of the way BBC World Service is adapting to meeting changing audience needs.
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Issued by BBC World Service Press Office
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© Press Release 2006
