BBC Hindi now available on Line instant messaging

As part of its 'mobile-first' strategy, BBC Hindi is making its content available on smartphone instant messaging platform LINE – one of the world's top five chat apps. By searching for the username BBC Hindi, and adding the account, or by subscribing to BBC Hindi in the Official Accounts section, Hindi-speaking LINE users can receive the latest news from BBC Hindi via text, graphics, short video clips and audio.

One of the fastest growing Hindi news websites, bbchindi.com has pioneered the use of the instant-messaging platform among Hindi-language news providers. The launch of the BBC Hindi LINE app follows the recent launch on LINE of the BBC News account. LINE has 560 million registered users globally and over 30 million registered users in India.

Earlier this year, the BBC conducted successful trials in India with other instant-messaging apps. Audiences have shown an appetite for such services, and the bbchindi.com website now operates on the 'mobile-first' basis, delivering mobile-friendly content that users will want to share.

BBC Hindi Digital Editor, Rajesh Priyadarshi, says: "The Indian market has become the new driver of digital growth, and social media is teeming with activity. Chat apps are opening new windows of opportunity and by making our content available via LINE we are tapping into vast numbers of users who will welcome access to BBC journalism in a digitally friendly fashion."

BBC World Service Head of Business Development, Asia Pacific, Indu Shekhar Sinha adds: "Chat apps are redefining the rules of engagement. As one of the world's most trusted broadcasters, BBC World Service has always been keen to engage with audiences on their preferred media platforms. Thanks to this collaboration with LINE, our presence on the Indian mobile market will be further reinforced."

LINE spokesperson, Abhijit Mishra, says: "LINE is an integrated mobile platform committed to building strong content partnerships to provide relevant and meaningful information to our users. Our alliance with BBC Hindi official account will amplify the rich user-experience on LINE and provide BBC Hindi with a wide reach to the Indian audience."

As part of BBC World Service, BBC Hindi adds to the BBC's expanding social-media presence. BBC Hindi has more than 2.6 million followers on Facebook. BBC News is the most shared news brand on Twitter and has more than 40 million Facebook page 'Likes' worldwide.

For more information please contact:

BBC World Service Group Communications - Lala Najafova lala.najafova@bbc.co.uk

Notes for editors

BBC Hindi delivers content for online, mobile, TV and radio platforms. Hindi-speakers across the world can access the BBC Hindi content via the news site bbchindi.com. The 'mobile first' website can be accessed via the mobile portals of Vodafone, Reliance, Aircel, Tata Do Co Mo, Tata Indicom, Idea and Loop Mobile, and via the BBC Hindi apps developed for Android smartphones and Nokia's Series 40 devices. The BBC Hindi weekly TV news programme, Global India, is broadcast by the ETV network in India where it has a weekly audience of around 6 million. BBC's special radio output for India's FM market, available on regional FM stations, includes infotainment updates in Hindi and a portfolio of weekly programmes.

BBC World Service is an international multimedia broadcaster delivering a wide range of language and regional services on radio, TV, online and via wireless handheld devices. BBC World Service uses multiple platforms to reach its weekly audience of over 191 million globally. The BBC attracts a weekly global audience of 265 million people to its international news services including BBC World Service, BBC World News television channel and bbc.com/news. 

BBC to drop Hindi & Urdu on shortwave ?

Going by the indication BBC is surely going to drop Hindi & Urdu shortwave transmissions by the end of October'13 (or end of March 2014 ?).

Here's an informative article by Manu Moudgil which talks about major policy shift by BBC, few other articles appeared earlier also in the regional press. As per sources same situation pertains with Urdu service.

More at ...... http://tinyurl.com/ctbaal2

BBC Hindi additional txn's re-instated !

As of 27th March 2012, BBC Hindi txns which were cut back on 31st March 2011 have been re-instated after one year !

Schedule :

0100-0130 UTC – 1413, 9440, 9915, 11995, 15510 kHz

0230-0300 UTC – 1413, 9410, 11975, 15510, 17510 kHz

1400-1430 UTC – 1413, 7565, 9410, 9510, 11795, 15470 kHz (ex 1400-1500 UTC)

1600-1630 UTC – 1413, 7565, 9605, 9675, 13695, 15710 kHz

BBC Hindi adds news txn from 1st Dec 2011

BBC Hindi plans to add new txn at 0100 UTC from 1st Dec 2011 :

5980 from Cyprus 97 degrees 250kW
6165 from Oman 60 degrees 250kW
11995 from Singapore 320 degrees 250kW
13675 from Thailand 280 degrees 250kW
15510 from Thailand 305 degrees 250kW

BBC Hindi initiates new series to unite artistes from India and Pakistan

RnM Team 02 Aug 11 18:09 IST
MUMBAI: BBC Hindi will bring together musicians from India and Pakistan on its special series 'Friendship beyond Borders'. The series will be broadcasted via partnered FM station across India from 2-7 August.Friendship beyond Borders features artistes such as Shafqat Amanat Ali, Arif Lohar, Ali Azmat, Rekha Bharadwaj, Salim-Sulaiman and Mohit Chauhan conversing on music, mutual understanding and peace.The BBC Hindi shortwave will re-broadcast the series on 15 August, and the hindi website will feature special stories based on the series.

Full story at :
http://www.radioandmusic.com/content/editorial/news/bbc-hindi-initiates-new-series-unite-artistes-indian-and-pakistan

BBC will restart morning Hindi broadcast

BBC Hindi will survive funding cuts: Patten

From Prasun Sonwalkar Oxford, Jun 17 (PTI) Terming the BBC Hindi Service as "very important", Lord Chris Patten, chairman of the BBC Trust and chancellor of the University of Oxford, today said the service will survive the major funding cuts that had severely affected its future.Patten, who recently took over as chairman of the BBC Trust, told PTI here that due to the importance of the Hindi Service and increasingly deeper relations India, he was making all efforts to ensure its survival amidst funding cuts.

Read the PTI story here :
http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/bbc-hindi-will-survive-funding-cuts-patten/729400.html

(Naleen Kumar)

FAC conclusion on BBC Hindi: Responses from Govt and the BBC

Naleen Kumar at British Parliament

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmfaff/1058/1058.pdf

Govt's response:
The Government has a strong bilateral relationship with India, and we are committed to make it even stronger, wider and deeper. Since the Prime Minister’s visit and the Summit with Indian Prime Minister Singh in July 2010, we have set in train an ambitious agenda of practical co-operation.
Under the terms of the agreement set out above between the BBC and the FCO, the World Service has editorial and managerial independence within an overall strategic framework, agreed with the Foreign Secretary. On this basis, while we retain a strong interest, decisions about changes to methods of broadcast within specific countries remain the responsibility of the World Service.
The BBC World Service told us that they made a decision to cease short wave broadcast in view of a falling short wave audience, and their broader decision to move away from short wave transmission. We were not formally consulted on this decision and we believe that the case they advanced for closure was not compelling. We welcome the World Service’s decision to identify savings from within its budgets to give the service the chance to explore a new operating model. We very much hope that the reprieve will continue, either through a new model of funding, or from the BBC identifying funds from their own resources.

BBC's Response:
The BBC remains committed to providing news to India but to secure its long term relevance needs to respond to rapid and significant changes in the media market. TV is now the key medium for news, and is already in six in ten households. FM deregulation has led to a steep decline in shortwave listening, despite the ban on news from any provider except the state broadcaster (All India Radio). Mobile phones are now ubiquitous in India, with 0.5 billion subscribers, and internet availability continues to grow. These changes have created commercial opportunities which have drawn a plethora of new competitors meeting the Indian preference for localised content.
This is the background which has seen the BBC Hindi audience in India decline by almost half in only three years, from 17.8m weekly listeners in 2008 to 9.7m in 2010—still significant in numerical terms, but representing only 1.3% reach among Hindi-speaking adults. As shortwave listening continues to decline in India, it is to be expected that the BBC shortwave audience will decline further.
As the Committee has noted, the BBC has announced the retention of one hour of Hindi shortwave for one year, in response to audience concern, and while it explores whether sustainable commercial funding can be found for the longer term. The BBC has noted the Committee’s recommendation regarding longer term support for an unreduced service. The original decision to cease Hindi short wave broadcasting was a difficult choice and sooner than we would have liked, however one that we believed was necessary given the resources available at the time. The BBC is examining whether any further retention is possible within the funding constraints.

(Naleen Kumar)

Reduced BBC Hindi service will affect millions, critics say

BBC Hindi, the shortwave radio service that since 1940 has brought global news and current affairs to some of India's poorest and most remote regions, scaled back its transmission yesterday in a move that the author Vikram Seth said was contributing to "a great loss of goodwill and increase of mistrust in India". Read the full story here :

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/reduced-bbc-hindi-service-will-affect-millions-critics-say-2254781.html

UK Parliamentary debate on BBC Hindi closure

BBC Hindi story on parliamentary debate
http://www.bbc.co.uk/hindi/news/2011/03/110315_bbchindi_parliament_rp.shtml

Link of the House of Commons debate on BBC Hindi
http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/house_of_commons/newsid_9424000/9424046.stm

Patrick French for BBC Hindi and Nepali radio

http://www.theindiasite.com/bbc-world-service-cuts-five-points-to-take-away-from-the-house-of-commons-meeting-by-patrick-french/

World Service statement on BBC Hindi

On 26 January the BBC announced the closure of its news and current affairs radio output in Hindi, as part of the outcome of its Spending Review 2010 settlement.

Since the announcement, there has been much public discussion of the potential for retaining some of this service and the BBC has been approached by a number of commercial parties with alternative funding proposals.

In order to explore these proposals further, BBC World Service has decided to retain an evening news and current affairs radio broadcast (1 hour) in Hindi for our Indian audiences for an interim period. This broadcast will be available on all platforms – via SW, online and mobile.

If sustainable commercial funding for this service cannot be found during the 2011/12 financial year, we regret that it will then have to close by March 2012.

(BBC World Service Publicity)

BBC World Service to retain Hindi broadcast

Good news for shortwave enthusiasts !!!!!

World Service to retain Hindi broadcast while it seeks commerical funding

http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/world-service-to-retain-hindi-broadcast-while-it-seeks-commerical-funding/s2/a543103/

Related news :

BBC World Service considers U-turn over Hindi cuts

Corporation seeks commercial funding as veteran journalist Sir Mark Tully leads campaign to keep broadcasts on short wave

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/mar/07/bbc-world-service-hindi

British Parliament will discuss discontinuation of BBC Hindi radio on 14th March

British Parliament will discuss discontinuation of BBC Hindi radio on 14th March

http://services.parliament.uk/calendar/#/calendar/Commons/MainChamber/2011/3/14/events.html

Before that case of Hindi radio will be discussed on 9th March during theForeign Affairs Committe investigation on the World Service cuts

http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/foreign-affairs-committee/inquiries1/implications-of-bbc-world-service-cuts/

(Thanks to Naleen Kumar for the links)

Beheading Britain, shafting Southasia

By Daniel Lak

Mourning recent cuts to the BBC World Service

Read the detailed story here :
http://www.himalmag.com/component/content/article/4311.html

(Thanks to Naleen Kumar for the link)

The last broadcasts to a wider world

Regarded as a treasure by millions in often desolate regions, the BBC's World Service is facing the cold winds of cutbacks and changing ambitions, writes MARK HENNESSY, London Editor

More at :

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2011/0226/1224290904711.html

BBC veteran Tully slams end of Hindi radio service

Mark Tully, the veteran BBC reporter whose dispatches have been followed by generations of Indians, on Thursday led an angry attack on the corporation's axing of its Hindi-language radio service.

Read the AFP story here : http://tinyurl.com/4pfyzqv

Why is the BBC cutting Hindi radio from the World Service?

At a time when Britain is seeking closer engagement with India, the decision to cut off 10 million listeners looks like a mistake.

Read the Guardian report here :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/01/bbc-world-service-hindi-radio

Bye Bye BBC Hindi Radio

http://www.bestmediainfo.com/2011/01/bye-bye-bbc-hindi-radio/

BBC Hindi’s booming mobile audience

India has 700 million mobile phone subscribers, which is why BBC Hindi is now catering for this emerging audience demand, report Multimedia Editor Santosh Sinha and India Business Development Manager Indu Shekhar Sinha.

Read the full story here : http://tinyurl.com/2bnf7t7

BBC Hindi now on mobile in India

BBC Hindi audio is now available on mobile in India, read the deatils here (in Hindi)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/hindi/news/2010/09/100910_bbchindi_mobile_dps.shtml