Bbc Regional and Local Radio

There are 39 BBC Local Radio services serving England and the Channel Islands, and national regional radio services in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, including Welsh and Gaelic language stations.

The national regions provide radio services on Radio Wales, Radio Cymru (the Welsh language service), Radio Scotland and Radio Ulster. Radio Nan Caidheal is a Gaelic language service in Scotland. English local radio transmits over 200 thousand hours of programmes, with a weekly audience of about 8 million.

BBC Local Radio – predominantly speech rather than music-based – supplies a comprehensive service of local news and information (including frequent traffic reports and details of local events), sport, documentaries and phone-ins. Some local stations, like BBC GLR in London, transmit programmes specifically for Afro-Caribbean or Asian listeners.

In November 1996, the BBC launched the Asian Network: the first full-time BBC domestic service specifically dedicated to minority ethnic listeners. The Asian Network started life as a Midlands service in 1996, but later expanded to other counties and is now offered as a nationwide digital radio service. It offers news, features, music, entertainment, religious and cultural programming for people of Asian background.

Bbc World Service

The BBC World Service broadcasts by radio in 43 languages (including English) worldwide. It has a global weekly audience of over 150 million listeners – bigger than any other international radio broadcaster – and this excludes an estimate for listeners in countries where it is difficult to survey audiences. In addition, the BBC's investment in the internet means that the World Service website now gets over 100 million page impressions a month.

The World Service's core programming of news, current affairs, business and sport is complemented by a range of cultural programmes, including drama, literature and music. BBC World Service programmes in English and many other languages are made available by satellite for rebroadcasting by agreement with local or national radio stations, networks and cable operators. Programmes in all languages are available online, through www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice, with 35 fully multimedia sites in 33 languages.

The international media monitoring arm of BBC World Service – BBC Monitoring – provides transcripts of radio and television broadcasts from over 140 countries. As well as providing a vital source of daily information to the BBC, this service is also used by other media organisations, government departments, the commercial sector and academic institutions.

About BBC Radio

Nearly 33 million people listen to BBC Radio each week. The BBC offers a portfolio of services aimed at providing something for every listener, whatever their interest, whatever their mood.

The choice ranges from local programming from one of the 40 Local Radio stations in England or the six dedicated radio services in the Nations (Radio Scotland, Radio Nan Gaidheal, Radio Ulster, Radio Foyle, Radio Wales, Radio Cymru); music of all kinds on Radios 1, 2, 3, 1Xtra, 6 Music and the BBC Asian Network; a wide range of speech programmes on Radio 4; news and sport on Five Live and Five Live Sports Extra; and comedy, drama and children's programming on BBC 7.

BBC Radio broadcasts in the UK on analogue (Radio 1–5), DAB digital Radio, digital television and online (all services).