Jim Egan, CEO of BBC Global News Ltd says, “The evolution of the Singapore bureau has been central to our plan to reinforce the BBC’s position as a major player in the Asia-Pacific media market. Over the past 15 years, we have built up a strong team of worldclass journalists in Singapore and I can’t think of a better time to further demonstrate our commitment by investing in state-of-the art facilities, making us fit for purpose for many more years to come.”
What has been the strategy for BBC’s growth in this region?
Jim: The launch reflects one of the big growth for the TV news channel coupled with our rapid expansion of the digital properties here. Hence, we’re in a fortunate position of doing well but you have to work increasingly closely with the two platforms so you are able to present a seamless news experience for people who are coming to us on their smart phones, tablets, PCs, and TV. That’s the scenario for us everywhere around the world and particularly here in Asia.
Looking ahead 12 months, what growth opportunities do you see for BBC?
Jim: Singapore is our Asian hub so it is very much our home across the region. We’ve relaunched our morning show Newsday, a copresented show from London and Singapore, covering news, business and sports every morning for viewers in the region. We’ve got series of specific programmes which are going through and we’ve just completed a series of programmes on Myanmar. It’s a mix genre of business, lifestyle, and documentaries.
We’ve got a similar series called Japan Direct which will be launched in October. October’s very important for us in Japan as we will also be launching a Japanese language version of BBC. com, which is the first time we’ve been commercialising content in languages beyond English, and that’s a big move for us.
Is this going to be fresh news or something similar as to what you have done?
Jim: It is going to be a condensed version of what we’re doing in English for Japanese audiences. We have about one million users monthly on our website in Japan but it’s only in English language. This is a market to be both emotionally and editorially relevant; you need to be in the domestic languages to serve them.
Are you looking into other genres besides news?
Jim: We are well-known for our news globally and so we build around our international news reporting strategy. Sport is also inevitable for us. For sports news coverage, the Rugby World Cup is big at the moment with Formula 1. But, the real killer category in sport is the English Premier League and Champions League, which we cover in detail.
We take a broad view of news so it’s not all about pure news; we have a weekly travel show called very innovatively, The Travel Show. We have a weekly technology programme which is very popular, and simply called Click. There’s also culture programmes, movies, books, and so on. So, both on TV and online, it’s not just about news, it’s about topicality and global events all the way from human interest through to technology, culture and sports.
How is breaking news still relevant with the infiltration of social media?
Jim: I think it’s probably true to say that news is not always breaking first on TV right now. Social media is as you say, has a profound impact on the way it works. But we regard that as a sort of a harmonising relationship rather than something that is cannibalising our television news. There are still major news stories such as the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris earlier this year, the migrant crisis that is going on and natural disasters. People still want that visual experience on TV and that is still extremely significant.
Do you agree that TV views are still very pertinent?
Jim: Absolutely. Very relevant indeed but that’s complemented with social media like Facebook, Twitter; where by far the most shared news source is on Twitter. And that’s both good for us but it’s also important because the sort of old-fashioned BBC editorial values of impartiality, accuracy, objectivity, are just as important on social media as it has always been on broadcast media. In fact, when you talk to the people at Twitter, they say, “When the BBC confirms a story or an event, or death of a prominent figure, it’s only then the story really takes off on Twitter.” Twitter, together with other social media platforms rely on us. It’s confirming the news; it’s when BBC says something is true, that often leads to being validated because you don’t want to share false information in your network.
What is BBC’s advantage over its competitors in bringing news to the people?
Jim: We try to do two things – to stay true to a mission we have implemented from the birth of the BBC in 1922, to have the highest editorial principles and commit to standards of journalism. That is something that I was saying earlier that runs through all our platforms. Secondly, you got to innovate to stay alive in this game. BBC can’t just sit back, rest and say that we’ve been around for 95 years, so the world owes us a living.
